Indian and English Children's Understanding of the Distinction between Real and Apparent Emotion

24 preschool and 24 school-entry children in Bombay, India, and 24 preschool and 24 school-entry children in Oxford, England, were tested on their ability to distinguish between real and apparent emotion in response to stories involving child-adult and child-child interactions. Younger Indian girls did better than younger English girls, and the data reveal effects due to age, culture, gender, and story type which suggest a more social model of the understanding of emotion than has been proposed by other researchers using this methodology.