Resumen de Cross-cultural Expression and Perceptionof SHAME and GUILT in Written Text: A Comparison of L1- and L2-Spanish andDutch Speakers
Niki de Jonge, Nadine Braun, Martijn Goudbeek
In this two-part study, we investigate cross-cultural effectsin the expression and perception of SHAME and GUILT in texts aboutsocial transgressions. SHAME and GUILT are prone to vary betweencultures given their inherent social nature. In Study 1, monolingualDutch and Spanish authors wrote a text in their respective firstlanguages (L1) about a personal wrongdoing in which others wereinvolved. They subsequently self-annotated their texts by indicating thedominant emotion, the number of words and sentences reflecting eachemotion, and the emotions’ intensity. These measures were expectedto vary between participants belonging to collectivistic (Spanish) andindividualistic (Dutch) cultures. In Study 2, bilingual Spanish and Dutchreaders similarly annotated texts in both languages, allowing for crossculturalcomparisons of author- and reader-annotations. IndividualisticL1-Dutch authors reported more intense GUILT experiences, butcollectivistic L1-Spanish authors did not report more intense SHAME.The results provide only partial support for an in-group advantage.For example, same-L1 readers and authors agreed more on emotionintensity, and text elements expressing GUILT. However, for SHAME,agreement was higher among different-L1 readers and authors. Finally,our findings show some in-group advantages for same-L1 speakers. Theyare partly consistent with previous work showing that individualisticcultures focus on GUILT, but not with the idea that collectivistic culturesfocus more on SHAME or that there is a general in-group advantage foremotion detection.
