Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , the Netherlands.
Cogn Emot. 2019 Dec;33(8):1587-1598. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2019.1585330. Epub 2019 Feb 27.
Crying is a common response to emotional distress that elicits support from the environment. People may regulate another's crying in several ways, such as by providing socio-affective support (e.g. comforting) or cognitive support (e.g. reappraisal), or by trying to emotionally disengage the other by suppression or distraction. We examined whether people adapt their interpersonal emotion regulation strategies to the situational context, by manipulating the regulatory demand of the situation in which someone is crying. Participants watched a video of a crying man and provided support by recording a video message. We hypothesised that when immediate down-regulation was required (i.e. high regulatory demand), participants would provide lower levels of socio-affective and cognitive support, and instead distract the crying person or encourage them to suppress their emotions, compared to when there is no such urgency (i.e. low regulatory demand). As predicted, both self-reported and behavioural responses indicated that high (as compared to low) regulatory demand led to a reduction in socio-affective support provision, and a strong increase in suppression and distraction. Cognitive support provision, however, was unaffected by regulatory demand. When the context required more immediate down-regulation, participants thus employed more regulation strategies aimed at disengaging from the emotional experience. This study provides a first step in showing that people take the context into account when attempting to regulate others' emotions.
哭泣是一种常见的情绪困扰反应，可以从环境中获得支持。人们可以通过多种方式调节他人的哭泣，例如提供社会情感支持（例如安慰）或认知支持（例如重新评价），或者通过抑制或分散注意力来试图使对方情感上脱离。我们通过操纵哭泣者所处情境的调节需求，考察了人们是否会根据情境来调整人际情绪调节策略。参与者观看了一个哭泣男子的视频，并通过录制视频消息提供支持。我们假设，当需要立即进行调节时（即高调节需求），与没有这种紧迫性时相比（即低调节需求），参与者会提供较低水平的社会情感和认知支持，而是分散哭泣者的注意力或鼓励他们抑制情绪。正如所预测的那样，无论是自我报告的还是行为反应都表明，高（与低相比）调节需求会导致社会情感支持的提供减少，而抑制和分散注意力的强烈增加。然而，认知支持的提供不受调节需求的影响。因此，当情境需要更立即的调节时，参与者会采用更多旨在脱离情绪体验的调节策略。这项研究首次表明，人们在试图调节他人情绪时会考虑到情境。
