Display Rules

Why Do Display Rules Exist

Display rules play a major role in every culture and society because they aid the regulation of behaviors in social contexts. They allow individuals to engage in normative behaviors prescribed by social roles in specific situations and help to maintain culture-specific meaning of social relationships. Not displaying anger toward one's boss, for instance, helps to ensure that one does not aggress behaviorally toward his or her boss, keeping social hierarchies intact and ensuring that the boss-subordinate relationship stays within culturally prescribed boundaries for appropriateness. The importance of display rules to social regulation may be seen most dramatically, perhaps, when individuals express emotions that violate their culture's display rules; for example, when a person smiles at a funeral or displays anger at a wedding. Display rules work to make sure things like that do not happen, and social interaction is regulated.

How Do Display Rules Work

Display rules can modify expressions in different ways, depending on the situation. Individuals may learn to express emotions as they are with no modification (i.e., what one sees is what one gets), such as when people are alone or with close friends or family members. Display rules may deamplify an expression, showing less than is actually felt, such as when individuals show their displeasure but not in its entirety to a store clerk in public. In other circumstances, display rules may amplify an expression, showing more than what is felt, such as when subordinates laugh at the boss's not-so-funny jokes. Display rules can neutralize expressions to show nothing (the poker face) or to qualify an expression by displaying it with other emotions that comment on it. Adults often express anger toward children with a smile, for instance, or sadness and distress with a smile toward their friends. In these cases, the smiles [Page 433]qualify the meaning and interpretation of the anger or sadness. Display rules can mask an expression by concealing it and showing another in its place, such as when individuals smile even though in reality they feel angry or sad. Finally, display rules can encourage individuals to simulate expressions when no emotion is actually felt.

Cultural Similarities and Differences in Display Rules

People of all cultures learn display rules early in life. For example, studies have documented children as young as preschool age masking negative emotions with smiles. Certainly in young childhood—primary school years—children are able to verbalize many of the rules they have learned, demonstrating conscious knowledge of display rules.

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