Axiomempiricalv1
Cognitive reappraisal (changing meaning before emotion
Cognitive reappraisal (changing meaning before emotion forms) has lower cognitive cost than expressive suppression (inhibiting emotion after it forms).
Why This Is an Axiom
This is Gross's core empirical finding about emotion regulation strategies — they differ systematically in their cognitive costs. This is not derived from other principles but from direct experimental measurement of memory, physiology, and cognitive performance during regulation.