Introduction
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild coined the term emotional labor in her 1983 book The Managed Heart, describing the work of regulating one's own feelings and expressions to meet the emotional requirements of a job — smiling at a difficult customer, staying calm with an upset patient, or projecting warmth regardless of how one actually feels.
Though the term began in workplace sociology, it has since expanded in everyday language to describe similar invisible emotional management in personal relationships, particularly the unequal burden of managing others' feelings that often falls on one partner or family member.
Surface Acting vs Deep Acting
Hochschild distinguished two strategies people use to perform emotional labor. Surface acting means displaying a required emotion without actually feeling it — smiling while internally frustrated — while deep acting involves genuinely trying to change one's internal feelings to match what the situation requires.
Research has consistently found that surface acting is more psychologically costly than deep acting, since faking an emotion while feeling the opposite creates ongoing internal tension, whereas successfully shifting one's actual feelings, even effortfully, produces less lasting strain.
Who Is Most Affected by Emotional Labor
Jobs requiring extensive face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with the public — flight attendants, nurses, customer service representatives, and teachers — are the most studied cases, and workers in these roles report measurably higher rates of burnout when required emotional displays consistently conflict with genuine feelings.
Studies on gender and emotional labor have also found that women are disproportionately expected to perform emotional labor both at work and at home, including managing family members' feelings and social relationships, adding an often unacknowledged workload on top of other responsibilities.
Protecting Against the Toll of Emotional Labor
Workplaces that give employees more autonomy over how they express emotion, alongside adequate breaks and peer support, have been shown to reduce the burnout associated with heavy emotional labor demands, compared to workplaces enforcing rigid, scripted emotional displays.
On a personal level, naming emotional labor explicitly — recognizing when you are managing feelings rather than simply having them — is a first step researchers recommend toward setting boundaries and redistributing an unequal emotional workload within relationships or families.
Sources
- Wikipedia — history and research on Hochschild's emotional labor concept
- American Psychological Association — research comparing surface and deep acting outcomes
- Harvard Business Review — workplace analysis of emotional labor and burnout
FAQ
What is emotional labor in simple terms?
Emotional labor is the effort of managing and regulating your own feelings and expressions to meet the emotional expectations of a job or relationship, such as staying calm and friendly regardless of your actual internal state.
Who coined the term "emotional labor"?
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild introduced the concept in her 1983 book The Managed Heart, originally studying flight attendants and other service workers required to display specific emotions as part of their job.
What is the difference between surface acting and deep acting?
Surface acting means displaying a required emotion without genuinely feeling it, while deep acting involves actually trying to shift your internal feelings to match the situation. Research shows surface acting is generally more psychologically taxing.
Does emotional labor affect women more than men?
Research has found that women are disproportionately expected to perform emotional labor both in service jobs and within families and relationships, often adding an unacknowledged workload on top of other responsibilities.
About the Author
We reference Arlie Hochschild's foundational sociology alongside American Psychological Association and Harvard Business Review research to explain emotional labor and its effects.
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