#11791. Fitter, Happier: Display Rules in Policing

July 2026publication date
Proposal available till 20-05-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Law;
Social Psychology;
Applied Psychology;
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Abstract:
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 20XX 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.
Keywords:
Burnout; Depersonalization; Emotional exhaustion; Emotional labor; Policing

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