For people who tend to think more about others, complex emotional experiences are more characteristic, scientists have found. What else determines how we feel?
Psychologists Igor Grossman and Alex Hyunh from the University of Waterloo (Canada) together with Phoebe Ellsworth from the University of Michigan (USA) conducted a large-scale study to find out how the complexity of emotional experiences differs among residents of different countries .
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First, the researchers analyzed more than a million English-language Internet pages from different countries. At the same time, they looked for sections of the text in which words describing positive and negative emotions were located side by side (no more than two other words between them). It turned out that on Malaysian, Filipino and Singaporean sites, mixed emotions are mentioned much more often than on American, Canadian, Irish, British and New Zealand sites.
At the next stages of the study, scientists were interested in how residents of the USA, Japan, Russia, India, Great Britain and Germany describe what emotions they experienced in various situations (pleasant and unpleasant).
Data analysis showed a general pattern – residents of countries where the culture of individualism dominates (English-speaking countries) experience less complex emotional experiences than people in countries where the traditional emphasis is on collectivism and the relationship between members of society (Russia, Asian countries). The countries of Western Europe (except the UK) and South Africa were roughly in the middle.
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“In all our research, we found that the more cultural ideals call for thinking about others, and not about yourself, the more complex and richer the emotional experiences of the bearers of this culture. Moreover, people who tend to think more about others are generally more likely to have complex emotional experiences, regardless of the culture of the society in which they live. Representatives of other-oriented cultures are more likely to experience complex emotional experiences due to the fact that they are better able to look at the situation from different points of view. For example, losing a job is certainly an unpleasant event, but on the other hand, it is a great opportunity to spend more time with your family or try something completely new. If a person lives in a cultural environment where personal achievements are valued above all else, he is likely to see only negative aspects in this situation, ”says lead author of the study Igor Grossman, professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo.
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“In Western countries, many consider mixed feelings to be a sign of indecision, even weakness. However, our research shows that both Westerners and people of other cultures who are able to experience complex, ambiguous emotional experiences are better able to distinguish their own emotions and, in general, their lives are emotionally richer and more balanced,” the scientist adds.
Подробнее см. I. Grossmann et al. «Emotional Complexity: Clarifying Definitions and Cultural Correlates», Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 2015.