Cultural Differences in Affect Intensity Perception in the Context of Advertising

Marianna Pogosyan,Jan B Engelmann

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00313

Abstract

Cultural differences in the perception of positive affect intensity within an advertising context were investigated among American, Japanese, and Russian participants. Participants were asked to rate the intensity of facial expressions of positive emotions, which displayed either subtle, low intensity, or salient, high intensity expressions of positive affect. In agreement with previous findings from cross-cultural psychological research, current results demonstrate both cross-cultural agreement and differences in the perception of positive affect intensity across the three cultures. Specifically, American participants perceived high arousal (HA) images as significantly less calm than participants from the other two cultures, while the Japanese participants perceived low arousal (LA) images as significantly more excited than participants from the other cultures. The underlying mechanisms of these cultural differences were further investigated through difference scores that probed for cultural differences in perception and categorization of positive emotions. Findings indicate that rating differences are due to (1) perceptual differences in the extent to which HA images were discriminated from LA images, and (2) categorization differences in the extent to which facial expressions were grouped into affect intensity categories. Specifically, American participants revealed significantly higher perceptual differentiation between arousal levels of facial expressions in high and intermediate intensity categories. Japanese participants, on the other hand, did not discriminate between high and low arousal affect categories to the same extent as did the American and Russian participants. These findings indicate the presence of cultural differences in underlying decoding mechanisms of facial expressions of positive affect intensity. Implications of these results for global advertising are discussed.

Highlights

Beginning from Darwinian assertions about the biological basis of emotions, the past century has witnessed a wealth of psychological research revealing universal tendencies in the mechanism of production and expression of emotions (e.g., Ekman et al, 1972; LeDoux, 1987; Buck, 1988; Grammer and Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1993)
On the other hand, did not discriminate between high and low arousal affect categories to the same extent as did the American and Russian participants.These findings indicate the presence of cultural differences in underlying decoding mechanisms of facial expressions of positive affect intensity
Findings from the present study indicate an analogous pattern in the domain of affect intensity perception for the Japanese participants, who showed the lowest level of differentiation between high and low arousal positive (LAP) emotions compared to other cultures (Figure 3) and, surprisingly, did not categorize high arousal (HA) facial expressions as either high or low arousal (LA) (Figure 4)

Summary

Introduction

Beginning from Darwinian assertions about the biological basis of emotions, the past century has witnessed a wealth of psychological research revealing universal tendencies in the mechanism of production and expression of emotions (e.g., Ekman et al, 1972; LeDoux, 1987; Buck, 1988; Grammer and Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1993). A number of studies have drawn attention to the possibility of adding contempt (e.g., Ekman and Heider, 1988) and embarrassment (e.g., Haidt and Keltner, 1999) to the list of universally recognizable facial expressions. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for the existence of universal processes in emotion recognition across cultures. Japanese judges have repeatedly been found to rate facial expressions of various emotions, including happiness, sadness, and surprise, less intensely compared to American judges

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion