Display rules of basic emotions in the social interactions

Display rules of basic emotions in the social interactions I Polackova Solcova, D. Matsumoto Objectives. Display rules (DR) are informal norms determining when, where, how, and to whom one should express emotions. It is assumed that DR shape affective spontaneity and affect the tendency of emotional expression. The aim of this study is to examine DR of basic emotions (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) within the contexts of social interactions. Subjects and settings. Participants comprised 100 undergraduates (59% females, average age 23,34; SD = 2,25) enrolled at Charles University in Prague. Display Rules Assessment Inventory (DRAI, Matsumoto et al., 2005) was utilized to measure display rules of undergraduates. Research questions. This study explores the general tendency of regulation of basic emotions and the role of gender differences, context and the character of social interaction in display rules. Statistical analyses. For analyses, we utilized relative frequencies of responses for each item and each emotion (displayed in percentages). For comparison of subsets (women and men, private and public situation, types of interactions) a chi-square test to compare the expected and the observed values were used. Results. The results showed that respondents had a general tendency to deamplify basic emotions. The strongest tendency to suppress an expression (I should show nothing) was connected to contempt, disgust and fear. Authentic expression (I shall express it as I feel it) was the most frequent in the cases of happiness and surprise. The findings indicate the existence of several social effects connected with display rules. No significant gender differences with reference to display rules were found. However, the results showed significant differences in DR in the contexts of interactions (greater authenticity in private interactions; chi(2) = 53.081, df = 5, p < 0.001) and in the closeness of interactions (greater authenticity in in-group interactions; x,2 = 135, 265, df = 5, p < 0.001). Results also indicate that in vertical interactions (student - professor), participants tended to neutralize basic emotions more often than in horizontal interactions (student student). Conclusion. The investigation showed that the context of a situation (private, public), (in-group, out-group) and the character of the interaction (horizontal, vertical) were among the important effects influencing the display rules. In contrast, gender did not affect display rules in our sample. Limitations of the study. The results are limited to this questionnaire and to a specific population sample of undergraduates in the Czech Republic.