M·04
Mind & Body
Reframe, Don't Suppress
Reinterpreting a situation reduces the emotion at low cost. Suppressing the expression leaves the emotion intact and adds physiological and memory costs.
- Evidence
- proven
- Topic
- Mind
- Things to do
- 3
- Read
- 1 min
provenHow strong is the evidence?
Tested again and again, by different people, and it keeps coming out the same. You can lean on this.
- James Gross, JPSP, 1998 onward
- emotion-regulation process model
Why it works
Reappraisal intervenes before the emotion is fully generated. Suppression intervenes after — so you pay for the feeling and for the hiding, and remember the conversation less well.
What to do about it
- Change the meaning, not the face: “they're attacking me” → “they're frightened about the deadline”.
- Reappraise early, while the situation is still being interpreted.
- Where reappraisal is dishonest, use distance instead (“how will this look in a year?”), not suppression.
Where people go wrong
Calling suppression composure. The people around you detect it and it raises their stress too.
Read next
- Sleep Sets the Emotional BaselineOne night of deprivation raises amygdala reactivity to negative images by about 60% and weakens the prefrontal control over it.proven
- Name It to Tame ItPutting a feeling into words reduces amygdala activity and recruits the regulating prefrontal regions.solid
- Stress Is Enhancing, If You Believe It IsBelieving that stress improves performance changes the physiological response and the outcome.solid
- Rumination Is Not Problem-SolvingRepetitively going over a problem in the first person deepens the mood and produces no solutions.solid