Immersed vs. detached: Reappraisal strategies of situated high-impact emotional events. A behavioral, physiological and experiential response analysis.

The present study was aimed at the investigation of cognitive reappraisal and its short-term outcomes on three emotional response systems: behavior, physiology and subjective experience. 163 nursing students were asked to watch the same high-impact event (amputation of an arm) which was incorporated within a longer clip assembled using the films provided by the previous study (Study 2). Two different reappraisal strategies were compared: in one group, subjects (N=83) were asked to distance themselves in front of the negative event to down-regulate negative emotions, whereas in the second group (N=80) participants were asked to adopt an immersed and participated attitude towards the events. The study presents the results about the effect of the type of scenario and type of regulation instruction on emotional responses belonging to subjective experience (indexes of emotional impact), behavioral expression (face, gaze, posture and head movements) and physiological arousal (HR and EDA).