Together with @abhorn.bsky.social, Eva Ceulemans and Peter Kuppens!

Emotions are, in part, products of our social interactions, where the expression of negative emotions functions as a means to communicate, influence, and shape the emotional experiences of others.

This highlights the possibility that verbal expressions of affect don’t always reflect an inner state and can be expressed or suppressed strategically. These findings underscore that emotions are not solely internal experiences but are partially co-constructed through interaction.

We found that feeling negative didn’t reliably lead to expressing those emotions. Expressing negative affect didn’t seem to change how the person themselves felt afterward. However, it did predict a small increase in the partner’s negative affect, though the reverse wasn’t true.