Are the windows to the soul the same in the East and West? Cultural differences in using the eyes and mouth as cues to recognize emotions in Japan and the United States

The current research investigated the hypothesis that, depending on an individual’s cultural background, facial cues in different parts of the face are weighted differently when interpreting emotions. Given that the eyes are more difficult to control than the mouth when people express emotions, we predicted that individuals in cultures where emotional subduction is the norm (such as Japan) would focus more strongly on the eyes than the mouth when interpreting others’ emotions. By contrast, we predicted that people in cultures where overt emotional expression is the norm (such as the US) would tend to interpret emotions based on the position of the mouth, because it is the most expressive part of the face. This hypothesis was confirmed in two studies, one using illustrated faces, and one using edited facial expressions from real people, in which emotional expressions in the eyes and mouth were independently manipulated. Implications for our understanding of cross-cultural psychology, as well of the psychology of emotional interpretation, are discussed.     

Mnemonic Context Effect in Two Cultures: Attention to Memory Representations?

In two experiments we demonstrate a substantial cross-cultural difference in a mnemonic context effect, whereby a magnitude estimate of a simple stimulus such as a line or circle is biased toward the center of the distribution of previously seen instances of the same class. In support of the hypothesis that Asians are more likely than Americans to disperse their attention to both the target stimulus and its mnemonic context, this effect was consistently larger for Japanese than for Americans. Moreover, the cultural difference was attenuated by an experimentally induced belief in class homogeneity that augmented the context effect itself in both cultures. More important, these belief effects happened in the absence of any objective change in stimulus distribution. Implications for sociocultural shaping of cognition are discussed.     

Is there any "free" choice? Self and dissonance in two cultures

Four experiments provided support for the hypothesis that upon making a choice, individuals justify their choice in order to eliminate doubts about culturally sanctioned aspects of the self, namely, competence and efficacy in North America and positive appraisal by other people in Japan. Japanese participants justified their choice (by increasing liking for chosen items and decreasing liking for rejected items) in the standard free-choice dissonance paradigm only when self-relevant others were primed, either by questionnaires (Studies 1-3) or by incidental exposure to schematic faces (Study 4). In the absence of these social cues, Japanese participants showed no dissonance effect. In contrast, European Americans justified their choices regardless of the social-cue manipulations. Implications for cognitive dissonance theory are discussed.     

Cultural affordances and emotional experience: socially engaging and disengaging emotions in Japan and the United States

The authors hypothesized that whereas Japanese culture encourages socially engaging emotions (e.g., friendly feelings and guilt), North American culture fosters socially disengaging emotions (e.g., pride and anger). In two cross-cultural studies, the authors measured engaging and disengaging emotions repeatedly over different social situations and found support for this hypothesis. As predicted, Japanese showed a pervasive tendency to reportedly experience engaging emotions more strongly than they experienced disengaging emotions, but Americans showed a reversed tendency. Moreover, as also predicted, Japanese subjective well-being (i.e., the experience of general positive feelings) was more closely associated with the experience of engaging positive emotions than with that of disengaging emotions. Americans tended to show the reversed pattern. The established cultural differences in the patterns of emotion suggest the consistent and systematic cultural shaping of emotion over time.     

Cross-cultural differences in relationship- and group-based trust

Two experiments explored differences in depersonalized trust (trust toward a relatively unknown target person) across cultures. Based on a recent theoretical framework that postulates predominantly different bases for group behaviors in Western cultures versus Eastern cultures, it was predicted that Americans would tend to trust people primarily based on whether they shared category memberships; however, trust for Japanese was expected to be based on the likelihood of sharing direct or indirect interpersonal links. Results supported these predictions. In both Study 1 (questionnaire study) and Study 2 (online money allocation game), Americans trusted ingroup members more than outgroup members; however, the existence of a potential indirect relationship link increased trust for outgroup members more for Japanese than for Americans. Implications for understanding group processes across cultures are discussed.     

