Assuming the importance of expressing, rather than concealing, one’s anger as a positive action that helps maintain or strengthen relationships, we predicted that the perception of a partner not expressing his or her anger would lead to increased dissatisfaction in the relationship. Japanese participants of a study involving role-taking were asked to read a scenario in which their friend was experiencing anger. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Anger expression, anger non-expression, or a control condition (which did not mention whether the friend expressed anger). Consistent with our prediction, results revealed that participants reported more dissatisfaction when anger was not expressed than when it was. Implications for understanding a relationship’s deterioration, which results from non-expression of anger, were discussed.
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