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There are so many different feelings a person can experience in their lives due to what
they are experiencing in the moment. For me, I can feel happy, anxious, angry and sad all within
the same day. Emotion is a response that involves some combination of physiological arousal,
subjective experience, and behavioral expression. The understanding of human emotions has
always been something philosophical minds have pondered, but only recently (about a century
ago) have people scientifically studied it. There are a handful of theories on emotions which
were tested in North America and Europe. The James-Lange theory states that emotion is the
physiological arousal caused by events, but in the Cannon-Bard theory states that we experience
emotions which cause physiological reactions (Shiraev & Levy 2017, pg. 168-169). The
applicability of the theories could change based on where you are culturally.
Even though a language barrier may exist, people generally can determine one’s
emotions based on facial expression. There was a study done that focused on being able to
identify six emotions; happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, or disgust. The subjects were
people from five different countries- the United States, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Japan. They
were all shown photographs on people displaying those emotions and most subjects were able to
identify them correctly, (Shiraev & Levy 2017, pg. 171). Despite the similar facial expressions in
emotion, people across all cultures may react differently to an emotion. One example is a
Chinese father may feel sad about his child leaving home for college, but not show it because of
the cultural expectation of “if I show vulnerability, then I am considered to be weak.” Evidence
shows that people are more comfortable and confident in their emotional responses when there
are clear norms in how to respond to them. (Shiraev & Levy 2017, pg. 181).
A study was published in 2015 that examined cross-cultural differences in how emotional
expressions within a group can be used to figure out a norm violation in the cultures of four
countries (The United States, Israel, Germany and Greece). Participants went to a laboratory in
groups of no more than five. The participants were directed to pretend they were invited to a tea
drinking ceremony. During the ceremony, participants were shown three photos showing the
actions of three group members and the other members’ reactions to the actions. Interestingly,
through the images shown, German participants were more likely to perceive anger while Greek
participants were more likely to perceive sadness. This study showed that anger is a signal for a
norm violation across all cultures. However, the sensitivity to angry expressions and the
Around two years ago, my best friend invited her German exchange friends who she had
met in high school to stay with her for a week in her dorm. Getting to know the German girls and
how we are culturally different was interesting. One thing I had noticed is that certain things
would generate happiness for them that we viewed to be everyday things. Some of the things
included eating bagels, making Kraft mac n’ cheese, or going to a Target. Those things made
sense because they are not used to being exposed to things like that in Germany. The way these
German girls expressed their excitement and happiness was in a way which was similar and
I think that overall, we express our emotions pretty universally. Those emotions in which
we express can also easily be identifiable throughout all cultures. Smiling shows we are happy,
crying shows we are sad, furrowed brows shows we are angry. Depending on where you are
from culturally though can determine when it is acceptable to express said emotions. The
research done in 2015 shows that four different cultures perceived the images, all showing the
same emotions, differently. This all depended on which emotions the participants from these
cultures thought fit into the social norm of their culture. What it did find though is that anger is
something that all cultures find to be a norm violation, which means that people think that being
angry in a social situation is something that is unsettling. From my experience, it was easy to tell
when the German exchange students were happy just because they expressed things similarly to
us. The facial expressions of emotions may be similar, but the way we perceive them can vary
Hareli, Shlomo, Konstantinos, Hess, & Ursula. (2015, September 17). A cross-cultural study on
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01501/full