The habitual use of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy has been consistently linked to adverse outcomes in a number of domains, including psychological functioning. The present study aimed to uncover whether the suppression-health relationship is dependent on cultural context, given differing cultural norms surrounding the value of suppressing emotional displays. We hypothesized that the negative associations between suppression and psychological functioning seen in European Americans would not be seen among members of East Asian cultures, in which emotional restraint is relatively encouraged over emotional expression. To test this hypothesis, we asked 71 European American students and 100 Chinese students from Hong Kong to report on their use of expressive suppression, life satisfaction, and depressed mood. A moderation analysis revealed that expressive suppression was associated with adverse psychological functioning for European Americans, but not for Chinese participants. These findings highlight the importance of context in understanding the suppression-health relationship.

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According to the facial feedback hypothesis, people's affective responses can be influenced by their own facial expression (e.g., smiling, pouting), even when their expression did not result from their emotional experiences. For example, Strack, Martin, and Stepper (1988) instructed participants to rate the funniness of cartoons using a pen that they held in their mouth. In line with the facial feedback hypothesis, when participants held the pen with their teeth (inducing a "smile"), they rated the cartoons as funnier than when they held the pen with their lips (inducing a "pout"). This seminal study of the facial feedback hypothesis has not been replicated directly. This Registered Replication Report describes the results of 17 independent direct replications of Study 1 from Strack et al. (1988), all of which followed the same vetted protocol. A meta-analysis of these studies examined the difference in funniness ratings between the "smile" and "pout" conditions. The original Strack et al. (1988) study reported a rating difference of 0.82 units on a 10-point Likert scale. Our meta-analysis revealed a rating difference of 0.03 units with a 95% confidence interval ranging from -0.11 to 0.16.

Many ethnic minorities in the United States consider themselves to be just as American as their European American counterparts. However, there is a persistent cultural stereotype of ethnic minorities as foreigners (i.e., the perpetual foreigner stereotype) that may be expressed during interpersonal interactions (i.e., foreigner objectification). The goal of the present study was to validate the Foreigner Objectification Scale, a brief self-report measure of perceived foreigner objectification, and to examine the psychological correlates of perceived foreigner objectification. Results indicated that the Foreigner Objectification Scale is structurally (i.e., factor structure) and metrically (i.e., factor loadings) invariant across foreign-born and U.S.-born Asian Americans and Latinos. Scalar (i.e., latent item intercepts) invariance was demonstrated for the two foreign-born groups and the two U.S.-born groups, but not across foreign-born and U.S.-born individuals. Multiple-group structural equation models indicated that, among U.S.-born individuals, perceived foreigner objectification was associated with less life satisfaction and more depressive symptoms, and was indirectly associated with lower self-esteem via identity denial, operationalized as the perception that one is not viewed by others as American. Among foreign-born individuals, perceived foreigner objectification was not significantly associated directly with self-esteem, life satisfaction, or depressive symptoms. However, perceived foreigner objectification was positively associated with identity denial, and identity denial was negatively associated with life satisfaction. This study illustrates the relevance of perceived foreigner objectification to the psychological well-being of U.S.-born Asian Americans and Latinos.

Ethnographic accounts suggest that emotions are moderated in Chinese cultures and expressed openly in Mexican cultures. The authors tested this notion by comparing subjective, behavioral, and physiological aspects of emotional responses to 3 (warned, unwarned, instructed to inhibit responding) aversive acoustic startle stimuli in 95 Chinese Americans and 64 Mexican Americans. Subjective reports were consistent with ethnographic accounts; Chinese Americans reported experiencing significantly less emotion than Mexican Americans across all 3 startle conditions. Evidence from a nonemotional task suggested that these differences were not artifacts of cultural differences in the use of rating scales. Few cultural differences were found in emotional behavior or physiology, suggesting that these aspects of emotion are less susceptible to cultural influence.

The present study examined the relationship between frequency of race based and non-race based discrimination experiences and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in a sample of 3,570 African Americans, 1,438 Afro Caribbeans, and 891 non-Hispanic Whites from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). Because GAD and the experience of racial discrimination are both associated with symptoms of worry and tension, we expected race based discrimination to predict GAD prevalence for African Americans, but not other groups. We did not expect non-race based discrimination to predict GAD. Results showed that while more frequent experiences of non-race based discrimination predicted GAD for all groups, experiencing race based discrimination was associated with significantly higher odds of endorsing lifetime GAD for African Americans only. Results are interpreted in light of the different contexts that these three ethnic groups represent relative to their history within the United States as well as their present day circumstances.

The present study tested whether empathic accuracy and physiological linkage during an emotion recognition task are facilitated by a cultural match between rater and target (cultural advantage model) or unaffected (cultural equivalence model). Participants were 161 college students of African American, Chinese American, European American or Mexican American ethnicity. To assess empathic accuracy-knowing what another person is feeling-participants ("raters") used a rating dial to provide continuous, real-time ratings of the valence and intensity of emotions being experienced by four strangers ("targets"). Targets were African American, Chinese American, European American or Mexican American women who had been videotaped having a conversation about their relationship with their dating partner in a previous study. Empathic accuracy was defined as the similarity between ratings of the videotaped interactions obtained from: (a) raters in the present study, who rated how the targets were feeling during the interaction; and (b) targets in the previous study, who had rated their own feelings during the interaction. To assess emotional empathy-feeling what another person is feeling-we drew on literatures that underscore the role that mimicry and contagion play in empathy and examined physiological linkage (similarity between raters' physiology when viewing the videotapes and targets' physiology when in the actual interaction). Our findings for empathic accuracy supported the cultural equivalence model, with no evidence of greater accuracy when raters viewed targets of their own ethnicity. Our findings for physiological linkage provided some support for the cultural advantage model, with greater physiological linkage when Chinese Americans viewed and rated Chinese American targets.Emotions play an essential role in human communication. An important part of our interpersonal lives is the production, perception, interpretation, and response to emotional signals. Being able to perceive these signals accurately carries clear advantages for predicting behavior, as well as forming and maintaining social bonds. These proximal functions impact more distal goals such as survival and reproduction in humans and in other species (Preston & de Waal, 2002). Thus, compelling advantages accrue to those individuals who can accurately read the emotions of others. These advantages may be even greater in situations when the individuals are members of the same in-group (Anderson & Keltner, 2002), suggesting a possible cultural advantage in emotion detection.Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to José A. Soto, Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. Publisher's Disclaimer: The following manuscript is the final accepted manuscript. It has not been subjected to the final copyediting, fact-checking, and proofreading required for formal publication. It is not the definitive, publisher-authenticated version. The American Psychological Association and its Council of Editors di...

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