The importance of social context in the facilitation of emotional expression in men

This study examined the effect of social context on the extent to which young men express their emotions, in particular, sadness. Sadness was induced in 87 college men, who were then brought into a room with two confederates (2 men or 2 women) and asked to talk about their feelings. This followed either expression of sadness by one confederate (while the second confederate listened either in a manner accepting of emotional expression or in a neutral manner) or withholding of sadness expression by the speaking confederate. The entire procedure was videotaped, and five aspects of participants' sadness expression were coded or rated. In general, participants expressed significantly more sadness in the presence of expressive, accepting, and (to a lesser extent) male confederates. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed.