Winners are grinners: Expressing authentic positive emotion enhances status in performance contexts

Research has shown that people who express positive emotion following victory risk appearing unlikeable and inconsiderate. We investigated whether these relational costs might be offset by status benefits, and the processes underlying such benefits. Across eight experiments (N = 1456), we found that winners who expressed positive emotion were perceived as higher in social standing than winners who suppressed positive emotion. To understand the mechanisms underlying this effect, we manipulated factors to do with the situation in which emotion was expressed, the type of person expressing emotion, and the way emotion was expressed. We also conducted replications of these experiments. The only factor that consistently moderated the expressivity effect was perceived authenticity, such that expressive winners only gained status benefits when observers believed the emotion expression was authentic. The findings point to the power of context in shaping the nature of the social benefits reaped by expressing positive emotion.