Abstract
Positive emotions are linked to numerous benefits, but not everyone appreciates the same kinds of positive emotional experiences. We examine how distinct positive emotions are perceived and whether individuals’ perceptions are linked to how societies evaluate those emotions. Participants from Hong Kong and Netherlands rated 23 positive emotions based on their individual perceptions (positivity, arousal, and socially engaging) and societal evaluations (appropriate, valued, and approved of). We found that (1) there were cultural differences in judgments about all six aspects of positive emotions; (2) positivity, arousal, and social engagement predicted emotions being positively regarded at the societal level in both cultures; and (3) that positivity mattered more for the Dutch participants, although arousal and social engagement mattered more in Hong Kong for societal evaluations. These findings provide a granular map of the perception and evaluation of distinct positive emotions in two cultures and highlight the role of cultures in the understanding how positive emotions are perceived and evaluated.
Highlights
Most people report being quite happy most of the time (Diener and Diener, 1996), and positive emotional experiences are important because of they play a key role in well-being and health (Bastian et al, 2014)
Schadenfreude was not rated as a positive emotion even though it fit our definition: 2.89 (Hong Kong Chinese) and 3.18 (Dutch) on a nine-point scale with five being the midpoint and nine being maximally positive
It is worth noting that we found considerable cultural differences in how positive emotions were judged even when judgments were corrected for cultural differences in scale
Summary
Most people report being quite happy most of the time (Diener and Diener, 1996), and positive emotional experiences are important because of they play a key role in well-being and health (Bastian et al, 2014). Not everyone appreciates the same kinds of positive emotional experiences. Little is known about how people perceive and evaluate specific positive emotions such as contentment, relief, pride, and gratitude. Emotions can be analyzed on at least four levels: individual, dyads, group, and culture (Keltner and Haidt, 1999). The present study examined the perceptions and evaluations of 23 different positive emotions across two cultural contexts: Hong Kong and Netherlands
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