TAT ei Cultural Differences in Inferring Others’ Em. eee os Weert paeeceaiere aera aa ore en rs ae eee ee ee ee ee aa ae ae eee eer mnar eee ee Eee ee pera oar ae ees Mined eaatinne ats tn en pat nope brig dia qt eee Sees eee eae ee expressions, body posture, and other nonverbal cues. poe ete oes Poe ees ‘smiling, you can't really be happy unless other important. Pare een ns. Evidence for precisely this kindof cultural ference has been reported in mary studies, Mesquita & Leu, 2007),but an especially revealing et of ndings have been reported by Uchida, Townsend, Markus, and Berksicker (2008), Ina srs of related studies, they examined the emo- tonal reactions of American and Japanese ahlates who had participated inthe Olympics. In one stu for instance, the number of emotion words used by the athletes during interviews by the media were recorded, Results indicated that Japanese athletes used more emotion words when ‘questions asked were related to theirelationships with ‘others (eq, "Whatkind of supporthas your family given ‘you? Ina follow-up experiment, American and Japanese students were shown photos of American and Japanese athletes who had won medals tthe Olympics. The photos showed the athletes standing alone or with their team- mates (see Figure 3,7), Participants were asked to describe how the athletes elt when receiving ther medals. Ie was predicted thatthe Japanese students would use more emo. tion words when the athletes were showm with teammates, ‘while Americans would use more emotion words when theyFIGURE 3.7 Are Emotions Inside People or Between Them? Whether emotions areseen as something inside individuals or reactions that involve relationships between people depends on cultural factors. In recent researc, Japanese "udents perceived more emotions in athletes who won medals atthe Olympics when they were shown with eammates than when they were shown alone. Americans showed the ‘opposite pattern, ‘were shown alone. Results offered strong support for this prediction. Inshort although nonverbal cues are an important source of information about other’ emotionsin al cultures, theextent to which they ate used to infer others feelings \ates across cultures. n inalvidualisticcutures suchas the United States, facial expressions, body movements, eye contact, and other nonverbal cues ate a primary source of such information. ln collactvist cultures in contrast, relation- ships between people play a major role. So where do.emo tons reside inside people or between them? The answer seems to depend, to an important extent onthe culturein which you lve,