Dare to Compare: The Next Challenge in Assessing Emotional Cultures

Abstract

The need for more comparative analyses in emotions research is increasingly obvious. Recent discussions of fear raise clear issues of “national” patterns and expressions versus standard societal or at least modern responses, and only explicit comparison can clarify. The same applies to current impacts on emotions from contemporary media or broader processes of globalization. Happily, there are some good examples of comparison to build upon, though the challenges of dealing with the complexity of different cultures, and potential causes of differences remain very real. The agenda and the potential for additional understanding of emotional experience through comparison are rich and stimulating.