scholarly journals Investigating Emotion Perception via the Two-Dimensional Affect and Feeling Space: An Example of a Cross-Cultural Study Among Chinese and Non-Chinese Participants

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernelle Lorette

The categorical approach to cross-cultural emotion perception research has mainly relied on constrained experimental tasks, which have arguably biased previous findings and attenuated cross-cultural differences. On the other hand, in the constructionist approach, conclusions on the universal nature of valence and arousal have mainly been indirectly drawn based on participants' word-matching or free-sorting behaviors, but studies based on participants' continuous valence and arousal ratings are very scarce. When it comes to self-reports of specific emotion perception, constructionists tend to rely on free labeling, which has its own limitations. In an attempt to move beyond the limitations of previous methods, a new instrument called the Two-Dimensional Affect and Feeling Space (2DAFS) has been developed. The 2DAFS is a useful, innovative, and user-friendly instrument that can easily be integrated in online surveys and allows for the collection of both continuous valence and arousal ratings and categorical emotion perception data in a quick and flexible way. In order to illustrate the usefulness of this tool, a cross-cultural emotion perception study based on the 2DAFS is reported. The results indicate the cross-cultural variation in valence and arousal perception, suggesting that the minimal universality hypothesis might need to be more nuanced.

Human Nature ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheina Lew-Levy ◽  
Erik J. Ringen ◽  
Alyssa N. Crittenden ◽  
Ibrahim A. Mabulla ◽  
Tanya Broesch ◽  
...  

AbstractAspects of human life history and cognition, such as our long childhoods and extensive use of teaching, theoretically evolved to facilitate the acquisition of complex tasks. The present paper empirically examines the relationship between subsistence task difficulty and age of acquisition, rates of teaching, and rates of oblique transmission among Hadza and BaYaka foragers from Tanzania and the Republic of Congo. We further examine cross-cultural variation in how and from whom learning occurred. Learning patterns and community perceptions of task difficulty were assessed through interviews. We found no relationship between task difficulty, age of acquisition, and oblique transmission, and a weak but positive relationship between task difficulty and rates of teaching. While same-sex transmission was normative in both societies, tasks ranked as more difficult were more likely to be transmitted by men among the BaYaka, but not among the Hadza, potentially reflecting cross-cultural differences in the sexual division of subsistence and teaching labor. Further, the BaYaka were more likely to report learning via teaching, and less likely to report learning via observation, than the Hadza, possibly owing to differences in socialization practices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (32) ◽  
pp. 15861-15870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Brooks ◽  
Junichi Chikazoe ◽  
Norihiro Sadato ◽  
Jonathan B. Freeman

Humans reliably categorize configurations of facial actions into specific emotion categories, leading some to argue that this process is invariant between individuals and cultures. However, growing behavioral evidence suggests that factors such as emotion-concept knowledge may shape the way emotions are visually perceived, leading to variability—rather than universality—in facial-emotion perception. Understanding variability in emotion perception is only emerging, and the neural basis of any impact from the structure of emotion-concept knowledge remains unknown. In a neuroimaging study, we used a representational similarity analysis (RSA) approach to measure the correspondence between the conceptual, perceptual, and neural representational structures of the six emotion categories Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise. We found that subjects exhibited individual differences in their conceptual structure of emotions, which predicted their own unique perceptual structure. When viewing faces, the representational structure of multivoxel patterns in the right fusiform gyrus was significantly predicted by a subject’s unique conceptual structure, even when controlling for potential physical similarity in the faces themselves. Finally, cross-cultural differences in emotion perception were also observed, which could be explained by individual differences in conceptual structure. Our results suggest that the representational structure of emotion expressions in visual face-processing regions may be shaped by idiosyncratic conceptual understanding of emotion categories.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Kanngiesser ◽  
Shoji Itakura ◽  
Yue Zhou ◽  
Takayuki Kanda ◽  
Hiroshi Ishiguro ◽  
...  

Young children often treat robots as social agents after they have witnessed interactions that can be interpreted as social. We studied in three experiments whether four-year-olds from three cultures (China, Japan, UK) and adults from two cultures (Japan, UK) will attribute ownership of objects to a robot that engages in social gaze with a human. Participants watched videos of robot-human interactions, in which objects were possessed or new objects were created. Children and adults applied the same ownership rules to humans and robots – irrespective of whether the robot engaged in social gaze or not. However, there was cultural variation in the types of ownership rules used. In Experiment 3, we removed further social cues, finding that just showing a pair of self-propelled robot-arms elicited ownership attributions. The role of social gaze in social attributions to robots and cross-cultural differences in ownership understanding are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Pope ◽  
Joël Fagot ◽  
Adrien Meguerditchian ◽  
David A. Washburn ◽  
William D. Hopkins

Through codified rule-use, humans can accurately solve many problems. Yet, mechanized strategies can also be costly. After adopting a solution strategy, humans often become blind to alternatives, even when those alternatives are more efficient. Termed cognitive set, this failure to switch from a familiar strategy to a better alternative has been considered universally human. Yet, our understanding of this phenomenon is derived almost exclusively from Western subjects. In this study, we used the nonverbal Learned Strategy–Direct Strategy (LS-DS) touchscreen task in which subjects are presented with an opportunity to use either a learned strategy or a more efficient, but novel, shortcut. We found that the remote, seminomadic Himba of northern Namibia exhibited enhanced shortcut-use on the LS-DS task, challenging the claim that cognitive set affects humans universally. In addition, we found that altering subjects’ conceptualization of the shortcut as a viable option significantly enhanced its subsequent use in Western but not Himba participants. We discuss how other aspects of cultural variation, namely, environmental uncertainty and educational background, might contribute to the observed cross-cultural differences in flexible strategy-use.


