Gender and emotional expression

It can be tempting to generalize when considering the differences between men, women, and the various ways in which they express their emotions; men and women from various cultures have been shown to accept the stereotype that women are more emotional than men. Typically, this perspective on men is only held in cases of discrete emotions and their corresponding expressions such as happiness, fear, disgust, or sadness. When men experience pride or anger, however, most people are much less likely to assume this stereotype. Leaving gender stereotypes unchallenged would have various potential consequences. The belief that women are more emotional than men questions our understanding of emotional reactivity and regulation systems. Furthermore, this assumption can have profound impacts on the way we interact with one another and our society at large. For these reasons, an emerging division of modern psychology research is dedicated to the critical examination of these stereotypes.

Many researchers have concluded that the observed emotional differences between men and women primarily stem from socialized gender roles, rather than biology. Thus, the range of emotional expression that certain populations experience is based, in large part, on their culture's expectations for femininity and masculinity.

Many psychologists reject the notion that men actually experience emotions less frequently than do women. Instead, researchers have suggested that men exhibit restrictive emotionality. Restrictive emotionality refers to a tendency to inhibit the expression of certain emotions and an unwillingness to self-disclose intimate feelings. Men's restrictive emotionality has been shown to influence health, emotional appraisal and overall identity. Furthermore, tendencies toward restrictive emotionality are correlated with an increased risk of certain anxiety disorders. A substantial amount of research has suggested that women do, on average, express emotions more frequently than men. In the Handbook of Emotions, Leslie R. Brody and Judith A. Hall report that This difference in emotional expression starts at a young age, as early as 4 and 6 years old, as girls begin to express more sadness and anxiety than their male counterparts. Brody and Hall (2008) report that women generally smile, laugh, nod and use hand gestures more than men do. The only known exception to this rule is that men more frequently express anger. However, all of these effects are not commonly observed until after preschool, suggesting that these differences might be the result of certain socialization processes. Women are also more accurate expressers of emotion, when "posing deliberately and when observed unobstrusively." This increased expressiveness in emotional expression is consistent across cultures – women report more intense emotional experiences and more overt emotional expressions across 37 cultures. It has been found that men and women more accurately display gender-stereotypic expressions – men more accurately express anger, contempt and happiness, while women were more accurately express fear and happiness. Other studies have shown that women show higher levels of expression accuracy and judgement of nonverbal emotional cues than men overall. However, these patterns are not consistent across cultures, again suggesting that socialization influences the observed gender differences in emotional expression. For example, in Japan, research has suggested that women convey anger and contempt better than men do.

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