An experience sampling approach to emotion regulation: Situational suppression use and social hierarchy

•People exhibited substantial variation in suppression use across situations.•Suppression use occurred when people felt extraverted and low in social hierarchy.•In low-hierarchy situations, the negative effects of suppression use are attenuated.

Whereas past research has examined the use of emotion regulation strategies in terms of individual differences or responses to experimental manipulations, this research takes a naturalistic and repeated-measures approach to examine suppression use in specific situations. Using an experience sampling design, we find evidence across two samples (total N = 215) that (1) there was substantial within-person variation in suppression use, (2) the situational use of suppression was explained by situational differences in extraversion and social hierarchy, and (3) when used in contexts in which people felt they were low in social hierarchy, the negative relationship between suppression and well-being was attenuated. These findings suggest there are contexts in which suppression use may not be maladaptive, and demonstrate the benefits of studying emotion processes in real-life.