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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The (Un) Desirability Of Happiness: Pathogen Threats Predict Differences In The Value Of Happiness, Sharon Li Hua Koh
The (Un) Desirability Of Happiness: Pathogen Threats Predict Differences In The Value Of Happiness, Sharon Li Hua Koh
Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)
People in some parts of the world find positive emotions more desirable than others. What accounts for this variability? We predicted that happiness would be valued less under conditions where the behaviors that happiness promotes would be less beneficial. We analyzed international survey data and United Nations voting records and found that happiness was valued relatively less in environments that had been historically pathogen-rich. Using a series of experimental studies, we showed that people who were experimentally primed by the threat of pathogens judged happiness in others less favorably and found happiness less appropriate. Our findings contribute to research on …
Emotional Fit With Culture: Predictor Of Individual Differences In Relational Well-Being, Jozefien De Leersnyder, Batja Mesquita, Heejung Kim, Kimin Eom, Hyewon Choi
Emotional Fit With Culture: Predictor Of Individual Differences In Relational Well-Being, Jozefien De Leersnyder, Batja Mesquita, Heejung Kim, Kimin Eom, Hyewon Choi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
There is increasing evidence for emotional fit in couples and groups, but also within cultures. In the current research, we investigated the consequences of emotional fit at the cultural level. Given that emotions reflect people’s view on the world, and that shared views are associated with good social relationships, we expected that an individual’s fit to the average cultural patterns of emotion would be associated with relational well-being. Using an implicit measure of cultural fit of emotions, we found across 3 different cultural contexts (United States, Belgium, and Korea) that (1) individuals’ emotional fit is associated with their level of …
The Role Of Social Relationships And Culture In The Cognitive Representation Of Emotions, Sharon Koh, Christie N. Scollon, Derrick Wirtz
The Role Of Social Relationships And Culture In The Cognitive Representation Of Emotions, Sharon Koh, Christie N. Scollon, Derrick Wirtz
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
There are individual and cultural differences in how memories of our emotions are cognitively represented. This article examines the cognitive representation of emotions in different cultures, as a result of emotional (in)consistency in different cultures. Using a continuous semantic priming task, we showed in two studies that individuals who were less emotionally consistent across relationships have stronger associations of their emotions within those relationships. Further, we found (in Study 2) that in a culture characterised by higher levels of emotional inconsistency across relationships (Singapore), stronger associations between emotions within relationships were found than in a culture characterised by emotional consistency …