Hidden Emotions: Preschoolers' Knowledge of Appearance-Reality and Emotion Display Rules

Abstract

This study examines preschoolers' knowledge of the distinction between real and apparent emotion and of emotion display rules. Additionally, the study focuses on the ways in which gender and specific emotion type may impact the preschooler's understanding. Previous work has found young children to have a limited understanding of these two concepts. Nevertheless, preschoolers have been shown to comprehend the appearance-reality distinction as it pertains to objects, to possess a mentalistic understanding of emotion, and to actually use display rules. This study's findings show that in contrast to earlier work, and perhaps in relation to the competence-performance distinction, preschoolers do clearly distinguish between real and apparent emotions and do understand many of the social display rules governing emotional expression. Gender and emotion type were also shown to play a role in this understanding. The findings support the view that children have initial knowledge about mentalistic aspects of emotion as well as an understanding of the social rules guiding emotional expression, and that their understanding of emotion is embedded in a broader understanding of the mind.