Brian Parkinson
BA PhD in Psychology, Manchester University
Professor of Social Psychology
- Senior Censor, Christ Church
- Chair of Examiners, MSc in Psychological Research
Social Psychology
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. 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, recent 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, a recent 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. These processes also operate differently in men and women.
Key publications
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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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How social is the social psychology of emotion?
Journal article
Parkinson B., (2011), Br J Soc Psychol, 50, 405 - 413
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What holds emotions together? Meaning and response coordination
Journal article
Parkinson B., (2009), Cognitive Systems Research, 10, 31 - 47
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Emotions in direct and remote social interaction: Getting through the spaces between us
Journal article
Parkinson B., (2008), Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 1510 - 1529
Recent publications
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Biased cognition in East Asian and Western cultures
Journal article
Yiend J. et al, (2019), PLoS One
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Biased cognition in East Asian and Western cultures
Journal article
Yiend J. et al, (2019), PLoS One
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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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Signals of Emotion Regulation in a Social Dilemma: Detection from Face and Context
Conference paper
SHORE D. et al, (2019)
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Heart to heart: How your emotions affect other people
Book
PARKINSON B., (2019)