title: Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity.
abstract: The present study investigated gender differences in both emotional experience and expressivity. Heart rate (HR) was recorded as an indicator of emotional experience while the participants watched 16 video clips that induced eight types of emotion (sadness, anger, horror, disgust, neutrality, amusement, surprise, and pleasure). We also asked the participants to report valence, arousal, and motivation as indicators of emotional expressivity. Overall, the results revealed gender differences in emotional experience and emotional expressivity. When watching videos that induced anger, amusement, and pleasure, men showed larger decreases in HR, whereas women reported higher levels of arousal. There was no gender difference in HR when the participants watched videos that induced horror and disgust, but women reported lower valence, higher arousal, and stronger avoidance motivation than did men. Finally, no gender difference was observed in sadness or surprise, although there was one exception-women reported higher arousal when watching videos that induced sadness. The findings suggest that, when watching videos that induce an emotional response, men often have more intense emotional experiences, whereas women have higher emotional expressivity, particularly for negative emotions. In addition, gender differences depend on the specific emotion type but not the valence.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavior Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.|Research Center of Emotion Regulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yaling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau S.A.R., China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Emotion Regulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.|Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavior Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.|Research Center of Emotion Regulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Renlai
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7035-7097
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult