title: Heterogeneity of long-history migration explains cultural differences in reports of emotional expressivity and the functions of smiles.
abstract: A small number of facial expressions may be universal in that they are produced by the same basic affective states and recognized as such throughout the world. However, other aspects of emotionally expressive behavior vary widely across culture. Just why do they vary? We propose that some cultural differences in expressive behavior are determined by historical heterogeneity, or the extent to which a country's present-day population descended from migration from numerous vs. few source countries over a period of 500 y. Our reanalysis of data on cultural rules for displaying emotion from 32 countries [n = 5,340; Matsumoto D, Yoo S, Fontaine J (2008) J Cross Cult Psychol 39(1):55-74] reveals that historical heterogeneity explains substantial, unique variance in the degree to which individuals believe that emotions should be openly expressed. We also report an original study of the underlying states that people believe are signified by a smile. Cluster analysis applied to data from nine countries (n = 726), including Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, reveals that countries group into "cultures of smiling" determined by historical heterogeneity. Factor analysis shows that smiles sort into three social-functional subtypes: pleasure, affiliative, and dominance. The relative importance of these smile subtypes varies as a function of historical heterogeneity. These findings thus highlight the power of social-historical factors to explain cross-cultural variation in emotional expression and smile behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1969; School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom; niedenthal@wisc.edu magdalena.rychlowska@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rychlowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1969;
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.affiliation: San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA 94132;
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt University, Berlin, 12489 Berlin, Germany;
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department and the Gonda Brain Science Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel;
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gilboa-Schechtman
authors.affiliation: Karnatak University, Pavate Nagar, Dharwad, Karnataka 580003, India;
authors.forename: Shanmukh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kamble
authors.affiliation: Universitas Indonesia, Fakultas Psikologi, Jalan Salemba Raya 10430, Indonesia; and.
authors.forename: Hamdi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Muluk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E9.
authors.forename: Takahiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1969; niedenthal@wisc.edu magdalena.rychlowska@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Paula Marie
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Niedenthal
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002170:Canada; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D005858:Germany; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007214:Indonesia; D007557:Israel; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009520:New Zealand; D012904:Smiling; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: collectivism-individualism; culture; emotion; historical demographics; smile