According to Darwin’s research on universal expression themes and occurrences that are emotionally charged, cultures do differ in how they express their emotions in a variety of ways. What I’ve called “display rules,” which outline who can express what emotion to whom and when, are a crucial first step. Additionally, there are cultural differences in some of the particular events that elicit strong emotions. For instance, in some Asian cultures, maintaining emotional restraint is considered a sign of maturity, while in Western cultures, expressing emotions openly is often seen as a form of authenticity. These differences not only shape personal interactions but also influence how emotions are interpreted by others.
A universal experience is that of consuming something disgusting as a cause of disgust or ingesting something appealing as a source of enjoyment, even though the precise event (such as the sort of food) varies. This, in my opinion, is a suitable model for any feeling. A particular incident that may enrage one might not enrage someone else from a different culture, but the general idea will remain the same. To name a few themes of anger, things that are provocative, disrespectful, or annoying might make someone angry. For example, in cultures that emphasize group harmony, individuals may suppress their anger to avoid conflict, whereas in more individualistic cultures, expressing anger might be seen as asserting personal boundaries. This indicates that while emotional triggers can be universal, cultural contexts heavily influence how people respond to and express these emotions.
Emotional language
The way we interpret and communicate our feelings through language is another way that emotions can vary throughout cultures. Languages vary in the vocabulary they have for emotions, not just in the quantity of words for each feeling but also in the degree to which a word conveys nuance, mixes feelings, or explains the emotion’s cause. The Germans have a term for that unique feeling they get when they hear about an enemy’s misfortune: schadenfreude. English people experience that feeling, but they lack a word to describe it. Emotional experience may be influenced by the lack of a term for a certain emotional state. Studies show that having specific vocabulary for emotions can enhance emotional intelligence, making it easier to recognize and regulate one’s own feelings. This linguistic aspect demonstrates how language shapes not just communication but also our perception of emotional experiences.
An anthropologist and psychiatrist from the United States named Robert Levy provided an extreme example of how the absence of language expressing emotion can alter emotional experience. He said that the Tahitians had no idea or term for melancholy in their language. When a lover rejected them, they behaved melancholyly (losing appetite, becoming sedentary, and wearing depressing looks), but they were unable to articulate their emotions and failed to connect the rejection to their past experiences. Rather, they rationalized their emotions by blaming their illnesses (Adolphs, 2001). This lack of emotional vocabulary likely hindered their ability to process their feelings effectively, emphasizing how the absence of language can impact emotional awareness. Similar studies have found that cultures with richer emotional vocabularies are better at managing stress and coping with negative emotions.
Cultural impact on emotional experiences
If accurate, this is a striking illustration of how cultural variations affect emotional experience. Though the expressions (present when melancholy is felt) are universal, it appears that cultural factors influence whether or not the individual even connects the feelings to the incident. Less drastically, perhaps, the other cultural distinctions I’ve listed also affect how we feel emotions. These include the words we use to describe emotions, the information we learn about events that elicit emotions, display norms, and attitudes about emotions. The cultural context in which individuals are raised significantly shapes their emotional development, affecting both their ability to express and interpret emotions. For example, in some collectivist societies, there is a greater focus on interdependence, which can result in the suppression of negative emotions to maintain social harmony.
These universal expressions are a gift from evolution that provide others with crucial context for understanding what we’re going through. That statement may not, however, be conveying the same meaning in every culture. Research has shown that while facial expressions like happiness or sadness are recognized across cultures, the intensity and appropriateness of these expressions can differ widely. In collectivist cultures, people might interpret a smiling face as politeness rather than genuine happiness, whereas in individualistic cultures, a smile may be seen as a true reflection of joy. This suggests that while the facial expressions themselves are universal, their meaning is filtered through cultural norms.
Social behavior and emotions
Facial expressions of emotion and universals can be used as a model to comprehend other facets of social interaction. Our social behavior is shaped in part by experience and in part by the course of our species’ evolution. What has worked for us in our lives is flexible and can change between cultures and between families, as well as between socioeconomic strata and ethnic groups within a country. It’s possible that something that has served our species and our planet’s past well hasn’t always served us in our modern lives. For instance, while fear was essential for survival in ancient environments, modern contexts may channel that fear into anxiety or stress rather than direct responses to danger. Depending on the part of our conduct under consideration, our evolutionary history influences us to a different extent than our individual experiences.
