Diversity of historical ancestry and personality traits across 56 cultures

Shrira, Ilan; Wisman, Arnaud; Noguchi, Kenji

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2018.02.013

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…A recent study (Shrira, Wisman, & Noguchi, 2018) examined the responses of 17,837 individuals from 56 countries spanning 6 continents to subscales from the Big Five Inventory (Soto & John, 2009), a measure of personality. Results revealed that heterogeneity of long-history migration was significantly predictive of openness to experience—a trait proposed to be particularly adaptive in countries with high ancestral diversity.…”

Section: Historical Heterogeneity and The Culture Of Emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Migration Patterns Shape Contemporary Cultures of Emotion

Niedenthal

Rychlowska

Zhao

et al. 2019

Perspect Psychol Sci

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Human emotional behavior varies across cultures. Smiling at a passing stranger on the street may seem perfectly normal in one culture and profoundly strange or even suspicious in another. What are the origins of cultural differences in emotional expression, communication, and regulation? We review new evidence in favor of one answer to this question. A socioecological factor, historical heterogeneity—defined as the ancestral diversity of the world’s regions based on human migration patterns over centuries—accounts for important cultural variations in emotional experience and expression. We summarize findings from studies of large global samples that link the migratory history of a country’s population with present-day cultural differences in how overtly and clearly emotions are expressed to others, in the frequency and meaning of smiles, and in associated character traits. New research also extends the analysis to the historical heterogeneity of the United States, and country-level findings are replicated at the level of the states. We suggest that enduring emotional behaviors and traits evolve from the opportunities and challenges posed by the commingling of people of diverse ancestries. We conclude by highlighting the questions and challenges for future research stemming from this approach.

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Section: Historical Heterogeneity and The Culture Of Emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Migration Patterns Shape Contemporary Cultures of Emotion

Niedenthal

Rychlowska

Zhao

et al. 2019

Perspect Psychol Sci

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“…We also included two control variables: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and present-day migration diversity indexed by the number of countries contributing to the population of a given country in the year 2015. In the studies cited above [ 9 , 11 , 12 ], historical heterogeneity has been found to be a robust predictor of display rules for emotional expression, smiling, and also trait openness to experience when controlling for other aspects of culture (e.g., individualism) and economic conditions (e.g., GDP). In the present research we chose to control for GDP because of the complex relationship between economic viability and positive emotions [ 38 ].…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The index is derived from the World Migration Matrix [ 37 ], whose entries represent the fraction of a country’s ancestry in 1500 attributable to different source countries. The World Migration Matrix has been used in previous studies [ 9 – 11 ]. The scores vary between 1 and 83 ( M = 9.87, SD = 12.08), and are available for 165 countries.…”

Section: Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The long-term demographic history of a population represents another socio-ecological condition to which systematic adaptations can be expected [ 8 ]. Previous research links heterogeneity of long-history migration–a context associated with long-term pressures to communicate in the absence of common language and social norms–with present-day emotion expressivity [ 9 , 10 ], the personality trait of openness to experience [ 11 ], and with the frequency of smiling in response to amusing or interesting stimuli [ 12 ]. In the present work we build on these previous findings and use data from several global and national (within-U.S.) polling studies on emotional expressions and experiences to investigate how long-history migration patterns determine global and regional emotion cultures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts smiling, laughter and positive emotion across the globe and within the United States

et al. 2018

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Recent findings demonstrate that heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts present-day emotion behaviors and norms. Residents of countries characterized by high ancestral diversity display emotion expressions that are easier to decode by observers, endorse norms of higher emotion expressivity, and smile more in response to certain stimuli than residents of countries that lack ancestral diversity. We build on the extant findings and investigate historical heterogeneity as a predictor of daily smiling, laughter, and positive emotion across the world’s countries and the states of the United States. Study 1 finds that historical heterogeneity is positively associated with self-reports of smiling, laughter, and positive emotions in the Gallup World Poll when controlling for GDP and present-day population diversity. Study 2 extends the findings to effects of long-history migration within the United States. We estimated the average percentage of foreign-born citizens in each state between 1850 and 2010 based on US Census information as an indicator of historical heterogeneity. Consistent with the world findings of Study 1, historical heterogeneity predicted smiling, laughter, and positive, but not negative, emotion. The relationships remained significant when controlling for per capita income and present-day population diversity of each state. Together, the findings further demonstrate the important role of long-history migration in shaping emotion cultures of countries and states, which persist beyond the original socio-ecological conditions, and open promising avenues for cross-cultural research.

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“…The long-term demographic history of a population represents another socioecological condition to which systematic adaptations can be expected (7). Previous research links heterogeneity of long-term migration – a context associated with historical pressures to communicate in the absence of common language and social norms – with present-day emotion expressivity (8,9), the personality trait of openness to experience (10), and with the frequency of smiling in response to amusing or interesting stimuli (11). In the present work we build on these previous findings and use data from several global and national (within-U.S.) polling studies on emotional expressions and experiences to investigate how long-history migration patterns determine global and regional emotion cultures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneity of Long-History Migration Predicts Smiling, Laughter and Positive Emotion Across the Globe and Within the United States

Niedenthal

Rychlowska

Wood³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Recent findings demonstrate that heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts present-day emotion behaviors and norms. Residents of countries characterized by high ancestral diversity display emotion expressions that are easier to decode by observers, endorse norms of higher emotion expressivity, and smile more in response to certain stimuli than residents of countries that lack ancestral diversity. We build on the extant findings and investigate historical heterogeneity as a predictor of daily smiling, laughter, and positive emotion across the world’s countries and the states of the United States. Study 1 finds that historical heterogeneity is positively associated with self-reports of smiling, laughter, and positive emotions in the Gallup World Poll when controlling for GDP and current present-day population diversity. Study 2 extends the findings to effects of long-history migration within the United States. We estimated the average percentage of foreign-born citizens in each state between 1850 and 2010 based on US Census information as an indicator of historical heterogeneity. Consistent with the world findings of Study 1, historical heterogeneity predicted smiling, laughter, and positive, but not negative, emotion. The relationships remained significant when controlling for per capita income and present-day diversity of population of each state. Together, the findings further demonstrate the important role of long-history migration in shaping emotion cultures of countries and states, which persist beyond the original socio-ecological conditions, and open promising avenues for cross-cultural research.

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Diversity of historical ancestry and personality traits across 56 cultures

Abstract: The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.

Cited by 13 publications

References 30 publications

Historical Migration Patterns Shape Contemporary Cultures of Emotion

Historical Migration Patterns Shape Contemporary Cultures of Emotion

Heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts smiling, laughter and positive emotion across the globe and within the United States

Heterogeneity of Long-History Migration Predicts Smiling, Laughter and Positive Emotion Across the Globe and Within the United States

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