Gender and emotion regulation: a social appraisal perspective on anger

Men and women differ in the regulation of their anger expressions. As the regulation of anger expressions often occurs in social interactions, where the pressure for emotion regulation is high, the social context can be considered as important in explaining these gender differences. In the present chapter, the association between the social context and the regulation of anger expression for men and women will be discussed, with a focus on social appraisals. We present a series of studies revealing that women regulate their anger into less antagonistic anger expressions than men, especially in the context of negative social appraisals, that is, when they expect negative social implications of their anger expressions. Together the findings of these social appraisal studies enhance our understanding of how social processes affect the regulation of one’s anger expression. Men and women are both sensitive to others’ reactions, yet women seem to be especially sensitive to the negative implications of their anger displays, resulting in either more indirect anger expressions or more reconciliation after direct expressions.