David Mehl

CM 426

Culture and its Effect on Emotion

Just about everybody experiences a wide range of emotions on a daily basis, and for the
most part can read emotions in other people based upon their facial expressions and behaviors.
However, this experience is primarily within ones own cultural environment. Would their
experiences be different if they were sent to another country to read peoples emotions? Just how
universal are emotions? While most people would expect that emotions, or even facial expressions,
are the same around the globe, studies have found this is not the case. The cultural environment
that one develops within affects the manifestation of emotions, thus implying that not all emotions
are universal and, even within a multicultural society, that there are a variety of emotional
development patterns among the members.
Studies have documented the extent of universality in relation to emotion and have found
that there is a limit to the cross-cultural pervasiveness of emotions. While all cultures appear to
have emotions, they are not all expressed in the same fashion. Those in the United States would
understand general categories of emotions as happy, sad, angry and so on, however this
seemingly basic structure of emotion categorization might not be the same for other cultures.
Studies have compared across cultures to determine the translatability of emotion words, and by
including languages from those civilizations that have limited contact with other cultures, such as an
Australian aboriginal language, Gidjingali, psychologists are able to avoid the bias of cultural
contamination that might be caused by the sharing of culture through entertainment, athletics, or
other entities (Culture and, 430). According to Russells study, in English the word fear can be
varied in intensity or connotation by using words such as terror, horror, dread, apprehension, and
timidity whereas in Gidjingali there is the single word gurakadj (Culture and, 430). This lack of

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CM 426

similarity also applies to other emotion words, and also appears as the reverse situation where
words in other languages have no equivalence in English. This evidence suggests that, at least in
written or verbal language, emotion does not directly translate between cultures.
Beyond written and verbal language, there also exists limits to the universality of emotion in
facial expressions, which is perhaps the most biological way of expressing emotion. Russell
compiled facial recognition data from experiments where participants were asked to associate a
face with an emotion. Arguably the most compelling data from his report are those involving a mix
of western, literate non-western, and isolated non-western cultures. The merits of this mixture are
that the isolated culture would not have experience with outside culture and as such their facial
expressions are more purely biological or cultural within their civilization rather than being biased
by influenced by outside cultures. Further, the use of free-label answers reduced the potential bias
of forced selection answers at the cost of reduced overall recognition scores. The selected facial
expressions were of sadness, fear, disgust, and anger, which are different classifications of negative
emotions, and these expressions were evaluated by the mixture of three groupings above. The
overall results were that western cultures identified the expression correctly at a median of 61.8%
for sadness, 62.2% for fear, 48.9% for disgust, and 59.8% for anger (Is There, 134). This shows a
general aptitude, much greater than chance, for western cultures to identify facial expressions at a
high rate of accuracy, especially given the potential losses of agreement introduced by the freelabel answer style. The Japanese subjects, solely representing the literate non-western countries,
achieved 80% for sadness, 14% for fear, 56% for disgust, and 48% for anger (Is There, 134).
These results show a sharp drop in the recognition of fear, suggesting that there is a cultural
mismatch in facial expressions for fear between western and non-western cultures. However, we
must take in to consideration the possibility of a translational error during the free-label answer

David Mehl
CM 426

process that could have led to this very low recognition score. The group consisting of the Fore and
Bahimeno, which are civilizations that are isolated from western culture, scored far lower. The Fore
had a negligible percentage for sadness, 30% for fear, negligible percentage for disgust, and 49% for
anger (Is There, 134). The Bahimeno had a negligible value for sadness, fear, and disgust and
the value for anger was not reported (Is There, 134). This evidence suggests that the facial
expressions that were recognized by a majority of the non-isolated groups are not recognizable
with any comparable consistency in those groups that are isolated. This result is strong evidence
that even facial expressions, which can be seen as biological representations of emotion, are not as
universal as one would expect. The facial expressions, and recognition thereof, are influenced by
cultural surroundings and, in cases where there is little cross-cultural exposure, some facial
expressions are unrecognizable.
Even within a single society, the cultural environment that a person experiences during their
upbringing can affect their emotional development and health. A study was performed that
explored the role of the parents in their childrens future internalization or externalization of
emotions. Several variables of the father and mothers parenting behavior were examined: emotion
coaching about anger, emotion coaching about sadness, sadness dysregulation, and anger
dysregulation (Bowie et al., Table 2). The dependent variables in the study were the childrens level
of anxiety and depressive symptoms, separated by the race of the parents into the categories
European American, African American, and Multiracial (Bowie et al., Table 2). The results of the
study focus on the correlations between the parental practices and the symptoms present in the
children, and for each race the results were different. African American families saw the correlation
between the ability of the mother to regulate their own anger and sadness, as well as coach their
children about these emotions, and reduced rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms in their

