Cultures of moderation and expression: Emotional experience, behavior, and physiology in Chinese Americans and Mexican Americans

Ethnographic accounts suggest that emotions are moderated in Chinese Cultures and openly in Mexican cultures. The authors tested this notion by comparing subjective. behavioral. and aspects, of emotional responses to 3 (warned, unwarned, instructed to inhibit responding) aversive acoustic startle Stimuli in 95 Chinese Americans and 64 Mexican American. Subjective report, were consistent with ethnographic accounts Chinese Americans reported experiencing significantly less emotion than Mexican American, across all 3 startle conditions. Evidence from a nonemotional less suggested that these differences were not artifacts of cultural differences in the use of rating Few cultural differences were found in emotional behavior or physiology. suggesting that these aspects of emotion are less susceptible to cultural influence.