Cognitive reappraisal of negative affect: Converging evidence from EMG and self-report
Open accessAbstract
Prior psychophysiological studies of cognitive reappraisal have generally focused on the down-regulation of negative affect, and have demonstrated either changes in self-reports of affective experience, or changes in facial electromyography, but not both. Unfortunately, when taken separately, these measures are vulnerable to different sources of bias, and alternative explanations might account for changes in these indicators of negative affect. What is needed is a study that (a) obtains measures of self-reported affect together with facial electromyography, and (b) examines the use of reappraisal to regulate externally and internally generated affective responses. In the present study, participants up- or down-regulated negative affect in the context of both negative and neutral pictures. Up-regulation led to greater self reports of negative affect, as well as greater corrugator and startle responses to both negative and neutral stimuli. Down-regulation led to lesser reports of negative affect, and lesser corrugator responses to negative and neutral stimuli. These results extend prior research by (a) showing simultaneous effects on multiple measures of affect, and (b) demonstrating that cognitive reappraisal may be used both to regulate responses to negative stimuli and to manufacture a negative response to neutral stimuli.
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Reappraisal decreases the experience of negative emotion and the associated sympathetic response.
“Reappraisal was shown to decrease the experience of negative emotion (e.g., [23,24,25,26,27]) and of the associated sympathetic response (e.g., [24,25,27]).”
From Effects of differential strategies of emotion regulation (2019) · cites this paper as [25]
The Abstract reports that down-regulation reduced self-reported negative affect and corrugator EMG responses. It does not report a reduction in sympathetic response: the measured physiological responses were EMG and startle eyeblink, and the Discussion says startle did not significantly decrease. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.90)
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- Authors
- Ray, R. D., McRae, K., Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J.
- Affiliations
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Venue
- Emotion
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 587-592
- ISSN
- 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1516
- PMC
- PMC4106258
- OpenAlex
- W2065043907
- Cited by
- 256
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 5.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (MH66957; MH58147; MH76074)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Keywords
- cognitive reappraisal, negative affect, emotion regulation, corrugator supercilii, startle response, facial electromyography, self-reported affect, neutral stimuli
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Affect, Cognition, Electromyography, Emotions, Female, Humans, Self Disclosure, Reflex, Startle, Down-Regulation, Young Adult, Emotional Intelligence
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