The social regulation of emotions in jealousy situations

Potential discrepancies between felt and communicated emotions elicited by two typical antecedents of jealousy that varied in terms of their seriousness were studied by means of a structured questionnaire. Italian (N = 301) and Dutch (N = 262) men and women attributed felt and shared emotions to a story protagonist. The emotions investigated included jealousy, anger, anxiety, sadness, insecurity, surprise, embarrassment, irritation, disgust, frustration, and depression. Event seriousness and nationality influenced the felt intensity of most emotions; sex influenced the intensity of only a few. Significant discrepancies between felt and shared emotions occurred for several emotions; jealousy was regulated by all respondents, and by Dutch subjects more than by Italians. Nation and sex significantly influenced the direction and magnitude of several observed discrep-ancies for one of the two antecedents only. The results supported our predictions that the ever bal communication of feelings about jealousy situations is subject to regulation. It is suggested that regulation is influenced by culture-specific norms and beliefs about social and personal implications of a given emotion.