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Keeping up appearances: the role of motives and utility beliefs in expressive suppression

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Abstract

We examined the role of impression management motives and utility beliefs in predicting suppression. In Study 1, 222 participants were assigned one of four motives (warmth, competence, pro-hedonic, control) during a job interview and reported their strategy use. In Study 2, 150 participants completed 9 days of experience sampling surveys assessing momentary emotion regulation motives and strategy use. In both studies, participants reported suppression utility beliefs. Lab results suggested a decreased preference for suppression when pursuing warmth motives over competence motives. This effect did not emerge when examining daily motives. In both studies however, people believed it was more useful to suppress negative than positive emotions, and more useful to suppress negative emotion when appearing competent than warm. Utility beliefs did not predict suppression or moderate motive-strategy links. Overall, there was mixed evidence about how suppression links to specific motives. Results suggest suppression is perceived as useful for certain impressions, but people do not act in accordance with these beliefs.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Funding

The funding was provided by National Institute on Aging (Grant No: T32 AG00030-32), American Psychological Association (Grant No: Dissertation Research Award).

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  1. The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

    Lameese Eldesouky

  2. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Tammy English

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  1. Lameese Eldesouky
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Eldesouky, L., English, T. Keeping up appearances: the role of motives and utility beliefs in expressive suppression. Motiv Emot 47, 381–398 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09999-2

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