title: Feeling bad about being sad: the role of social expectancies in amplifying negative mood.
abstract: Our perception of how others expect us to feel has significant implications for our emotional functioning. Across 4 studies the authors demonstrate that when people think others expect them not to feel negative emotions (i.e., sadness) they experience more negative emotion and reduced well-being. The authors show that perceived social expectancies predict these differences in emotion and well-being both more consistently than-and independently of-personal expectancies and that they do so by promoting negative self-evaluation when experiencing negative emotion. We find evidence for these effects within Australia (Studies 1 and 2) as well as Japan (Study 2), although the effects of social expectancies are especially evident in the former (Studies 1 and 2). We also find experimental evidence for the causal role of social expectancies in negative emotional responses to negative emotional events (Studies 3 and 4). In short, when people perceive that others think they should feel happy, and not sad, this leads them to feel sad more frequently and intensely.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD4072, Australia. b.bastian@uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Brock
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bastian
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kuppens
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hornsey
authors.forename: Joonha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koval
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uchida
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D044466:Asian People / Q000208:ethnology; D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult