Brian Parkinson
BA PhD in Psychology, Manchester University
Professor of Social Psychology
- Contributing lecturer: Prelims and Part A Social Psychology
- Course convenor: Part B Emotion: Extending Appraisal and Feedback Approaches
Social Psychology of Emotions
Research Summary
My research focuses on how our emotions affect other people (and how they affect other people’s emotions). The guiding idea is that emotions align and configure our relations with other people and regulate their orientations towards objects and events in the environment (relation alignment). For example, I may express worry to a friend as a way of getting them to consider a previously underestimated threat, or get angry with someone to indicate that they should feel guilty and make reparations. Attention to the interpersonal context for emotion expression may permit us to understand some of the maladaptive effects of certain otherwise functionally useful emotions, and to improve emotional communication in close relationships. My current research uses experimental, observational, and diary-based methods. For example, some of my studies have focused on how expressed worry or anxiety affects other people. My experiments show that expressed anxiety leads other people to moderate their risk-taking when losses are not their central focus. Further, an observational study of romantic partners discussing shared concerns indicates that people use worry and calm expression to regulate their partners’ emotions, and that the way they do this depends on the characteristic level of expressiveness and emotional engagement of their partners. Individuals who show less emotion tend to elicit greater worry presentation from their partners. My current research (in collaboration with Dr Danielle Shore) explores how people perceive other people's facial expressions during on-line prisoner's dilemma games. We are particularly interested in how game outcomes influence regulation of facial communication and how game partners perceive regulated expressions in different contexts.
Key publications
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Intragroup Emotion Convergence: Beyond Contagion and Social Appraisal
Journal article
PARKINSON B., (2019), Personality and Social Psychology Review
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Heart to heart: How your emotions affect other people
Book
PARKINSON B., (2019)
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Worry spreads: interpersonal transfer of problem-related anxiety.
Journal article
Parkinson B. and Simons G., (2012), Cogn Emot, 26, 462 - 479
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Bursting with anxiety: adult social referencing in an interpersonal balloon analogue risk task (BART).
Journal article
Parkinson B. et al, (2012), Emotion, 12, 817 - 826
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Current Emotion Research in Social Psychology: Thinking about Emotions and Other People
Journal article
Parkinson B. and Manstead ASR., (2015), Emotion Review, 7, 371 - 380
Recent publications
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Social Sharing of Emotion During the Collective Crisis of COVID-19
Journal article
Ma G. et al, (2024), The British journal of psychology. General section
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Editorial
Journal article
Colombetti G. et al, (2024), Emotion Review, 16, 3 - 4
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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST THEORIES OF EMOTIONS
Chapter
Mesquita B. and Parkinson B., (2024), Emotion Theory: The Routledge Comprehensive Guide: Volume I: History, Contemporary Theories, and Key Elements, 1, 388 - 407
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Aligning with the Agent of Justice: Schadenfreude Following Punishment of Trust Violators
Journal article
YAM PPC. et al, (2023), Motivation and Emotion
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Facial regulation during dyadic interaction: Interpersonal effects on cooperation
Journal article
SHORE D. et al, (2023), Affective Science