2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia T. Garrett-Peters ◽  
Nathan A. Fox

Cross-cultural differences in emotional expressions following disappointment were examined in 59 Chinese American (CA) and 58 European American (EA) children. Children aged four or seven participated in a disappointing gift situation. Dimensions of expressive behaviors following disappointment were coded and included positive, negative, social monitoring, and tension behaviors. Significant main effects emerged for ethnicity and age, with EA children and older children demonstrating more positive behaviors than CA children and younger children, respectively. Younger children also demonstrated significantly more negative behaviors than older children. This main effect was qualified by a nearly significant age by ethnicity interaction, indicating developmental differences in the negative expressions for the EA group, but not for the CA group. Among the CA group, child adaptation of Western values was inversely associated with negative expressions, and a positive trend was found for positive expressions. Statistical trends were also found in which boys demonstrated more negative behaviors than girls and in which EA children demonstrated more total expressive behaviors than CA children. Implications of these findings are discussed with regard to cultural and familial processes, as well as cultural variation in children's cognitions about emotions.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Pope ◽  
Joel Fagot ◽  
Adrien Meguerditchian ◽  
David Washburn ◽  
William D. Hopkins

Through codified rule-use humans can accurately solve many problems. Yet, mechanized strategies can also be costly. After adopting a solution strategy, humans often become blind to alternatives, even when those alternatives are more efficient. Termed cognitive set, this failure to switch from a familiar strategy to a better alternative has been considered universally human. Yet, our understanding of this phenomenon is derived almost exclusively from Western subjects. In this study, we used the nonverbal Learned Strategy-Direct Strategy (LS-DS) touch screen task in which subjects are presented with an opportunity to either use a learned strategy or a more efficient, but novel, shortcut. We found that the remote, seminomadic Himba of northern Namibia exhibited enhanced shortcut-use on the LS-DS task, challenging the claim that cognitive set affects humans universally. Additionally, we found that altering subjects’ conceptualization of the shortcut as a viable option significantly enhanced its subsequent use in Western but not Himba participants. We discuss how other aspects of cultural variation, namely environmental uncertainty and educational background, might contribute to the observed cross-cultural differences in flexible strategy-use.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 749-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petia Paramova ◽  
Herbert Blumberg

Guided by gaps in the literature with regard to the study of politicians the aim of the research is to explore cross-cultural differences in political leaders’ style. It compares the MLQ (Avolio & Bass, 2004) scores of elected political leaders (N = 140) in Bulgaria and the UK. The statistical exploration of the data relied on multivariate analyses of covariance. The findings of comparisons across the two groups reveal that compared to British political leaders, Bulgarian leaders were more likely to frequently use both transactional and passive/avoidant behaviours. The study tests Bass’s (1997) strong assertion about the universality of transformational leadership. It contributes to the leadership literature by providing directly measured data relating to the behaviours of political leaders. Such information on the characteristics of politicians could allow for more directional hypotheses in subsequent research, exploring the contextual influences within transformational leadership theory. The outcomes might also aid applied fields. Knowledge gained of culturally different leaders could be welcomed by multicultural political and economic unions, wherein understanding and allowances might aid communication.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 116-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariya Voytyuk ◽  
Daniel Hruschka

What counts as healthy eating varies both within and across cultures. While people often focus on specific foods and nutrients, the timing and style of eating (eating context) can also be an important consideration, and one that appears to vary across cultures. One possible explanation for this variation is differences in basic cognition, with holistic thinking in collectivist cultures favouring contextual factors. We assess this hypothesis by examining perceptions between two cultural groups that vary in collectivism. In study 1, we investigate whether residents of Ukraine place more importance on considerations of eating context than residents of the usa. In study 2, we test whether this between-country difference is due to the mediating effect of individual differences in collectivism. Ukrainian participants consistently placed more importance on context (Cohen’s d = 0.71–0.84; p < 0.01) and were more collectivist (Cohen’s d = 0.95, p < 0.001). A mediation analysis shows that collectivism significantly mediates the effect of nationality on context endorsement, and renders the effect of nationality non-significant (p > 0.05). These results suggest that the holistic pattern of attention might extend to the domain of nutrition and may account for some cross-cultural differences in perceptions of healthy eating. We briefly discuss the benefits of perception focused on the context of eating, such as decreased burden of self-regulation in a food-rich environment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 235-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kateryna Maltseva

A considerable body of data has been amassed to explain values structure and transmission. Values dimensions have been extracted and compared across societies in a number of values studies, many of which use quantitative methodology. However, there is little quantitative evidence of significant cross-cultural variation in values. This counterintuitive outcome has given rise to a doubt if an effective quantified comparison of values across societies is possible. The major reason for this objection to use quantitative techniques in cross-cultural values research is the loss of culture-specific meaning in quantitative procedures. Using ratings data from two American and Swedish samples the present research demonstrates that it is possible to compare values data and detect meaningful cross-cultural differences in values across societies, provided that several conceptual alterations in the instrument are made. Namely, it is proposed that collective- and individual level constructs should be separated when the informants are asked about their values. The traditional approach to values as implicitly individual construct is critiqued. The paper proposes to distinguish formulations of individual-level values items (that are more closely associated with personal projects and conative aspects) from formulations of cultural-identity relevant collective-level values items (which are acquired in more uniform processes of social learning and institutionalization). When elicitation of values considers this distinction during data collection, the depression of cross-cultural differences in values disappears.


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