Perception of Culture-Specific Emotions: Measurement and Predictors

Emotion perception as part of emotional intelligence, involves the accurate recognition of emotions, not just in oneself, but in others, including individuals from different cultural background. Nevertheless, the difference or similarity between cultures may influence this accurateness, i.e., there are different ways of displaying emotions depending on cultural norms, so the expressions of emotions that are specific to a particular culture, distant cultures may find more difficult to perceive. Former studies explored this phenomenon, evidencing that culture is relevant for the perception of emotional facial expressions. However, a measure designed to assess the perception of the overall culture-specific emotions in individuals from a foreign country, previously did not exist in the literature. Thus, in the present study, I developed the first self-report that measures the levels of perception of culture-specific emotional expressions in people from a different nationality and culture, called “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”. My research, conducted among international students in the Russian Federation (N= 114), confirmed a high reliability (Cronbach's α =0.90) of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”. Furthermore, the results revealed that not just the general ability to perceive emotions predicts the accurate perception of culture-specific emotions in others, but also the similarity between cultures and living in the foreign country for a longer period of time. These findings provide a theoretical and methodological basis for future studies of perception of culture-specific emotions, and for the development of training programs aimed to help people in preparation to live, study or work in foreign countries.