Do people in all cultures express emotion similarly?
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We all know culture can influence our relationships, work ethic, wardrobe and even the way we greet others. But can culture influence our emotions? Do people around the world experience emotions similarly? Is experiencing anger in Japan the same as experiencing anger in England, Peru, India or Kenya? “Of course it is,” you might say, “we’re all human beings. We all feel the same things, even if we use different words.” Well, sit tight. It might not be that obvious of an answer, and we’re about to find out why! Show Culture or emotion: which came first?Many of us see emotions as something primal and natural to human beings. We believe emotions are born with us and stay with us, even before culture could ever have any say. But what if emotions can’t be separated from culture? Dr. Batja Mesquita, a pioneer in cultural psychology, explains:
How did you learn your emotions?At first sight, this seems like a strange question, but think about it: aren’t emotions a reaction from our bodies and minds to whatever happens externally, usually involving other people? Being born into a certain culture means learning that culture’s words for certain emotions. It also means avoiding the expression of certain emotions because your culture thinks they’re negative and you fear the reaction of those around you. It means learning how and when to express those emotions, and being rewarded or punished for certain emotions. It’s particularly interesting that countries that tend to place more importance in community, family values and honor – such as Japan, India or Russia – also show more complexity in the way they feel compared to countries that tend to be more individualistic. Can a certain culture be more or less emotional than another?What countries would you say are the most and the least emotional? Well, you don’t have to think too much: a study has already been done about the topic and concluded that the Philippines, El Salvador, Bahrain and Oman are the most emotional countries! On the other hand, Singapore, Lithuania and Georgia would be the least emotional countries. An average of 60% of Filipinos claimed they felt ten different emotions a lot on a daily basis, including anger, stress, sadness, physical pain and worry, but also feeling well-rested, smiling and laughing a lot, being treated with respect, enjoyment, and learning or doing something interesting. While many believe these results could be related to quality of life and even the country’s GDP, that wouldn’t explain why Singapore is considered less emotional than Venezuela, for instance. Could culture be behind it all?
Why does it matter, anyway?It’s easy to take matters personally when we feel someone else’s emotions clash against ours. But what happens if we start seeing emotions as products of culture, not something that necessarily labels a given person as good or bad? Especially in countries where several cultures come together to share one space, this kind of awareness is useful because it brings some perspective to the table and helps us stop conflict and misunderstandings before they happen! If you’re planning on working abroad, becoming a digital nomad or moving abroad to blend in with the local community,this is especially important. Your turn: do emotions depend on culture?What’s your opinion? Do you think our cultures determine the way we experience and express emotions? What are your experiences dealing with different cultures and observing how people express themselves? Tell us all about it over on our social channels! As you might expect (after reading about the components of emotion), people tend to respond similarly in terms of physiological (or bodily) expression. Also, our ability to recognize and produce facial expressions of emotion appears to be universal. Research conducted with individuals born blind at birth found that the same facial expression of emotions were produced (smiling when happy, frowning when sad), despite these individuals never having the opportunity to observe these facial displays of emotion in other people. This suggests that facial muscles movements involved in generating emotional expressions is universal and not the result of learned behavior. Charles Darwin’s book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) very similar morphology in the facial expressions of non-human primates like chimpanzees and orangutans to human facial expressions. In fact, there is substantial evidence for seven universal emotions that are each associated with distinct facial expressions. These include: happiness, surprise, sadness, fright, disgust, contempt, and anger (Ekman & Keltner, 1997). Ekman and Friesen (1972) conducted one of the first scientific studies of emotion which raised important questions about the role of culture in shaping universal components of emotion. Ekman and Friesen then took photos of people posing with these different expressions (Figure 1). With the help of colleagues at different universities around the world, Ekman and Friesen showed these pictures to members of vastly different cultures, gave them a list of emotion words (translated into the relevant languages) and asked them to match the facial expressions in the photos with their corresponding emotion words on the list (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Ekman et al., 1987). Across cultures, participants matched each picture to the same emotion word at levels greater than chance. This led Ekman and his colleagues to conclude that there are universally recognized emotional facial expressions.
