Although humans are inherently social, emotion regulation (ER) studies often disregard how ER predominantly occurs within social interactions with others. It is currently unclear how the efficacy of inter-personal ER compares to intra-personal regulation, and what psychophysiological mechanisms underlie effective inter-personal ER. There has been behavioural evidence to suggest inter-personal ER might in fact be more effective in decreasing negative emotions than intra-personal ER. To assess

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... ther inter-personal ER also modulates physiological responses, this thesis utilised electrodermal activity measures. A total of 146 participants regulated their emotions using a self-selected strategy (intra-personal ER) or a strategy that was recommended to them (inter-personal ER). Although participants reported greater decreases in negative emotions following intra-personal ER, the reverse pattern emerged for physiological responses: electrodermal measures exhibited greater decreases during inter-personal ER. Subsequently, the neural processes underlying these physiological benefits of inter-personal ER were scrutinised in a second-person fMRI experiment using the same experimental paradigm. Twenty-three dyads consisting of a Regulator recommending ER strategies and a Target implementing these strategies were scanned simultaneously. Although ratings responses suggested no differences in efficacy between inter- and intra-personal ER, during inter-personal ER, both Regulators and Targets exhibited activations within key nodes of the ER network, e.g., the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, as well as socio-cognitive regions, such as the temporal parietal junction. Moreover, Regulators' neural responses during the choice of an ER strategy resembled brain responses observed in Targets during intra-personal ER, thereby suggesting Regulators engaged in processes of embodiment. Taken together, there is tentative evidence to suggest that inter-personal ER can effectively modulate physiological responses in some cases and it engages [...]