Context-Dependent Emotion Regulation: Suppression and Reappraisal at the Burning Man Festival

Abstract

Do people use different emotion regulation strategies in different social contexts? To answer this question, we compared typical emotion regulation use with emotion regulation use at a temporary annual art festival (Burning Man). We assessed two common emotion regulation strategies: expressive suppression (linked to generally negative outcomes) and cognitive reappraisal (linked to generally positive outcomes). Compared to typical emotion regulation use at home, at Burning Man participants reported decreased suppression use and increased reappraisal use. We consider implications for understanding contextual variation in emotion regulation and discuss the properties of the Burning Man context that may facilitate this more adaptive emotion regulation profile.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the Burning Man Organization, especially Ray Allen, for their support of the Black Rock Census. In addition, Sam Torrisi and Lyn Hartley assisted with data collection. Carlos Fernandez and Alana Glassco helped create the data entry system, in addition to assisting with data cleaning and preparation. Galen McNeil and Ben Edwards helped to clean and reduce the data for analysis. Sanjay Srivistava provided data from a separate data set to aid in the selection the items we report. Finally, we thank the many dedicated volunteers who assisted with data collection and entry.

Notes

¹“The default world” is a term known to most Burning Man participants, referring to the world that exists outside Black Rock City.

²As in previous research (e.g., Gross & John, 2003), we observed a main effect of strategy use, with greater reappraisal use reported than suppression use, F(1, 2556) = 677.4, p < .001, Cohen's d = 1.16. In addition, strategy use varied by gender, F(1, 2556) = 48.6, p < .05, Cohen's d = .28. Men reported greater use of suppression than women, F = 21.5, p < .01, Cohen's d = .18, and women reported greater use of reappraisal than men, F = 30.6, p < .01, Cohen's d = .22. No interactions involving gender were significant (ps > .12).