Circling Science

The social consequences of expressive suppression.

Emily A. Butler, Boris Egloff, Frank H. Wilhelm, Nancy C. Smith, Elizabeth A. Erickson and James J. Gross · 2003

Evidence
Experiment
Kind
Journal article
peer-reviewed
Method
Two laboratory experiments manipulating emotional suppression during conversations after an upsetting film
Sample
72 women in the first experiment and 84 in the second
Published
Emotion, 3(1), 48–67

Adjacent

Studies a related practice or mechanism, without testing Circling.

Two experiments with women who had just met found that suppressing emotional expression disrupted the conversation, reduced rapport and raised the partners’ blood pressure.

What it doesn’t show

The first experiment had 24 women per condition, and both studies assessed brief laboratory encounters without later follow-up. Results concern instructed suppression after an upsetting film; they do not show that restraint is harmful in every relationship or situation.

Summary based on the abstract and the full text’s methods, results and discussion.

Directions that build on it

  1. Active ingredients

    Builds on 10 works · 3 funding routes

    Which parts of the practice do the work: present-moment attention, disclosure, or hearing how you affect others?

Links

Cite

Butler, E. A., Egloff, B., Wilhelm, F. H., Smith, N. C., Erickson, E. A., & Gross, J. J. (2003). The social consequences of expressive suppression. Emotion, 3(1), 48–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.48