Cross-Cultural Differences in the Processing of Non-Verbal Affective Vocalizations by Japanese and Canadian Listeners

Michihiko Koeda,Yoshiro Okubo,Masato Matsuura,Tadashi Masuda,Tomoko Hama,Pascal Belin

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00105

Abstract

The Montreal Affective Voices (MAVs) consist of a database of non-verbal affect bursts portrayed by Canadian actors, and high recognitions accuracies were observed in Canadian listeners. Whether listeners from other cultures would be as accurate is unclear. We tested for cross-cultural differences in perception of the MAVs: Japanese listeners were asked to rate the MAVs on several affective dimensions and ratings were compared to those obtained by Canadian listeners. Significant Group × Emotion interactions were observed for ratings of Intensity, Valence, and Arousal. Whereas Intensity and Valence ratings did not differ across cultural groups for sad and happy vocalizations, they were significantly less intense and less negative in Japanese listeners for angry, disgusted, and fearful vocalizations. Similarly, pleased vocalizations were rated as less intense and less positive by Japanese listeners. These results demonstrate important cross-cultural differences in affective perception not just of non-verbal vocalizations expressing positive affect (Sauter et al., 2010), but also of vocalizations expressing basic negative emotions.

Highlights

Vocal affective processing has an important role in ensuring smooth communication during human social interaction as well as facial affective processing
This study indicated that native English speakers spontaneously pay more attention to verbal content than to vocal tone when they recognize emotional words, whereas native Japanese speakers spontaneously attend more to vocal tone than to verbal content
The subjects listened with headphones at a comfortable hearing level, and they evaluated each emotional vocalization for perceived Intensity, Valence, and Arousal using a visual analog scale in English on a computer (10 ratings per vocalization: 8 Intensity ratings, 1 Valence rating, 1 Arousal rating)

Summary

Introduction

Vocal affective processing has an important role in ensuring smooth communication during human social interaction as well as facial affective processing. Facial expressions are generally recognized as the universal language of emotion (Ekman and Friesen, 1971; Ekman et al, 1987; Ekman, 1994; Izard, 1994; Jack et al, 2012): several studies have demonstrated cross-cultural differences in facial expression between Western and Eastern groups (Ekman and Friesen, 1971; Ekman et al, 1987; Matsumoto and Ekman, 1989; Izard, 1994; Yrizarry et al, 1998; Elfenbein and Ambady, 2002; Jack et al, 2009, 2012) Whether such cross-cultural differences exist in the recognition of emotional vocalizations is not clear. One important study demonstrated cross-cultural differences in the rating of Intensity when subjects recognized meaning of the words with major emotions such as joy, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust (Scherer and Wallbott, 1994) Another previous study examined cross-cultural differences in the perception of emotional words (Kitayama and Ishii, 2002). These studies suggest cross-cultural differences in auditory recognition of emotional words

Methods

Results

Conclusion