The Costs of Hiding and Faking Emotions: The Case of Extraverts and Introverts

ABSTRACT

 The present study examined the moderation effects of extraversion on the relationships between hiding and faking emotions, perceived satisfaction from intimate relationships, and reported physical health concerns. Four hundred and four Israeli participants, who were all involved in intimate relationships at the time of the study, responded to the Extraversion scale from the Big-Five Inventory, the DEELS to measure hiding and faking emotions, the SELF to assess physical health concerns, and the short version of the ENRICH to evaluate perceived satisfaction with intimate relationships. The mean age was 32.3 years (SD = 8.2); and the average length of time as a couple was 7.8 years (SD = 8.2). Of the participants, 198 were married (48.5%). The findings indicate that the effect of hiding negative emotions was stronger for perceived satisfaction with intimate relationships and physical health concerns than that for faking positive emotions. Extraverts who showed a higher frequency of hiding their negative emotions were significantly less satisfied with their relationships than introverts and they also tended to report more concerns with their physical health. These results were not found when extraverts reported a high frequency of faking positive emotions. These results are discussed in the context of the trait-behavior-concordance model and stress the importance of distinguishing faking from hiding.

Keywords:

• emotional work
• extraversion/introversion
• faking emotions
• hiding emotions
• intimate relationships
• physical health

Author Notes

Tali Seger-Guttmann is a senior lecturer at Ruppin Academic Center. Her research interests focuses on emotional work in various types of relationships, emotional-service encounters, customer experience, and emotions in the workplace.

Hana Medler-Liraz is a senior lecturer at Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo. Her current research focuses on emotions and behavior in organizations and on the dynamics of service delivery, especially the interactions between service providers and their customers.