Event Abstract Back to Event A comparison between the effects of cognitive reappraisal and of expressive dissonance during negative emotion provocation Sumi Park1* and J.H Lee1 1 Chung-Ang University, South Korea Emotion regulation is important for an individual’s physical health, psychological well-being, and social functioning. According to Gross’s (2001) process model, two distinct types of strategies emerge at different times of emotion regulation. One is an ‘antecedent-focused’ strategy (e.g., reappraisal), and the other is a ‘response-focused’ strategy (e.g., suppression), which has maladaptive consequences. Expressive dissonance, one of the ‘response-focused’ strategies, has been thought to have negative consequences, but very little is known about it. Positive effects may also be possible, according to William James’s well-known theory of emotion. This study aimed to compare the effects of reappraisal and expressive dissonance as distinct means to feeling positive emotions during negative emotion provocation. Forty-nine female undergraduate participants (M age=21.76, SD=1.69) were assigned to one of three groups: expressers, reappraisers, and dissonant expressers. The three groups did not differ in emotion regulation, as indicated in an emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ). Upon arrival at the laboratory, participants signed a consent form and then remained calm for 2 minutes while baseline physiological measurements were recorded. Afterward, participants viewed a neutral film (sea waves) on PC monitor and then rated their current emotions. Participants were then given instructions for viewing a disgust-eliciting film (amputation). The expressers were instructed to watch the film naturally, the reappraisers were told to watch the film with a positive attitude, and the dissonant expressers were asked to show emotions opposite to what they were feeling while watching. There was an unexpected memory task, following the disgust film and the current emotion rating scale, with forced choice questions about its contents. Each film lasted 2 minutes. Skin conductance level (SCL), finger temperature, finger pulse amplitude (FTA), heart rate (HR), and somatic activation were acquired with a Bluetooth BIOFEEDBACK x-pert 2000 (Schuhfried Inc., Austria). We first conducted ANOVAs for subjective experience change (the disgust film–the neutral film). As a result, there was no significant group effect for negative or positive experience change; however, the dissonant expressers reported greater decreases in positive experience change than the reappraisers indicated by LSD post-hoc test, p<.05. For the physiological measurement, participants showed increased SCL, increased temperature, decreased FPA, and slightly increased somatic activation during the disgust film compared to the neutral film, t(46)=7.43, p<.01, t(46)=2.27, p<.05, t(46)=-4.47, p<.01, and t(45)=2.01, p=.051, respectively. Moreover, conducting a MANOVA found overall group effects in three sympathetic response changes (SCL, temperature, and FPA), F(2, 42)=2.23, p<.05. Among the three responses, only temperature had a significant group effect, F(2, 42)=3.43, p<.05, and interestingly, temperatures of the expressive dissonance group decreased while the other two groups increased. There were no group differences in pulse change, somatic activation change, or the memory task. In summary, the dissonant expressers experienced more decreased positive emotions and showed unique patterns in sympathetic responses, suggesting that expressive dissonance strategies could be stressful on an individuals. This work was supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant funded by the Korea government (MOST) (No. M10740030003-07N4003-00310).