At the same time, Ekman and Friesen found considerable variability across cultures in recognition rates. For instance, 95% of participants in the United States associated a smile with happiness, only 69% of Sumatran participants made the same association. Similarly, 86% of participants in the United States associated wrinkling of the nose with disgust, but only 60% of Japanese made the same association with a wrinkled nose (Ekman et al., 1987). Ekman and colleagues interpreted this variation as demonstrating cultural differences in the way that people show or display emotion (Ekman, 1972). Cultural display rules are a collection of culturally specific standards that govern the type and frequency of emotional displays that are socially acceptable (Malatesta & Haviland, 1982). In the United States we are taught that “big boys don’t cry” or we laugh at our boss’s jokes even though we don’t think they are funny. A more recent study simultaneously studied physiological responses and facial expressions and found that regardless of culture, people tend to respond similarly in terms of physiological (or bodily) expression. European American and Hmong (pronounced “muhng”) American participants were asked to relive various emotional episodes in their lives (e.g., when they lost something or someone they loved; when something good happened) (Tsai, Chentsova-Dutton, Freire-Bebeau, & Przymus, 2002). At the level of physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate), there were no differences in how the participants responded but their facial expressive behavior told a different story. When reliving events that elicited happiness, pride, and love, European Americans smiled more frequently and more intensely than did their Hmong counterparts—though all participants reported feeling happy, proud, and in love at similar levels of intensity. And similar patterns have emerged in studies comparing European Americans with Chinese Americans during different emotion-eliciting tasks (Tsai et al., 2002; Tsai, Levenson, & McCoy, 2006; Tsai, Levenson, & Carstensen, 2000). While the physiological aspects of emotional responses appear to be similar across cultures, their accompanying facial expressions are more culturally distinctive. By affecting how individuals express their emotions, culture also influences how people experience them as well. In the United States it is acceptable to express negative emotions like fear, anger, and disgust both alone and in the presence of others, while Japanese individuals only do so while alone (Matsumoto, 1990). Matsumoto, Yoo and Nakagawa (2008) found that individuals from collectivist cultures were more likely to engage in suppression of emotional reaction so they can evaluate which response is most appropriate in a given context (Matsumoto, Yoo, & Nakagawa, 2008). Increasing research has demonstrated cultural differences not only in display rules, but also the degree to which people focus on the face rather than other aspects of the social context (Masuda, Ellsworth, Mesquita, Leu, Tanida, & Van de Veerdonk, 2008), and on different features of the face (Yuki, Maddux, & Matsuda, 2007) when perceiving others’ emotions. For example, people from the United States tend to focus on the mouth when interpreting others’ emotions, whereas people from Japan tend to focus on the eyes. Cultural differences exist when evaluating and interpreting emotional experiences that underlie facial expressions of emotion but there is a distinct in-group advantage. Individuals from the same culture to will recognize the emotions of others of the same culture somewhat better than those from a different culture. Our culturally moderated emotions can help us engage in socially appropriate behaviors, as defined by our cultures, and avoid cultural miscommunication. Matsumoto argues (2018) that without display rules it would be very difficult for groups and societies to function effectively, and even for humans to survive as a species, if emotions were not regulated in culturally defined ways for the common, social good. Are emotions expressed the same across cultures?But according to a new study conducted by emotion researchers Sofia Volynets and colleagues, what emotions feel like does not seem to be subject to similar kinds of cultural influences. Rather, different emotions feel in much the same way when experienced by people across different cultures.
Does everyone express emotions in the same way?A long line of research suggests the answer is basically “yes”—humans appear to express certain fundamental emotions through universal facial expressions that are usually recognizable to people from other cultures. This seems to be true even across cultures that have had little or no exposure to each other.
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