It is never just a matter of nurture or nature. Being bio-social beings, we have embodied minds that mirror both our own and our ancestors’ lives. Darwin was a pioneer in the social sciences as well as the biological sciences1 (Barrett, Mesquita, and Gendron, 2011). Recent research in neuropsychology supports this, showing that while our brain structure is shaped by evolution, our emotional responses are influenced by cultural and social learning. Thus, our emotional behavior is the result of a complex interaction between our biological evolution and the cultural context in which we live.
Previous research has significantly enhanced our understanding of how cultural factors impact the cognitive processes involved in interpreting emotional expressions. Notably, a recent study revealed that three different cultures perceive and categorize facial expressions with varying intensities in distinct ways (Pogosyan and Engelmann, 2011). The findings indicate that Americans were more adept at distinguishing between different intensity levels of emotional facial expressions compared to participants from Japan and Russia. Furthermore, Russian and Japanese individuals did not clearly differentiate between expressions of high or low intensity. These findings suggest that mental representations of emotion intensity, such as the levels of emotional prototypes, are influenced by culture-specific display rules.
Attentional mechanisms are shaped by behavioral practices and display standards as well. One example is the tendency to focus on extremely specific facial features when interpreting expression and identity. Potential consequences of culturally distinct behavioral behaviors provide one interesting theory regarding how culture modulates attentional systems. In Asian cultures, for instance, making direct eye contact is typically regarded as unfriendly, particularly when engaging with somebody of a higher social position. These procedures can shorten the time needed to sample different facial regions. People in Asian cultures may create heuristics that enable the rapid sampling of facial motions since it is universally important to infer the mental states of interlocutors. Both behavioral norms and display standards influence attentional systems. One such is the propensity to read expression and identity by focusing on incredibly narrow characteristics of the face. One intriguing notion about how culture modifies attentional systems is the potential repercussions of behavioral acts that are culturally unique. For example, making direct eye contact is generally considered unpleasant in Asian cultures, especially when interacting with someone in a higher social status. The time required to sample various facial regions can be reduced with these approaches. Since it is universally necessary to discern the mental states of interlocutors, people in Asian cultures may develop heuristics that allow for the rapid sampling of facial gestures (Ekman, 2021).
Conclusion
In summary, cultural factors play a significant role in shaping how individuals interpret and express emotions. Research has shown that people from different cultures, such as Americans, Japanese, and Russians, vary in their ability to distinguish between emotional intensities in facial expressions. This suggests that mental representations of emotion intensity are influenced by culture-specific display rules. Additionally, attentional mechanisms, which guide how we focus on facial cues, are also modulated by cultural practices. For example, in Asian cultures, the avoidance of direct eye contact and the use of heuristics to quickly assess facial expressions reflect culturally distinct behavioral norms. These findings highlight the intricate relationship between cultural practices, cognitive processes, and emotional interpretation. Ultimately, understanding these cultural differences is crucial for fostering better cross-cultural communication and empathy.
References
Adams, R.B., Franklin, R.G., Rule, N.O., Freeman, J.B., Kveraga, K., Hadjikhani, N., Yoshikawa, S. and Ambady, N., 2009. Culture, gaze and the neural processing of fear expressions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, [online] 5(2-3), pp.340–348. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsp047.
Adolphs, R., 2001. The neurobiology of social cognition. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, [online] 11(2), pp.231–239. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/s0959-4388(00)00202-6.
Barrett, L.F., Mesquita, B. and Gendron, M., 2011. Context in Emotion Perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(5), pp.286–290. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411422522.
Blais, C., Jack, R.E., Scheepers, C., Fiset, D. and Caldara, R., 2008. Culture Shapes How We Look at Faces. PLoS ONE, 3(8), p.e3022. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003022.
Ekman, P., 2021. Cultural Differences in Emotional Expression. [online] Paul Ekman Group. Available at: https://www.paulekman.com/blog/cultural-differences-in-emotional-expressions/ [Accessed 14 September 2024].
