Gender effects in personality: a cross-cultural affective neuroscience perspective

Abstract

Despite enormous progress in understanding the neuroscientific elements that underpin the basic emotions, far less attention has been paid to individual differences. The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS) aim to measure these universally-shared subcortical affective systems on which personality is built: CARE, PLAY, SEEK, SADNESS, FEAR and ANGER. Gender differences have been reported in several previous ANPS studies, but no systematic review of these findings has yet been conducted. The present study reviewed ANPS gender effects in 15 countries: (from West to East) Canada, U.S.A., Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Turkey, Russia, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. The total sample size was N = 6500, composed of 38% males and 62% females. The mean age for the total sample was 26 years. The results showed that gender differences on the ANPS were variable, for different classes of basic emotions. These categories included emotions on which females scored universally higher (CARE and SADNESS); emotions that showed variability based on geography (FEAR and PLAY); and emotions that showed virtually no gender effect (SEEKING and ANGER). These findings can be interpreted in the light of biological universals, geographical variation caused by genetics, and cultural variation in emotion expression and regulation. The results were broadly consistent with gender effects reported in the Big Five personality literature, including a trend of gender differences increasing when moving from 'East' to 'West'. The paper reviews a range of suggestions for future research, including cultural data, genomic data and/or culture-gene interactions.