Smiles of a Sumatra night

Presents evidence delineating just how much nature shapes our emotional reactions. Studies on Americans' expressions of anger; Studies on the Minangkabau, a matrilineal, Moslem agrarian culture; Physiological changes; Physiological responses to emotions; Common ties of humanity.

By PT Staff, published on January 01, 1993

Emotional Contagion

In the longest-running debate on human behavior, nature and nurture have been duking it out for over a century, with nature getting an awful lot of decisions in the past decade or two. Now comes evidence delineating just how much nature shapes our emotional reactions.

When Americans create the expressions associated with anger and fear, the autonomic nervous system swings into gear and puts the body on alert, raising heart rate and altering skin temperature. To determine whether these changes are specific to Americans, and thus learned, or are part of a common inheritance, Robert Levenson, Ph.D., of Berkeley, and Paul Ekman, Ph.D., of San Francisco, headed off to West Sumatra. There they looked at people as different from us as you can get: the Minangkabau, a matrilineal, Moslem, agrarian culture that discourages displays of negative emotion.

Yet, when the Minangkabau were taught facial muscle contraction in order to mimic angry or fearful expressions, they registered the same physiologic changes - though they didn't feel the same way. No matter how different we seem, deep down we're all alike, observes the team in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 62, No. 6).

But if biological events turn out to be the same, subjective emotional experience is altogether different. "In our culture, we focus on the physiological sensations that happen when we feel emotions. This is in fact one of the most important aspects of emotion for us," reports Levenson. Ask an American what anger is and he'll tell you what he physically experiences when he is angry. But the Minangkabau didn't feel any emotions when they made the negative facial expressions.

"In their culture, the people are more entwined. Emotions define their relationships, not bodily sensations," explains Levenson. To them, anger is when a friend is mad at you, not how your body responds.

"Physiological responses to emotions are hard-wired into us; they're common for all people," says Levenson. "But what we do with that information is culturally variable."

PHOTO: FOR THE MINANGKABAU, EMOTIONS BIND PEOPLE, NOT BODIES. (WOLFGANG KAEHLER)