Study of a cognitive effects model in Dohsa‐hou for the elderly

This study investigates the primary factors responsible for cognitive performance improvements as a result of dohsa‐hou (Japanese body‐oriented psychotherapy) for the elderly. The study divided participants into two homogeneous groups: an experimental group that attempted to improve upright balance by performing dohsa‐hou, and a control group to establish the drop‐off period for the effect of performing the given activities. The task processing time of Stroop Test and body sway and the situational anxiety during task processing of Stroop Tests were measured before and after the dohsa‐hou and drop‐off period. The results confirm that only the experimental group improved in body sway, had a shorter Stroop Color Test processing time and lower situational anxiety. From this study, it has been identified that: (a) information‐processing capacities spared for posture control are affected by distribution of processing resources towards solving other cognitive tasks; and (b) the effect of the release of attention from threat‐related information due to a decrease in attentional bias, which accompanied the decrease in situational anxiety, are primary factors in improving cognitive task performance.     

Differential reliance of chimpanzees and humans on automatic and deliberate control of motor actions

Humans are often unaware of how they control their limb motor movements. People pay attention to their own motor movements only when their usual motor routines encounter errors. Yet little is known about the extent to which voluntary actions rely on automatic control and when automatic control shifts to deliberate control in nonhuman primates. In this study, we demonstrate that chimpanzees and humans showed similar limb motor adjustment in response to feedback error during reaching actions, whereas attentional allocation inferred from gaze behavior differed. We found that humans shifted attention to their own motor kinematics as errors were induced in motor trajectory feedback regardless of whether the errors actually disrupted their reaching their action goals. In contrast, chimpanzees shifted attention to motor execution only when errors actually interfered with their achieving a planned action goal. These results indicate that the species differed in their criteria for shifting from automatic to deliberate control of motor actions. It is widely accepted that sophisticated motor repertoires have evolved in humans. Our results suggest that the deliberate monitoring of one’s own motor kinematics may have evolved in the human lineage.     

Outgroup homogeneity effect in perception: An exploration with Ebbinghaus illusion

An outgroup homogeneity (OH) effect implies that outgroup members are perceived to be more similar than ingroup members. At present, however, it is not clear whether the OH effect is truly perceptual. Here, we used an Ebbinghaus illusion to demonstrate the OH effect in perception. Participants were presented with one central face that was surrounded by four surrounding faces. The central face was judged to be smaller as the size of the surrounding faces increased, thereby demonstrating an Ebbinghaus illusion. As predicted, however, this illusion was significantly greater when the faces allegedly belonged to an outgroup than when they allegedly belonged to an ingroup. This perceptual OH effect bore no significant relationship with cognitive OH measures. The perceptual versus cognitive OH effects might therefore be mediated by separate mechanisms.     

Perceptual mechanism underlying gaze guidance in chimpanzees and humans

Previous studies comparing eye movements between humans and their closest relatives, chimpanzees, have revealed similarities and differences between the species in terms of where individuals fixate their gaze during free viewing of a naturalistic scene, including social stimuli (e.g. body and face). However, those results were somewhat confounded by the fact that gaze behavior is influenced by low-level stimulus properties (e.g., color and form) and by high-level processes such as social sensitivity and knowledge about the scene. Given the known perceptual and cognitive similarities between chimpanzees and humans, it is expected that such low-level effects do not play a critical role in explaining the high-level similarities and differences between the species. However, there is no quantitative evidence to support this assumption. To estimate the effect of local stimulus saliency on such eye-movement patterns, this study used a well-established bottom-up saliency model. In addition, to elucidate the cues that the viewers use to guide their gaze, we presented scenes in which we had manipulated various stimulus properties. As expected, the saliency model did not fully predict the fixation patterns actually observed in chimpanzees and humans. In addition, both species used multiple cues to fixate socially significant areas such as the face. There was no evidence suggesting any differences between chimpanzees and humans in their responses to low-level saliency. Therefore, this study found a substantial amount of similarity in the perceptual mechanisms underlying gaze guidance in chimpanzees and humans and thereby offers a foundation for direct comparisons between them.