Flat Emotions
Until recently, flat emotions such as apathy, boredom, and indifference had not been studied frequently in relation to conflict. This is somewhat surprising given that flat emotions are associated with withdrawal (Sanford, 2007a), and withdrawal has been studied fairly extensively as a response to conflict (e.g., Christensen & Heavey, 1990; Gottman, 1994).
Sanford’s program of research suggests that flat emotions are common in conflict interaction (Sanford, 2007a, 2007b) and that people feel neglected when their partner shows an increase in flat emotion during conflict (Sanford, 2010; Sanford & Grace, 2011). When partners feel neglected, they are more likely to experience, and perhaps communicate, hard (hostile) or soft (vulnerable) emotions. Thus, flat emotions can help explain patterns of withdrawal and demand (Christensen & Heavey, 1990); when one partner experiences flat emotion and withdraws, the other partner may experience hostile emotion and become demanding and aggressive. In other cases, flat emotion could provide a pathway to empathy and understanding. Specifically, if one partner’s expression of flat emotions prompts the other partner to feel neglected and hurt, the first partner might see those hurt feelings and feel empathy. Of course, for this to occur, the first partner’s flat emotion needs to subside or be replaced by more empathic emotion. More research needs to be conducted on patterns such as these to determine the specific role that flat emotion plays in shaping communication during conflict. For now, scholars know that flat emotion is expressed during conflict, that it relates to withdrawal, and that expressions of flat emotions are often interpreted as communicating neglect, which can lead to the experience and expression of either hostile or vulnerable emotions.Scholars also know that withdrawal is communicated primarily through nonimmediacy cues that reflect a lack of involvement (Guerrero & Floyd, 2006). Specific behaviors related to withdrawal during conflict include less gaze, more head turns and head down positions, fewer open gestures (Feeney, Noller, Sheehan, & Peterson, 1999), more adaptors (Sillars, Coletti, Parry, & Rogers, 1982), and physically pulling away and not talking (Weiss & Summers 1983). The extent that one experiences flat emotions during conflict may be related to how much of each of these types of behaviors an individual enacts.