David Mehl
CM 426

children while the fathers inability to control their anger slightly correlating with more depressive
symptoms in their children (Bowie et al., Page 12). European American families saw a correlation
between the mothers anger coaching and a reduced level of anxiety in the children while the
fathers parenting had very little effect on the children (Bowie et al., Page 12). Multiracial families,
in contrast with the other groups, saw little correlation between the mothers actions and the
childrens symptoms while the fathers ability to regulate anger led to lower depressive and anxiety
symptoms in the children (Bowie et al., Page 12). These families were all within the same general
area, so they are all within the same external culture. However, their individual culture varies by
race and, therefore, it is likely their internal cultures were different. The different effects of
parenting on their childrens emotional health suggests that, even in a common nation and general
culture, the subculture that a child experiences while growing up has an effect on their emotional
identity. Thus, even within a single society with an intermingling of cultures, the specific cultural
heritage that a child is raised within affects their expression of emotion, which suggests a lack of
universality of emotion even within a single society.
The development of the self also dictates the expression of emotion in a person and,
consequently, their perception of emotion within their own as well as other societies. Emotions can
be classified as being either ego-focused, which have the individuals internal attributes as the
primary referent, and other-focused, which have another personas the primary referent
(Kitayama & Markus, Page 235). Moreover, descriptions of the self can be classified as being either
independent, which is a conception of the self as an autonomous, independent person (Kitayama
& Markus, Page226), or interdependent, which is a conception of the self as more connected and
less differentiated from others (Kitayama & Markus, Page 227). The development of these two self
types are attributable to the cultural surroundings that the individual experiences. Typically, those

David Mehl
CM 426

with an independent sense of self behave based upon ego-focused emotions, such as anger or
sadness, whereas those with an interdependent sense of self form their behavior according to
other-focused emotions, such as shame or guilt (Kitayama & Markus, Page236). As such, these two
groups feel emotions in their respective emotion-group with higher intensity than others.
Interdependent cultures (where most people are interdependent) tend to use the ego-focused
facial expressions as a means to interact with others so they may not be consistent with their true
feelings; this is in contrast to those with independent cultures where expressions are more literal to
their feelings. When people of both self-types were asked to judge ego-focused emotions, such as
anger, those with an interdependent self typically judged the intensity of the emotion as less than
those with and independent self (Kitayama & Markus, Page 236). This provides evidence that the
cultural molding of the self has an effect on the display and usage of emotion, which hampers the
universality of emotion across cultures, specifically those which differ in the common self-type.
The evidence provided above has shown that differences in the expression of emotion exist
between cultures, and even within societies that contain multiple cultures, as the cultural heritage
has an effect on the emotional development of people. While certain emotions can be more
universal than others, the perception of these emotions, as well as their intensities, varies
significantly between cultures. Thus, cultural influences have a significant effect on the expression
of emotion and therefore inhibit any true universality of emotion. If we someday see a world united
as one, then a universal set of emotions and expressions may very well exist; until then, there will
still be discrepancies and cultural barriers preventing such a unification of emotion.

David Mehl
CM 426

Works Cited
Bowie, B. H., Carrere, S., Cooke, C., Valdivia, G., McAllister, B., & Doohan, E. (2011). The Role of
Culture in Parents Socialization of Childrens Emotional Development. Western Journal of Nursing
Research, XX(X), 1-20. doi:10.1177/0193945911411494
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the Self: Implications for Cognition, Emotion, and
Motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 224-253.
Russell, J. A. (1991). Culture and Categorization of Emotions. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 426-450.
Russell, J. A. (1994). Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of
the Cross-Cultural Studies. Psychological Bulletin, 115(1), 102-141.