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Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions

The cognitive appraisal of an event is crucial for the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, and causal attributions are an integral part of this process. In an interdisciplinary project comparing Tonga and Germany, we examined how cultural differences in attribution tendencies affect emotion...

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Autores principales: Bender, Andrea, Spada, Hans, Rothe-Wulf, Annelie, Traber, Simone, Rauss, Karsten
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3481001/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23112780
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00435
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author Bender, Andrea
Spada, Hans
Rothe-Wulf, Annelie
Traber, Simone
Rauss, Karsten
author_facet Bender, Andrea
Spada, Hans
Rothe-Wulf, Annelie
Traber, Simone
Rauss, Karsten
author_sort Bender, Andrea
collection PubMed
description The cognitive appraisal of an event is crucial for the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, and causal attributions are an integral part of this process. In an interdisciplinary project comparing Tonga and Germany, we examined how cultural differences in attribution tendencies affect emotion assessment and elicitation. Data on appraising causality and responsibility and on emotional responses were collected through questionnaires based on experimentally designed vignettes, and were related to culture-specific values, norms, and the prevailing self-concept. The experimental data support our hypothesis that – driven by culturally defined self-concepts and corresponding attribution tendencies – members of the two cultures cognitively appraise events in diverging manners and consequently differ in their emotional responses. Ascription of responsibility to self and/or circumstances, in line with a more interdependent self-concept, co-varies with higher ratings of shame, guilt, and sadness, whereas ascription of responsibility to others, in line with a less interdependent self-concept, co-varies with higher ratings of anger. These findings support the universal contingency hypothesis and help to explain cultural differences in this domain on a fine-grained level.
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spelling pubmed-34810012012-10-30 Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions Bender, Andrea Spada, Hans Rothe-Wulf, Annelie Traber, Simone Rauss, Karsten Front Psychol Psychology The cognitive appraisal of an event is crucial for the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, and causal attributions are an integral part of this process. In an interdisciplinary project comparing Tonga and Germany, we examined how cultural differences in attribution tendencies affect emotion assessment and elicitation. Data on appraising causality and responsibility and on emotional responses were collected through questionnaires based on experimentally designed vignettes, and were related to culture-specific values, norms, and the prevailing self-concept. The experimental data support our hypothesis that – driven by culturally defined self-concepts and corresponding attribution tendencies – members of the two cultures cognitively appraise events in diverging manners and consequently differ in their emotional responses. Ascription of responsibility to self and/or circumstances, in line with a more interdependent self-concept, co-varies with higher ratings of shame, guilt, and sadness, whereas ascription of responsibility to others, in line with a less interdependent self-concept, co-varies with higher ratings of anger. These findings support the universal contingency hypothesis and help to explain cultural differences in this domain on a fine-grained level. Frontiers Media S.A. 2012-10-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3481001/ /pubmed/23112780 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00435 Text en Copyright © 2012 Bender, Spada, Rothe-Wulf, Traber and Rauss. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
spellingShingle Psychology
Bender, Andrea
Spada, Hans
Rothe-Wulf, Annelie
Traber, Simone
Rauss, Karsten
Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions
title Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions
title_full Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions
title_fullStr Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions
title_full_unstemmed Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions
title_short Anger Elicitation in Tonga and Germany: The Impact of Culture on Cognitive Determinants of Emotions
title_sort anger elicitation in tonga and germany: the impact of culture on cognitive determinants of emotions
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3481001/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23112780
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00435
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