title: Leaders' smiles reflect cultural differences in ideal affect.
abstract: Cultures differ in the emotions they teach their members to value ("ideal affect"). We conducted 3 studies to examine whether leaders' smiles reflect these cultural differences in ideal affect. In Study 1, we compared the smiles of top-ranked American and Chinese government leaders, chief executive officers, and university presidents in their official photos. Consistent with findings that Americans value excitement and other high-arousal positive states more than Chinese, American top-ranked leaders (N = 98) showed more excited smiles than Chinese top-ranked leaders (N = 91) across occupations. In Study 2, we compared the smiles of winning versus losing political candidates and higher versus lower ranking chief executive officers and university presidents in the United States and Taiwan/China. American leaders (N = 223) showed more excited smiles than Taiwanese/Chinese leaders (N = 266), regardless of election outcome or ranking. In Study 3, we administered self-report measures of ideal affect in college student samples from 10 different nations (N = 1,267) and then 8 years later, coded the smiles that legislators from those nations showed in their official photos (N = 3,372). The more nations valued excitement and other high arousal positive states, the more their leaders showed excited smiles; similarly, the more nations valued calm and other low-arousal positive states, the more their leaders showed calm smiles. These results held after controlling for national differences in democratization, human development, and gross domestic product per capita. Together, these findings suggest that leaders' smiles reflect the affective states valued by their cultures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
authors.forename: Jeanne L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
authors.forename: Jen Ying Zhen
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Ang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blevins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goernandt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Helene H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: School of Education, Durham University.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kölzer
authors.affiliation: Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University.
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uchida
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University.
authors.forename: Yi-Chen
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University.
authors.forename: Yicheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Development Studies, Beijing Normal University.
authors.forename: Xiulan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Clinique et de Psychopathologie, Paris Descartes University.
authors.forename: Yolande
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Govindama
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Clinique et de Psychopathologie, Paris Descartes University.
authors.forename: Lise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Haddouk
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001143:Arousal; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003709:Democracy; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D059066:Gross Domestic Product; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D011057:Politics; D012904:Smiling; D013624:Taiwan; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities; D000078329:Workforce