Abstract
Previous research has documented that Asians tend to somatize negative experiences to a greater degree than Westerners. It is posited that somatization may be a more functional communication strategy in Korean than American context. We examined the effects of somatization in communications of distress among participants from the US and Korea. We predicted that the communicative benefits of somatic words used in distress narratives would depend on the cultural contexts. In Study 1, we found that Korean participants used more somatic words to communicate distress than US participants. Among Korean participants, but not US participants, use of somatic words predicted perceived effectiveness of the communication and expectations of positive reactions (e.g., empathy) from others. In Study 2, we found that when presented with distress narratives of others, Koreans (but not Americans) showed more sympathy in response to narratives using somatic words than narratives using emotional words. These findings suggest that cultural differences in use of somatization may reflect differential effectiveness of somatization in communicating distress across cultural contexts.
Highlights
People, especially when distressed, engage in emotional communication to elicit care and support (Schachter, 1959; Bowlby, 1969)
There was a significant interaction between narrative type and culture, F(1,159) = 5.68, p = 0.018. η2p = 0.034, indicating that the difference in physical distress between affective and somato-affective narratives was more pronounced for Korean participants than for US participants
Evidence for the communicative value of somatization in Korean culture comes from the positive association between the somatic words used in the narratives and perceived disclosure quality in Study 1; Koreans who used more somatic words in communicating distress expected that others would react more positively to their stories
Summary
Especially when distressed, engage in emotional communication to elicit care and support (Schachter, 1959; Bowlby, 1969). According to studies of social sharing of emotions, the primary motivation for discussing negative emotions is distress relief, expectation of help, comfort, cognitive clarity, and consolation (Reis and Patrick, 1996; Zech, 2000; Rimé, 2009). Such expectations of understanding, empathy, and support from interaction with partners are not groundless.
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