Culture and the body: East-West differences in visceral perception.
This research investigated cross-cultural differences in the accuracy of individuals' perceptions of internal visceral states. We conducted 4 studies to test the hypothesis that Asians are less sensitive to internal physiological cues relative to European Americans. Studies 1 and 2 assessed cultural differences in visceral perception via tests of misattributions of arousal: Study 1 involved false heart rate feedback during an emotionally evocative slideshow and examined subsequent self-reported affective changes; Study 2 manipulated apparent physiological arousal and measured its effects on attraction via an immersive virtual environment. Study 3 directly assessed visceral perception using a heartbeat detection task. All 3 studies found Asians to be less viscerally perceptive than European Americans. Study 4 examined one possible cultural mechanism for the observed difference and found evidence for contextual dependency as a mediator of the culture-visceral perception link.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara. christinema@fas.harvard.edu
Christine
C
Ma-Kellams
Jim
J
Blascovich
Cade
C
McCall
D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000523:psychology; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010465:Perception; D013803:Thematic Apperception Test; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014781:Viscera / Q000502:physiology*; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult