Meta-emotion: Tests of the Lutz hypothesis

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis, proposed by the anthropologist Catherine Lutz (1988), that emotion is devalued in Western culture (and hence in Western scientific psychology) relative to cognition, although it is valued over “estrangement.” Alternate versions of an emotion versus cognition and an emotion versus estrangement questionnaire were developed using terms taken directly from Lutz or supplied by the authors; the questionnaire format was designed to match as literally as possible the wording of Lutz’s argument. Each of 187 undergraduate students responded to one of the four questionnaires by indicating on thirty 10-point rating scales which of two anchor words (e.g., rational, irrational; masculine, feminine) was closer to the concept, cognition (as contrasted with emotion) or, in the alternate version, emotion (as contrasted with cognition); similarly, the subjects responded to one of two symmetrical versions of an emotion versus estrangement questionnaire. They also indicated which member of the pair of words defining each of the 30 scales was the more positive. The data were supportive of the Lutz hypothesis, both globally and with respect to most of the individual scales, and for both male and female subjects. There were also some interesting unexpected findings with regard to the questionnaire version.