How Unique Are Our Emotions?

Are we really all individuals? Individualist cultures place a premium on individuality and self-expression. People in these cultures are encouraged to be unique. But are they?

When it comes to behaviors, research indeed shows that people in individualist cultures are more unique and less likely to conform to social norms. However, when it comes to emotions, the story might be different.

In a recent article, my colleagues and I analyzed the valued and experienced emotions of more than 200,000 people from 69 countries. We found that in more individualist cultures, the emotions that people value and experience are actually less unique and more in line with the emotions of others in their culture. For instance, when asked about the emotion that people in one's culture value, responses in more individualist cultures had less variation. Moreover, in more individualist cultures, deviating from the emotions that are common in one's culture predicts lower well-being. While previous findings have shown that adherence to norms for behaviors is greater in more collectivist cultures, these new findings suggest that adherence to norms for emotions is greater in more individualist cultures.

What, Then, Is Individualistic about Individualist Cultures?

The idea that people in more individualist cultures are less unique and more likely to adhere to a norm may seem incorrect. However, as noted by Thomas Talhelm, a cultural psychologist at the University of Chicago, individualism and collectivism aren't what people think they are. For instance, while early work predicted that in-group favoritism and outgroup prejudice will be greater in more collectivist cultures, numerous findings have found the opposite to be true: in-group favoritism and outgroup prejudice are typically greater in more individualist cultures.

As my colleagues and I suggest in the article, the emotions of people in more individualist cultures might be less unique for two reasons. First, individualist cultures place greater value on authentic emotional experiences. Since social norms serve to support a culture's values, social norms in individualist cultures might be more likely to favor or disfavor emotions. Second, people in individualist cultures have a greater need for viewing themselves positively, as Steven Heine of the University of British Columbia has shown. One way to view oneself positively is via maintaining one's social relations, and so people in more individualist cultures might be more susceptible to certain kinds of social pressure.

But Isn't That a Logical Contradiction?

If authentic emotional experiences are more valued in more individualist cultures, isn't it a logical contradiction to suggest that adherence to norms for emotion is greater in such cultures? It is indeed a logical contradiction, but not a psychological contradiction. We have all witnessed instances where people we know have behaved in a manner that is irrational or defies logic. There is no reason to think that cultures are set up in a logically consistent manner. For instance, Dov Cohen, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, demonstrated that cultural attitudes against debt led, paradoxically, to greater borrowing behavior.

Individualist cultures may promote individuality, but when it comes to emotions, people in such cultures are more likely to feel the same emotions, a case of "me, myself, and I-dentification with others."

For Further Reading

Eid, M., & Diener, E. (2001). Norms for experiencing emotions in different cultures: Inter- and intranational differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5), 869–885. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.81.5.869

Frijda, N. H., & Mesquita, B. (1994). The social roles and functions of emotions. In S. Kitayama & H. R. Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 51–87). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10152-002

Vishkin, A., Kitayama, S., Berg, M. K., Diener, E., Gross-Manos, D., Ben-Arieh, A., & Tamir, M. (2023). Adherence to emotion norms is greater in individualist cultures than in collectivist cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000409

Allon Vishkin is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He studies cultural differences in emotion, motivation, and social norms.