The Effects of Physical Postures on Emotion: Focusing on Inhibition of Body Postures

The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of inhibition of body postures as a strategy for regulating negative emotions. Sixty participants were randomly assigned to the three groups (inhibition, expression and control group) and were shown three negative emotional types of movie-clip; fear, anger, and sadness. Inhibition group was informed not to move and keep their body consistent for the whole time, while expression group was instructed to pose certain postures and control group watched a movie clip with no instruction. The change in the level of emotional feelings was measured by selfquestionnaires and psycho-physiological recordings; skin conductance level and heart rate. Inhibition group reported smaller changes on skin conductance level and heart rate than expression and control group. There was no significant difference of subjective ratings among groups. These results indicate while expression of body postures enhances positive emotions, inhibition of body postures may become an essential role of regulating negative emotions.