THE MODERATING EFFECT OF GENDER AND EMPATHY ON AFFECT FOLLOWING INVALIDATION OR VALIDATION

Despite both long-term and short-term consequences of invalidation of emotional experiences, experimental research exploring the potential moderators of responses to validating and invalidating remarks is limited. For instance, affective responding is highly related to societal gender norms, and yet research has not thoroughly examined the potential effect of gender on responses to validation or invalidation or how an invalidating comment from a male or female may moderate affective responses. Additionally, research has not explored how trait variables such as empathy may moderate responses to validation or invalidation. The current study used a two-stage experimental design to examine variables that influence the affective states of individuals validated or invalidated for their emotional expressions. Undergraduate male (n = 70) and female (n = 68) participants were randomly assigned to receive either a validating or invalidating remark from a confederate of ambiguous gender (Study 1) or an invalidating remark from a male or female confederate (Study 2). Study 1 results indicated that invalidation was a universally more negative affective experience than validation across both male and female participants; however, negative affect following validation was higher among those higher in empathy while negative affect from invalidation was relatively high regardless of empathy. Study 2 results suggested that being invalidated by a male rather than a female provoked a specifically more negative affective response; additionally, being invalidated by a male resulted in a more negative affective response among those higher in empathy. Contrary to expectations, male and female participants responded similarly, although some responses were weakly moderated by empathy or condition effects.