The distinctive digital phenotypes of different emotion regulation strategies

Extensive research on cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression suggests that they produce distinct emotion outcomes. The present study, conducted in 2021, assessed whether these regulation strategies produced distinctive facial, vocal and linguistic responses to emotionally evocative, negative images relative to control conditions. Participants (N = 65) were asked to describe these images after being instructed to engage in cognitive reappraisal or no regulation, or expressive suppression compared to no regulation. Cognitive reappraisal was distinguished from no regulation by higher levels of vocal activity, more positive speech and less self-reported negative reactions to the images, suggesting that it changed the valence of the elicited emotion. Expressive suppression was distinguished from no regulation by diminished overall facial expressivity, negative facial expressivity and head movement deviation. These patterns indicate that these emotion regulation strategies result in distinct emotional responses across multiple emotional channels.