The Sex Differences in Regulating Unpleasant Emotion by Expressive Suppression: Extraversion Matters

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Men tend to suppress emotional displays more than women.
• The extent to which expressive suppression benefits emotion regulation in males and how personality moderates this remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate sex differences in emotion regulation using expressive suppression.
• To examine the moderating role of extraversion on sex differences in emotion regulation.

Main Methods:

• Recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in male and female participants with varying extraversion levels.
• Participants were instructed to either attend to or suppress emotional responses to negative images.

Main Results:

• Self-reported emotional experience was not affected by sex or extraversion.
• Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes revealed an extraversion-moderated sex difference.
• Ambivert males showed reduced LPP during suppression, unlike ambivert females.
• Extraverts displayed similar LPP regardless of suppression condition or sex.

Conclusions:

• Males, specifically non-extraverted or ambiverts, may have an advantage in emotion regulation via expressive suppression.
• Extraversion significantly alters the effectiveness of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy, irrespective of sex.