The relation between low facial expressivity during emotional arousal and somatic symptoms

Differential emotions theory has suggested that suppressed emotion, and specifically suppressed facial signs of emotion, might be aetiologically associated with illness, and moreover, that suppression of different classes of emotion might be related to differential symptom formation. This study examined the relationship between degree of facial emotional expressivity under conditions of emotional arousal and the presence and extent of various self-reported physical symptoms. Twenty-three adult women underwent emotion induction procedures and were videotaped while they described their emotional reactions. Judges viewed the videotapes of subjects' facial behaviour and rated the degree of expressivity during the sadness, fear, and anger inductions. Correlational statistics indicated that physical symptoms were almost exclusively negatively correlated with emotion expression. There was also some evidence of an emotion-specific/symptom-specific configuration. Although causal inferences about emotion-symptom linkages are unwarranted at this time, the study provides some support for theoretical formulations about the relationship between physical symptoms and emotion and suggests a methodology with which to pursue this line of research.