Variations in the Regulation of Affective Neural Responses Across Three Cultures

In the present research, we assessed the effects of culture on the ability to regulate affective neural responses. Using an event-related potential design focusing on the centroparietal late positive potential (LPP), we found that cultural groups differed in their ability to intentionally regulate these responses. As a group, European Americans demonstrated successful up-regulation of the LPP in response to positive and negative valence images, as did participants from Mexican cultural backgrounds who also showed successful down-regulation of the LPP in response to positive valence images. As a group, participants from Chinese cultural backgrounds did not show evidence of successful up- or down-regulation of LPP responses. This work confirms and extends preliminary findings of cultural variation in emotion regulation abilities.

Automated summary

The research found that European Americans and participants from Mexican cultural backgrounds showed better ability in regulating affective neural responses compared to those from Chinese cultural backgrounds.