Exaggerating Emotions: Physiological Correlates and Cognitive Consequences
Brandon J. Schmeichel, Jennifer L. Robinson, and Heath A. Demaree
Department of Psychology
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106-7123
(email: schmeichel@psy.fsu.edu or had4@po.cwru.edu)
Introduction
Importance
 Exaggerating emotional responses may be a useful interpersonal tool
Example: “I really like your new haircut!”
 However, actively exaggerating responses may have undesirable consequences.
Physiological: Increased autonomic nervous system arousal
Cognitive: Controlling emotions may deplete limited regulatory resources
 Thus, we assessed physiological and cognitive effects of exaggerating emotional responding.
Hypotheses
 1: Active emotion exaggeration will be associated with increased sympathetic nervous system
arousal (shorter intervals between heart beats, higher ratio of sympathetic to parasympathetic
activation), similar to the arousal observed when people try to suppress emotional reactions
(e.g., Gross, 1998).
 2: Exaggerating emotional reactions (both positive and negative) will lead to poorer
performance on subsequent tests of high-level cognitive control because emotion regulation
depletes limited self-regulatory resources (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000). Specifically, verbal and
figural fluency should suffer after active emotion exaggeration.
Study
electrodes (Biopac Technologies Model EL503) and digitized at 500 samples per second onto a
Dell Optiplex GX200 computer. Data were amplified by Biopac (Santa Barbara, CA) ECG100C
amplifiers set for a gain of 1000 and using low- and high-pass filters of 35Hz and .05Hz,
respectively. The heart period (HP) power spectrum was computed by Fast-Fourier Transform
(FFT) and the data were linearly de-trended using the Mindware (Westerville, OH) HRV 1.62
computer application. To perform HRV analyses, the Mindware program a) identified the R-R
intervals, b) detected physiologically improbably R-R intervals based on the overall R-R
distribution using a validated algorithm (Berntson, Quigley, Jang, & Boysen, 1990), c) detrended
the data using a first-order polynomial to remove the mean and any linear trends, d) cosine
tapered the data and submitted it to FFT and e) took the natural log integral HF power (0.15 to
0.40Hz). HF power has been found to be good estimates of cardiac vagal control (Berntson et
al., 1997; Task Force, 1996).
Cognitive Performance Measures
Verbal Fluency: The Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT; Benton,
Hamsher, & Sivan, 1994 ). The verbal fluency task had participants generate as many words as
they could in one minute that begin with a certain letter. “In the next 60 seconds, tell me as
many words as you can that start with the letter F”. We had participants do this task three
times, using the letters F, A, and S.
Figural Fluency: The Ruff Figural Fluency Test (RFF; Ruff, 1988). The figural fluency
test had participants draw as many unique designs as they could in one minute based on an
arrangement of 5 dots. “In the next 60 seconds, draw as many unique (not repeated)
arrangements as you can by simply connecting the dots with straight lines”. We had participants
do this task 3 times, using 3 different dot arrangements.
Results and Discussion
HYPOTHESIS 1 was that exaggerating responses to positive- and negative- affective clips would
be associated with increased sympathetic nervous system arousal. We performed a 2 (Film Clip
Type: Amusement or Disgust) x 2 (Viewing Condition: Exaggerate or Natural) MANOVA on IBI
and sympathovagal balance (LF/HF; log integral LF power [0.04 to 0.15Hz] divided by HF power
[0.15 to 0.40Hz]. We subtracted baseline values from during-film values on these measures to
represent physiological reactivity to the films and viewing instructions. No main effects or
interactions involving film clip type were observed, Fs < 1.25, ns. The MANOVA did reveal main
effects for viewing condition on LF/HF reactivity, F (1, 99) = 9.45, p < .01, and IBI reactivity, F
(1, 99) = 21.90, p < .01. Specifically, exaggerating emotional reactions was associated
with decreased IBI (exaggerate M = -3.23, SD = 45.46 vs. natural viewing M = 44.06, SD =
55.10) and increased LF/HF ratios (i.e, increased sympathovagal balance; exaggerate M =
1.79, SD = 3.51 vs. natural viewing M = -0.31, SD = 3.40). Thus, exaggerating both disgust and
amusement reactions was associated with increased sympathetic arousal. See Figures 1 and 2,
below.
Participants/Design
One hundred eleven undergraduate students (54 females and 57 males) at CWRU participated in
exchange for course credit. Data from 8 participants were discarded because of unreadable or
incomplete physiological data. Participants were randomly assigned to condition in a 2 (Film Clip:
Disgusting or Amusing) x 2 (Viewing Instructions: Natural or Exaggerate) between-participants
factorial design.
Figure 1. Change in ratio of sympathetic to
parasympathetic activation.
2
nat
1
exagg
0
amuse
disgust
Film Clip
Film Clips.
disgust
Film Clip Type
Figure 4. Verbal Fluency Performance as a Function
of Film Clip Type and Viewing Condition.
