Emotion Perception Rules Abide by Cultural Display Rules

Abstract

Abstract. The current study compared emotion perception in two cultures where display rules for emotion expression deviate. In Experiment 1, participants from America and Korea played a repeated prisoner’s dilemma game with a counterpart, who was, in actuality, a programmed defector. Emotion expressions were exchanged via emoticons at the end of every round. After winning more points by defecting, the counterpart sent either a matching emoticon (a joyful face) or a mismatching emoticon (a regretful face). The results showed that Americans in the matching condition were more likely to defect, or to punish, compared to those in the mismatching condition, suggesting that more weight was given to their counterpart’s joyful expression. This difference was smaller for Koreans, suggesting a higher disregard for the outward expression. In a second, supplementary experiment, we found that Korean participants were more likely to cooperate in the mismatching or regretful condition, when they thought their counterpart was a Westerner. Overall, our data suggest that emotion perception rules abide by the display rules of one’s culture but are also influenced by the counterpart’s culture.

Social Functions of Machine Emotional Expressions

“…At the cultural level, research seeks to understand how cultural values and institutions shape emotion expression in society [197]. One example pertains to cultural rules about the appropriateness of expressing emotion in social settings [198]. Some initial efforts have been made on group and cultural factors shaping the social function of emotion in machines [199]- [201], yet this area is still mostly under-studied and ripe for further investigation.…”

Emotion expression and cooperation under collective risks

“… 37 , 38 In addition, the effects of emotion expressions are contingent on the perceived appropriateness of the expression. 17 , 39 , 40 For instance, in cooperative settings the expression of anger can lead to negative consequences, in contrast to settings where there are conflicts of interest. 41 Nevertheless, despite this growing literature on the social effects of emotion, to the best of our knowledge, research on the effects of emotion expression in complex N-player dilemmas, such as CRDs, is still missing.…”