Service workers are required to perform emotional labor as part of their duties to maintain an appropriate emotional state. While deep acting—the process of recapturing one’s emotions—can reduce emotional laborers’ stress, the dissonance with natural emotional experiences may lead to self-loathing. Subsequent psychological reactions may change depending on the cognitive manipulation performed during deep acting. This study focused on the deep-acting process in emotional labor and examined whether emotion control strategies mediate emotional labor and influence service workers’ stress reactions. The mediation analysis results revealed that the “put into perspective” and “rumination or focus on the thought” aspects mediated deep acting and stress reactions; deep actin g reduced stress reactions. Future studies should focus on how emotions can be controlled during emotional labor and the method of acting involved
