Cultural values shape the expression of self-evaluative social emotions

Antje von Suchodoletz,Robert Hepach

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-92652-8

Antje von Suchodoletz, Robert Hepach

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92652-8

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Abstract

Social emotions are key to everyday social life and therefore shaped by cultural values in their expression. Prior research has focused on facial expressions of emotions. What is less clear, however, is the extent to which cultural values shape other modalities of emotional expression. In the present study, we applied a novel paradigm using depth sensor imaging technology to capture changes in participants’ body posture in real time. We aimed to (1) identify the nuances in the postural expression that are thought to characterize social emotions and (2) assess how individual differences in cultural values impact the postural expression of emotions. Participants in two separate studies were 132 undergraduate college students whose upper-body postural expansion was recorded after they recalled emotion episodes. Positive emotions elevated participants’ upper-body posture whereas negative emotions resulted in lowered upper-body posture. The effects on changes in upper-body posture were moderated by participants’ self-ratings of the vertical and horizontal dimensions of individualism and collectivism. The findings provide initial evidence of the nuances in the way cultural values influence the postural expression of emotions.

Highlights

Social emotions are key to everyday social life and shaped by cultural values in their expression
We present the results of the analyses investigating the impact of self-reported cultural values on posture using the large sample comprising both study samples
The results of the present studies suggest that cultural values along the vertical-horizontal and individualism-collectivism typology shape the postural expression of self-evaluative social emotions

Summary

Introduction

Social emotions are key to everyday social life and shaped by cultural values in their expression. Differences have been found in perceptual processes, e.g., Westerners analyze an object of interest independent of its context whereas Asians focus on the relationship between the object and its context[7] Such findings have been attributed to differences in cultural values regarding views of the self. An established (predominately Western) research tradition viewed people solely in terms of their membership in cultural groups and contrasted these groups on the basis of differences in the relative emphasis placed on independence (labeled individualistic) versus interdependence (labeled collectivistic)[14,15]. Vertical collectivism is focused on loyalty to one’s own group and interdependence, but in contrast to horizontal collectivism, individuals who emphasize vertical and collectivistic practices adhere to hierarchical or subordinate social relations within their group[18]. In contrast to previous findings on how culture influences verbal self-report measures, much less is known about whether and how culture impacts non-verbal measures of cultural identity such as experienced (and expressed) social emotions

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