Do gay and lesbian couples differ to straight couples in how they try to influence each other’s feelings?

Every day, we try to influence the feelings of those around us.  When our friends are feeling sad, we try to cheer them up.  When our partners have wronged us, we try to make them feel guilty. 

An ongoing research study conducted by Dr Karen Niven and Dr David Holman at the University of Sheffield, UK, is examining the ways in which people deliberately try to influence the emotions of their partners, friends and co-workers.  The study aims to determine whether different strategies are used in different types of relationships, and whether varying the strategies we use is adaptive.

So far, their results have highlighted interesting gender differences, such that male-male friendships and work relationships differ to female-female and male-female relationships.  But do these differences also translate to romantic relationships?

Unfortunately, from the responses gathered so far, the gay and lesbian community has been under-represented.  So to answer this important question, the researchers are looking for gay and lesbian people to complete their short online survey. The survey takes just 10-15 minutes to complete, and can be accessed online at Surveymonkey: Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

The research is part of a wider project called EROS: Emotion Regulation of Others and Self, which is funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.  If you would like to find out more about this study and others the research team are conducting, please check out their website: www.erosresearch.org

To contact the researchers with any questions, please email Karen at k.niven@sheffield.ac.uk