Abstract
Abstract. There is growing evidence that certain strategies of emotion regulation may lead to impaired cognitive performance. The present study investigated the impact of manipulated discrepancy between felt and displayed anger on cognitive performance and how it is modulated by extraversion. Fifty-six female participants were asked to solve two blocks of anagrams. Additionally, half of the subjects were instructed to show an angry emotional expression while solving the second block of anagrams, the remaining half were asked to keep their expression neutral. Before the second anagram trial, half of the participants were provoked, half of them were not. The subsequent unexpected memory test revealed a detrimental effect of the incongruent anger expression on the recall of the anagram solutions seen in the second trial. Compared to participants low on extraversion, high extraverts appeared to profit from showing an emotional display that was congruent with their feelings.
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