Antecedents of and Reactions to Emotions in the United States and Japan

In this study, we examined the degree of cultural similarity and specificity in emotional experience by asking subjects in the United States and Japan to report their experiences and reactions concerning seven different emotions. The data used for this study were part of a larger cross-cultural study of emotion antecedents and reactions involving more than 2,000 subjects in 27 countries (Wallbott & Scherer, 1986). The American-Japanese comparison is a particularly interesting one, given theoretical and anecdotal evidence suggesting differences in emotion processes between the two cultures, especially concerning the "inscrutability" of the Japanese. Data were gathered specifically to test the component-process model of emotion. The data yielded a high degree of cultural agreement concerning many aspects of the antecedent/evaluation process, replicating the general findings from all 27 cultures, and suggesting a large degree of universality in emotional experience. There were cultural differences as well, which mostly centered on reactive/expressive aspects of the emotion. The findings are discussed in terms of a model of emotion that incorporates the possibility of innate emotion programs (to account for the large degree of cross-cultural similarity) setting the stage for cultural constants in emotion, but allows for cultural and individual learning processes to account for cultural differences in other aspects.