Don't grin when you win: The social costs of positive emotion expression in performance situations

Abstract

People who express positive emotion usually have better social outcomes than people who do not, and suppressing the expression of emotions can have interpersonal costs. Nevertheless, social convention suggests that there are situations in which people should suppress the expression of positive emotions, such as when trying to appear humble in victory. The present research tested whether there are interpersonal costs to expressing positive emotions when winning. In Experiment 1, inexpressive winners were evaluated more positively and rated as lower in hubristic- but not authentic-pride compared with expressive winners. Experiment 2 confirmed that inexpressive winners were perceived as using e..