Clemson researcher says high blood pressure may lead to missed emotional cues
November 7, 2011
CLEMSON, SC – November 4, 2011 – Your ability to recognize emotional content in faces and texts is linked to your blood pressure, according to a Clemson University researcher.
A recently published study by Clemson University psychology professorJames A. McCubbin and colleagues has shown that people with higherblood pressure have reduced ability to recognize angry, fearful, sad andhappy faces and text passages.
“It’s like living in a world of email without smiley faces,” McCubbinsaid. “We put smiley faces in emails to show when we are just kidding.Otherwise some people may misinterpret our humor and get angry.”
Some people have what McCubbin calls “emotional dampening” that maycause them to respond inappropriately to anger or other emotions inothers.
“For example, if your work supervisor is angry, you may mistakenlybelieve that he or she is just kidding,” McCubbin said. “This can leadto miscommunication, poor job performance and increased psychosocialdistress.”
In complex social situations like work settings, people rely onfacial expressions and verbal emotional cues to interact with others.
“If you have emotional dampening, you may distrust others because youcannot read emotional meaning in their face or their verbalcommunications,” he said. “You may even take more risks because youcannot fully appraise threats in the environment.”
McCubbin said the link between dampening of emotions and bloodpressure is believed to be involved in the development of hypertensionand risk for coronary heart disease, the biggest killer of both men andwomen in the U.S. Emotional dampening also may be involved in disordersof emotion regulation, such as bipolar disorders and depression.
His theory of emotional dampening also applies to positive emotions.
“Dampening of positive emotions may rob one of the restorativebenefits of close personal relations, vacations and hobbies,“ he said.
McCubbin’s study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine,was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and theNational Institute on Aging, both parts of the National Institutes ofHealth.
The journal article was co-authored by Marcellus M. Merritt of theUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee psychology department; John J. SollersIII if the psychological medicine department at the University ofAuckland; Dr. Michele K. Evans of the Laboratory of Immunology, NationalInstitute on Aging; Alan B. Zonderman, Laboratory of BehavioralNeuroscience, National Institute on Aging; Dr. Richard D. Lane of thepsychiatry department, University of Arizona; and Julian F. Thayer ofthe Ohio State University psychology department.
