Citation

Ishii K, Miyamoto Y, Mayama K, Niedenthal PM. Soc. Psychol. Pers. Sci. 2011; 2(5): 516-522.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1948550611399153

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The high sensitivity and need to adjust to others' expectations may make Japanese, compared to Americans, more anxious in interpersonal contexts and especially more vigilant to signs of disapproval (such as the disappearance of happiness from another's face) but not to other signs (such as the disappearance of sadness). By using a morph movie paradigm, the authors investigated the cultural differences in sensitivity to the disappearance of facial expressions. Participants watched happy to neutral movies and sad to neutral movies and judged the point at which the emotional expressions had disappeared. As predicted, Japanese judged the offset of happiness faster than did Americans, whereas no cultural difference was found in the judgment for the offset of sadness. Moreover, attachment-related anxiety, which was higher in Japanese than Americans, predicted the disappearance of happiness.