A cross-cultural study of non-verbal behaviour
- Cross-cultural research involves investigating differences between cultures on specific variables, in this case non-verbal behaviour
- Yuki et al. (2007) focuses on cultural differences between American and Japanese participants as these two cultures differ in many ways including:
- Japanese people place importance on harmony and maintaining social order as Japan is a collectivist culture, while Americans value personal freedom, and independence as the USA is an individualistic culture
- Japanese culture emphasises politeness, respect, and the social hierarchy, whereas American culture. values directness, informality, and equality
- Japanese people bow to each other as a greeting, remove their shoes indoors, and call each other ‘Ms/Mr’, while Americans greet each other using handshakes or slaps on the back, may not remove shoes indoors, and use first names even when speaking to superiors at work
- Japanese people do not express emotion loudly or freely, they prefer to hide their true feelings through a ‘mask’ of smiling or maintaining a neutral face; Americans are more likely to express feelings, ‘make a fuss’ (e.g. by complaining or calling someone out) and they are more likely to be open about how they feel
Exam Tip
Reading through the above list of differences between Japanese and American people it is hard not to think, ‘Wow, these are such stereotypes’ and to some extent, yes, they are. Obviously, there are Japanese and American people who do not fit neatly into all of the above behaviours but what cross-cultural research has to go by are general tendencies per nationality/culture on which to base their research. Part of your AO3 evaluation could be to point out that using generalisations about whole nations/cultures ignores the fine details and may perpetuate prejudice.
- Yuki (who has some experience of American culture but who lives and works in Japan) had noticed that American people produced much wider smiles than Japanese people, possibly because Japanese people prefer to hide their emotions and a wide smile signals ‘I am happy!’
- Yuki realised that emoticons sent by Japanese and American colleagues reflected cross-cultural differences in how smiling is represented, as :) from Americans and (^_^) from Japanese
- This led Yuki to realise that Japanese people suppress their mouths when smiling but they cannot suppress their eyes i.e. the eyes smiled even when the mouth didn’t as seen in the (^_^) emoticon
- Yuki et al.’s (2007) is outlined below:
- The study aimed to test the theory that Japanese and American people interpret emoticons differently
- 95 Japanese and 11 American students took part in the study
- The participants were presented with the following emoticons, each of which combined either happy/sad/neutral eyes and/or mouth
Yuki's emoticon diagram
Yuki’s emoticons: 1 = happy eyes + neutral mouth; 2 = neutral eyes + sad mouth; 3 = happy eyes + sad mouth; 4 = neutral eyes + happy mouth; 5 = sad eyes + neutral mouth; 6 = sad eyes + happy mouth
- The participants used a 9-point scale to rate how happy each emoticon was where 9 = ‘very happy’ down to 1 = ‘very sad’
- Japanese participants rated the ‘happy eyes’ emoticons as being happier particularly for emoticon 3 which showed happy eyes and a sad mouth
- American participants rated the ‘happy mouths’ emoticons as being happier particularly for emoticon 6 which showed sad eyes and a happy mouth
- There may be cultural differences in how Japanese and American people interpret facial expressions which may be due to cultural norms i.e. Japanese people prefer to mask their feelings whereas American people show their feelings openly
The film star Reese Witherspoon may have good reason to smile widely but is this true for all Americans?
Evaluation of Yuki’s study of emoticons
Strengths
- Yuki’s study uses a standardised procedure in controlled conditions which means that it is high in reliability
- Yuki’s findings have good application in terms of cross-cultural understanding e.g. in business, education, politics
Weaknesses
- Interpreting emoticons is an artificial task i.e. not something that is done every day which lowers the validity of the research
- Rating scales are a very narrow way of measuring a complex variable such as emotion which limits the usefulness of the findings
Worked example
Here is an example of a question you might be asked on this topic - for AO1.
AO1: You need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
AO2: You need to apply your knowledge and understanding, usually referring to the ‘stem’ in order to do so (the stem is the example given before the question)
AO3: You need to analyse and evaluate key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
After each featured question there is a ‘model’ answer i.e. one which would achieve top marks in the exam.
Question: Which two of the following statements about Yuki’ et al.’s (2007) study are correct? [2 marks]
Select two options.
- Japanese participants gave higher ratings to faces with happy eyes
- American participants gave higher ratings to faces with happy eyes
- Japanese participants gave higher ratings to faces with happy mouths
- American participants gave higher ratings to faces with happy mouths
- There was no difference in the way that the faces were rated
AO1 = 2 marks
Model answer:
The answer is 1. and 3.
