American± Japanese Cultural Differences in Judgements of Expression Intensity and Subjective Experience

Abstract

A number of stud ies have reported cu ltu ra l d ifferences in in tensity ra tings o f fa cial expressions of emot ion . In the previous research , however, observers made on ly a single in tensity ra ting; thus, it was no t clea r whether observers ra ted the externa l d isplay, o r m ad e an inference abou t the sub jective exper ience of the poser. In th is study, we ob ta ined these two intensity ra tings separa tely from American and Japanese observers. Resu lts ind icated tha t American s perceived greater in tensity in d isplay, but Japanese inferred greater in tensity of sub jective exper ience. When exam ined with in-cultu re, American s rated d isplay more intensely than sub jective exp er ience, wherea s there was no d ifference between the two rat ings for the Japanese. We discuss these ® nd ings in relat ion to the concep t o f cu ltu ra l decod ing ru les, and ou tline an agenda for fut u re research that exam ines the exact natu re of these ru les, the relat ionsh ip between decoding, d isplay ru les and self-construa ls, and the ro le o f con text in judging emot ion .