Showing papers by "David Matsumoto published in 2009"

Variations of emotional display rules within and across cultures: A comparison between Canada, USA, and Japan.

Abstract: This study investigates emotional display rules for seven basic emotions. The main goal was to compare emotional display rules of Canadians, US Americans, and Japanese across as well as within cultures regarding the specific emotion, the type of interaction partner, and gender. A total of 835 university students participated in the study. The results indicate that Japanese display rules permit the expression of powerful (anger, contempt, and disgust) significantly less than those of the two North American samples. Japanese also think that they should express positive emotions (happiness, surprise) significantly less than the Canadian sample. Furthermore, Japanese varied the display rules for different interaction partners more than the two North American samples did only for powerful emotions. Gender differences were similar across all three cultural groups. Men expressed powerful emotions more than women and women expressed powerless emotions (sadness, fear) and happiness more than men. Depending on the type of emotion and interaction partner some shared display rules occurred across culture and gender. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to cultural dimensions and other cultural characteristics.

Spontaneous facial expressions of emotion of congenitally and noncongenitally blind individuals.

Abstract: The study of the spontaneous expressions of blind individuals offers a unique opportunity to understand basic processes concerning the emergence and source of facial expressions of emotion. In this study, the authors compared the expressions of congenitally and noncongenitally blind athletes in the 2004 Paralympic Games with each other and with those produced by sighted athletes in the 2004 Olympic Games. The authors also examined how expressions change from 1 context to another. There were no differences between congenitally blind, noncongenitally blind, and sighted athletes, either on the level of individual facial actions or in facial emotion configurations. Blind athletes did produce more overall facial activity, but these were isolated to head and eye movements. The blind athletes' expressions differentiated whether they had won or lost a medal match at 3 different points in time, and there were no cultural differences in expression. These findings provide compelling evidence that the production of spontaneous facial expressions of emotion is not dependent on observational learning but simultaneously demonstrates a learned component to the social management of expressions, even among blind individuals.

The Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology

Abstract: The Cambridge Dictionary of Psychology is the fi rst and only dictionary that surveys the broad discipline of psychology from an international, crosscultural, and interdisciplinary focus. This focus was achieved in several ways. The managing and consulting editorial boards comprise worldrenowned scholars in psychology from many different countries, not just the United States. They reviewed and edited all of the keyword entries to make them lively and applicable across cultural contexts, incorporating the latest knowledge in contemporary international psychology. Thus entries related to culture, as well as those from all domains of psychology, are written with the broadest possible audience in mind. Also, many keywords central to contemporary psychology were incorporated that are not included by many competitors, including the Oxford and American Psychological Association dictionaries.

Sequential Dynamics of Culturally Moderated Facial Expressions of Emotion

Abstract: There is consensus that when emotions are aroused, the displays of those emotions are either universal or culture-specific. We investigated the idea that an individual's emotional displays in a given context can be both universal and culturally variable, as they change over time. We examined the emotional displays of Olympic athletes across time, classified their expressive styles, and tested the association between those styles and a number of characteristics associated with the countries the athletes represented. Athletes from relatively urban, individualistic cultures expressed their emotions more, whereas athletes from less urban, collectivistic cultures masked their emotions more. These culturally influenced expressions occurred within a few seconds after initial, immediate, and universal emotional displays. Thus, universal and culture-specific emotional displays can unfold across time in an individual in a single context.

Cross-Cultural Judgments of Spontaneous Facial Expressions of Emotion

Abstract: We report data concerning cross-cultural judgments of emotion in spontaneously produced facial expressions. Americans, Japanese, British, and International Students in the US reliably attributed emotions to the expressions of Olympic judo athletes at the end of a match for a medal, and at two times during the subsequent medal ceremonies. There were some observer culture differences in absolute attribution agreement rates, but high cross-cultural agreement in differences in attribution rates across expressions (relative agreement rates). Moreover, we operationalized signal clarity and demonstrated that it was associated with agreement rates similarly in all cultures. Finally, we obtained judgments of won-lost match outcomes and medal finish, and demonstrated that the emotion judgments were associated with accuracy in judgments of outcomes. These findings demonstrated that members of different cultures reliably judge spontaneously expressed emotions, and that across observer cultures, lower absolute agreement rates are related to noise produced by non-emotional facial behaviors. Also, the findings suggested that observers of different cultures utilize the same facial cues when judging emotions, and that the signal value of facial expressions is similar across cultures.

Is There an Ingroup Advantage in Recognizing Spontaneously Expressed Emotions

Abstract: Evidence for the ingroup advantage hypothesis in recognizing emotions comes from studies using specific types of posed expressions. A proposed source of this advantage has been culturally-specific ways of expressing emotions, known as cultural dialects (Elfenbein et al. Emotion 7(1):131–146, 2007). But to date, no study has used spontaneously produced expressions as stimuli in testing the hypothesis. We do so here. American and Japanese observers judged expressions produced by American and Japanese athletes immediately at the completion of a medal match from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. The ingroup hypothesis was not supported, suggesting that it occurs when posers mime an expression, but not when they spontaneously produce it in real life.

Hypocrisy or maturity? Culture and context differentiation

Abstract: We introduce a new construct called Context Differentiation (CD), and describe how it functions on both the individual and cultural levels. We derive several measures of it from a multi-context measure of cultural display rules for emotional expressions obtained from 33 countries, and examine country and cultural differences on it, and relate those differences to cultural value dimensions associated with context. Findings indicated that cultures were reliably associated with measures of CD. The framework and findings provide a platform for new research in the future examining how individuals differentiate their behaviours across contexts, and how cultures facilitate that differentiation. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Systems and methods for analyzing facial expressions, identifying intent and transforming images through review of facial expressions

Abstract: Methods of analyzing a plurality of facial expressions are disclosed that include: identifying a subject person, utilizing the subject person to create an image of a known target, removing at least one distracter expression from the target image to form a revised target image, and reviewing the revised target image with at least one third party participant to form a final target image Additional methods of analyzing a plurality of facial expressions include: identifying a subject person, utilizing the subject person to create an image of a known target, digitizing the target image, removing at least one distracter expression from the target image to transform the target image to a revised target image, and reviewing the revised target image with at least one third party participant to transform the revised target image to a final target image Software for implementing contemplated methods include: a set speed function, a pre-test phase function, an instruction phase function, a practice phase function, and a post-test phase function

The role of dispositional traits in accounting for country and ethnic group differences on adjustment.

Abstract: Country and ethnic group differences on adjustment have been demonstrated numerous times, and the source of these differences has been typically interpreted as cultural. We report two studies in which country (Study 1) and ethnic group (Study 2) differences on depression, anxiety, optimism versus pessimism, well-being, and self-esteem are mediated by dispositional traits. These findings provide an alternative explanation for previously reported country and ethnic group differences on these variables and encourage researchers to consider multiple sources, including traits, in their models and studies.