Davis Joshua Ian, Senghas Ann, Ochsner Kevin N
Barnard College of Columbia University.
J Res Pers. 2009 Oct 1;43(5):822-829. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2009.06.005.
Contracting muscles involved in facial expressions (e.g. smiling or frowning) can make emotions more intense, even when unaware one is modifying expression (e.g. Strack, Martin, & Stepper, 1988). However, it is unresolved whether and how inhibiting facial expressions might weaken emotional experience. In the present study, 142 participants watched positive and negative video clips while either inhibiting their facial expressions or not. When hypothesis awareness and effects of distraction were experimentally controlled, inhibiting facial expressions weakened some emotional experiences. These findings provide new insight into ways that inhibition of facial expression can affect emotional experience: the link is not dependent on experimental demand, lay theories about connections between expression and experience, or the distraction involved in inhibiting one's expressions.
参与面部表情的收缩肌肉（如微笑或皱眉）会使情绪更加强烈，即使在人们没有意识到自己正在改变表情时也是如此（例如，施特拉克、马丁和施泰珀，1988年）。然而，抑制面部表情是否以及如何会削弱情感体验仍未得到解决。在本研究中，142名参与者观看了积极和消极的视频片段，同时要么抑制他们的面部表情，要么不抑制。当通过实验控制假设意识和分心的影响时，抑制面部表情会削弱一些情感体验。这些发现为抑制面部表情影响情感体验的方式提供了新的见解：这种联系并不依赖于实验要求、关于表情与体验之间联系的外行理论，或抑制表情所涉及的分心。
