Research on system justification theory suggests that justifying the societal status quo decreases negative emotions, leading to less collective action. In this investigation, we propose that the degree to which negative emotions mediate the link between system justification and collective action may depend upon whether individuals tend to suppress the expression of their negative emotions. We tested this hypothesis in the diverse socio-political contexts of Turkey, Israel, and the U.S. In one correlational study (Study 1) and three experimental studies (Studies 2–4), we observed that the link between system justification and willingness to participate in collective action through anger (Studies 1–2 and 4) and guilt (Study 3) was moderated by expressive suppression. We found that negative emotions mediated the association between system justification and collective action among those who suppress the expression of their emotions less frequently, but not those who use expressive suppression more frequently. These findings suggest that emotion regulation may undermine, rather than facilitate, efforts to engage in collective action even among people who are low in system justification.

对系统正当性理论的研究表明，证明社会现状的正当性会减少负面情绪，从而减少集体行动。在本次调查中，我们提出负面情绪在系统正当性与集体行动之间的联系中发挥中介作用的程度可能取决于个人是否倾向于抑制其负面情绪的表达。我们在土耳其、以色列和美国的不同社会政治背景下检验了这一假设。在一项相关性研究（研究 1）和三项实验研究（研究 2-4）中，我们观察到系统正当性与参与意愿之间的联系在通过愤怒（研究 1-2 和 4）和内疚（研究 3）的集体行动中受到表达抑制的影响。我们发现，在那些不太频繁地抑制情绪表达的人中，负面情绪调节了系统正当性与集体行动之间的关联，而不是那些更频繁地使用表达抑制的人。这些发现表明，情绪调节可能会破坏而不是促进参与集体行动的努力，即使是在系统正当性低的人群中也是如此。