Recent experimental results suggest that when police officers smile, the public will react with enhanced perceptions of those officers. However, emotional labor theory suggests that organizationally mandated emotional displays such as smiling exact costs to the individual worker. We use data from a 2020 national survey to test effects of emotional labor—display rules, surface acting, and deep acting—on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization among law enforcement officers. We find that officers experience increased emotional exhaustion and burnout based on their strategies to comply with display rules—whether positive or negative. Emotional effort to attend to display rules exacts costs onto the individual, particularly if they are asked to suppress negative emotions and express unfelt positive ones. Implications for law enforcement and public sector organizations in general are discussed, with the broad recommendation that scholars and practitioners consider addressing public relations in ways that do not exacerbate burnout.

最近的实验结果表明，当警察微笑时，公众会对这些警察的看法增强。然而，情绪劳动理论表明，组织强制的情绪表现，例如微笑对个体工人的确切成本。我们使用 2020 年全国调查的数据来测试情绪劳动（展示规则、表面行为和深层行为）对执法人员情绪衰竭和人格解体的影响。我们发现，根据他们遵守展示规则的策略（无论是积极的还是消极的），军官会经历更多的情绪耗竭和倦怠。为遵守规则而付出的情感努力会使个人付出代价，特别是如果他们被要求压抑消极情绪并表达未感觉到的积极情绪时。