We are likely to respond quite differently towards someone who expresses an emotion towards a situation, compared with someone who expresses an emotion at us personally. For example, if someone expresses frustration at the difficulty of the task at hand, we may be able to acknowledge their frustration. However, it’s quite different if they direct their frustration at us for some reason, such as not being cooperative enough, or not working hard enough to help complete the task. Our response will be quite different whether we are perceived as the cause of the emotion, or the target of the emotion, or merely observing a person’s expression of emotion.