The Effect of Emotion Regulation on the Forgetting of Negative Social Feedback in College Students

Abstract

With the rapid development of the Internet, negative social feedback such as cyberbullying has become increasingly prevalent, posing serious challenges to individuals’ emotional well-being. This study investigates whether emotion regulation strategies can effectively mitigate the impact of negative feedback and promote forgetting of such information. Using a combination of questionnaires and controlled experimental procedures, college students were exposed to negative social feedback from both strangers and acquaintances. The study examined how cognitive reappraisal and distraction affected the memory retention of negative feedback over time. Data were collected using E-Prime 2.0 and analyzed through repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS. Results demonstrated that both cognitive reappraisal and distraction significantly weakened memory for negative social feedback, particularly in delayed recall, with reappraisal showing the most durable effects. These findings offer new insights into the role of emotional regulation in managing harmful online experiences and have important implications for mental health interventions.