It's not just what you say but how you say that matters: The role of emotions while giving negative feedback.

Drawing on emotions as social information and behavioral motivation theories, we investigated how emotional displays during negative feedback affect feedback acceptability and performance. Study 1 (N = 208) involved working executives receiving negative feedback using different emotional displays (anger, disappointment, humor, and optimism) in a fictitious scenario. Study 2 (N = 443) involved undergraduates completing a task and receiving feedback (public vs private) with emotional displays manipulated and also incorporated neutral and self-reflection styles. Findings revealed positive emotional displays, neutral, and self-reflection led to higher feedback acceptability compared to negative displays. Additionally, public display of positive emotions led to higher acceptability than negative displays. Lastly, performance quality improved across all feedback styles.