Which Culture Most Controls Their Facial Emotions?
According to some research it's Russians! And the least control over facial emotions? Americans. These are just two relatively new findings to emerge from studying cultural differences in nonverbal behaviour. Perhaps the best known findings about differences between cultures relate to interpersonal space. Arab males sit closer than American males. Indonesians interact more closely than Australians. Italians more closely than Americans or Germans, Columbians closer than Puerto Ricans. Despite these differences, there are also surprising commonalities.
In fact some major aspects of nonverbal behaviour are stable across cultures (Matsumoto, 2006). Facial expression of emotion is a good example. Painstaking work by researchers like Paul Ekman has brought solid evidence for the universality of basic facial expressions. But out of studying these commonalities has come a greater understanding of the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, differences between cultures.
Cultural display rules
Differences in facial expressions between cultures have been termed cultural display rules. We learn these types of rules as we grow up from those around us. Different cultures have developed subtly different rules.
One useful distinction in these rules is made between cultures which are considered generally 'collectivist' such as the Japanese and cultures considered 'individualist' such as Americans. Collectivist cultures tend to prize 'fitting in' and homogeneity and getting along with others, while individualist cultures tend to emphasise the importance of individual autonomy and power. Studies have found that those from collectivist cultures are more likely to mask negative emotions with smiles - but only do this when in the presence of others, not when they are alone.
Controlling facial emotion
Recent work has looked at the levels of control exerted over different emotions across different cultures (Matsumoto, 2006). This has found it is Russians who most tightly control the display of their emotions, closely followed by the Japanese and South Koreans. On these measures, Americans displayed the least control over their facial expressions. The same study also uncovered significant sex differences. Men are more likely to hide surprise and fear while women control disgust, contempt and anger and many other emotions.
But it's not just the type of expression we display that differs across cultures, it's also the way these expressions are interpreted. In the intensity of emotions, for example, it has been found that Asians tend to judge displayed emotions as less intense than non-Asians.
So, given these differences, what happens when we interpret the facial expressions of someone who isn't from our culture? Are we more likely to hash it up? Recent, still relatively controversial findings, suggest people are actually better at understanding facial expressions of those from their own culture.
Overall, then, the basic nonverbal behaviours are surprisingly similar across cultures. There are, however, many differences which research has only just begun to uncover. Facial expression of emotion is just the tip of the iceberg.
» This post is part of a series on nonverbal behaviour.
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Is canadian and american are the same in this study ?
No, participants were from the US not Canada. I'm not sure whether there's a study on the difference beteween Canadians and Americans.
Speculation on why control of facial expression varies between cultures is interesting. The explanations offered here emphasize suppression-inhibition. While I wouldn’t be surprised if inhibition in service of conformity is a major factor accounting for much of the variation seen, I also wonder about the possible adaptive value of amplified facial expression?
American culture was profoundly influenced by the inflow of non-English speaking immigrants between 1880 and 1920. Given that facial expressions are universal, what better way to counteract xenophobia between people who don't speak the same language than to readily show a very broad smile to strangers? At the turn of the last century, roughly 3 out of 5 New York City residents were non-native born. Suspicions and prejudices weighed heavily against cultural assimilation that occurred, nonetheless, over the first half of the 20th century. A big, ready smile may have gone a long way toward managing nativist suspicions and xenophobia among so many persons of varying backgrounds and languages.
Perhaps one legacy of this history is the American tendency to readily display emotions nonverbally, and in particular, the broad ‘American’ smile.
Dr X, very interesting to think of it the other way around - in terms of amplification. Nice idea about decreasing xenophobia, although we'll need to track down some evidence from other cultures that have had large influxes of different cultures to test your thesis.
Russians? Have those authors ever met a Japanese person? Seriously, it's ridiculous to say that Russians are the most hiding their emotions...
Mikhail, yup, Japanese were included in this research with Russians. But it's the Russians who win!
What exactly situations did they take for their research? To my mind Russians are not so controlling emotions as the article states to be.
Naturally Russian people are taught to smile when greeting foreigners - when you do not know a person suspect the best. That can be taken for controlling emotions. But the situations of fear or anger are quite different. People are encouraged to show the emotions they feel and this is not considered to be bad in Russia. Myths are still very strong:)
Olga, I like your website - you're talking about the myths that have arisen about Russians. I can only speak for Britain and the people who live here, but what I often notice about British people is while the stereotypes don't describe everyone, there is often a kernel of truth at their heart.
I'm Russian and I would just like to add a tennis analogy: Roger Federer-Switzerland and Marat Safin-Russia. If you do not know these people you can check them out on youtube. Basically, Safin explodes in his matches with passion and lets everything out(Actually pulled his pants down one time). Federer on the other hand is very calm and collected in his matches, and rarely ever gets angry. Maybe it's just tennis, but I thought this was a funny situation.
(I am a different Olga from the one above, although agree with her :)) I would like to know more about the methods used in the study, the sampling, and the time and other conditions of the study. It would also be helpful to have a link or reference to the described research paper/book. Otherwise, the article just reinforces the cold war stereotypes, unfortunately.
The references are listed above, where it says "click to toggle visability."