Idiocentric and allocentric differences in emotional expression, experience, and the coherence between expression and experience

This study examined differences in emotional expression, experience, and th e coherence between expression and experience in idiocentric and allocentri c individuals, who participated in a study similar to Ekman (1972) and Frie sen's (1972) original display rule study. Encoders, classified as idiocentr ic or allocentric based on a measure of psychological culture, were unobtru sively videotaped as they viewed positive and negative films in two context s - alone, and then a second time either alone or with an experimenter pres ent. Subjective emotional responding was assessed following each of the fil m viewing sessions and, using the encoders' videotaped data, their emotiona l expressions were judged by a separate sample of decoders. Emotional expre ssion and coherence differed as a function of encoder culture and viewing c ondition; experience did not. These findings replicate and extend the only other cross-cultural experiment of spontaneous emotional expressions in adu lts conducted over thirty years ago (Ekman, 1972; Friesen, 1972), and speak to the influence of culture as a sociopsychological construct, given that all participants were European American females.