Verbal Fluency Performance
0.5
natural
0
amuse
disgust
exagg
Exaggerating amusement and disgust reactions was associated with increased sympathetic
nervous system arousal. Furthermore, exaggerating disgust reactions impaired subsequent
cognitive performance measured by tests of verbal and figural fluency. The effects of response
exaggeration mimic those of response suppression. Both forms of response-focused emotion
regulation are associated with increased sympathetic arousal, and both the suppression and
exaggeration of emotional responses have been linked to decrements in subsequent high-level
cognition (see also Schmeichel, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2003). Perhaps similarities in these two
apparently disparate forms of response-focused regulation are due to their shared selfregulatory component.
Figure 2. Change in Interbeat Interval (in ms).
References
IBI Reactivity
change in IBI
participants in the exaggerate condition were instructed to exaggerate their reactions to the film
clip so that “if somebody watched (your face) they would know exactly what you were feeling.”
Participants in the natural viewing condition were instructed to “watch the clip as naturally as you
can. Try to pretend that you’re sitting at home watching TV.”
amuse
exagg
Conclusions
Measures/Stimuli
Emotion Regulation Manipulation. Prior to viewing the assigned film clip,
nat
Film Clip Type
3
-1
After a 10 minute acclimation period and a 2-minute physiological baseline
recording period, the assigned 2-minute film clip started. Half the participants saw a negative affect
clip that depicted gruesome scenes from an animal slaughterhouse taken from the film Faces of
Death (James, Scott, & Good, 1978). The other half saw a positive affect clip that depicted a series
of humorous scenes taken from the TV broadcast 50 Years of NBC Latenite (Michaels, 2002). These
clips reliably elicit disgust and amusement, respectively.
0.5
0.3
0.1
-0.1
-0.3
-0.5
LF/HF reactivity
LF/HF ratio
After the film clip, participants completed tests of verbal fluency and figural fluency so that we
could determine whether exaggerating emotional reactions had adverse cognitive consequences.
Figural Fluency Performance
-0.5
Procedures
We had participants watch an amusing or a disgusting film clip, and we instructed participants to
watch the clip naturally or try to exaggerate their emotional reactions to the clip.
Figure 3. Figural Fluency Performance as a Function
of Film Clip Type and Viewing Condition.
z-scores
Emotion exaggeration has been an understudied affect regulation strategy. The present
research explored physiological (autonomic) correlates and cognitive consequences of
exaggerating positive and negative affect. Participants viewed either a disgust- or
amusement-eliciting clip and were instructed either to react naturally or to exaggerate their
emotional response. Participants who exaggerated their reactions showed increased heart
rate and increased sympathovagal reactivity relative to participants who were not instructed
to exaggerate their reactions. Exaggerating emotional responses also led to poorer
performance on subsequent tests of verbal and figural fluency. The adverse effect of emotion
exaggeration on subsequent cognition was most evident when participants exaggerated
disgust reactions. Cognitive performance after emotion regulation supported predictions
derived from the limited resource model of self-regulation (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000).
Further, cognitive deficits were not mediated by the increased HR and increased
sympathovagal reactivity associated with exaggeration.
ECG. ECG data were collected at the left and right wrists via disposable Ag-AgCl snap
HYPOTHESIS 2 was that exaggerating responses would be associated with poorer verbal and figural
fluency following the exaggeration attempt. We performed a 2 (Film Clip Type) x 2 (Viewing
Instructions) MANOVA on z-transformed scores on the verbal and figural fluency tests. Although
performance on both of the cognitive tests was influenced by the viewing instructions, F (1, 95) =
7.91, p < .01, planned comparisons revealed that exaggerating negative responses impaired
both figural and verbal fluency whereas exaggerating positive responses did not alter
fluency performance. Exaggerating disgust responses resulted in fewer figures generated on the
subsequent figural fluency test (M = 59.21, SD = 10.58) compared to viewing the negative affect
clip naturally (M = 70.46, SD = 12.24), t (48) = 3.47, p < .01. Also, exaggerating disgust responses
had a marginal effect on subsequent verbal fluency performance, such that exaggerators generated
fewer words (M = 37.63, SD = 9.25) than those in the natural viewing condition (M = 42.31, SD =
8.09), t (48) = 1.91, p = .06. However, exaggerating amusement reactions did not significantly
influence subsequent verbal fluency performance (M = 37.54, SD = 8.14) compared to viewing the
positive affect clip naturally (M = 41.11, SD = 12.33), t (51) = 1.24, p = .22, although means were
in the predicted direction. Further, figural fluency performance after the positive affect clip did not
differ between exaggerate (M = 65.54, SD = 9.34) and natural viewing (M = 64.19, SD = 11.60)
conditions, t < 1. Thus, exaggerating positive affect did not have reliable effects on subsequent
verbal or figural fluency. See figures 3 and 4, below.
z-scores
Abstract
50
30
amuse
10
disgust
-10
natural
exagg
Viewing Condition
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