Cultural differences in vocal expression analysis: Effects of task, language, and stimulus-related factors

Cultural context shapes the way that emotions are expressed and socially interpreted. Building on previous research looking at cultural differences in judgements of facial expressions, we examined how listeners recognize speech-embedded emotional expressions and make inferences about a speaker'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-10, Vol.17 (10), p.e0275915-e0275915
Main Authors: Zhang, Shuyi, Pell, Marc D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Communication
Cultural differences
Cultural factors
Culture
Emotion recognition
Emotions
Evaluation
Language
Multiculturalism
Native languages
Social Sciences
Speech
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Summary:Cultural context shapes the way that emotions are expressed and socially interpreted. Building on previous research looking at cultural differences in judgements of facial expressions, we examined how listeners recognize speech-embedded emotional expressions and make inferences about a speaker's feelings in relation to their vocal display. Canadian and Chinese participants categorized vocal expressions of emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness) expressed at different intensity levels in three languages (English, Mandarin, Hindi). In two additional tasks, participants rated the intensity of each emotional expression and the intensity of the speaker's feelings from the same stimuli. Each group was more accurate at recognizing emotions produced in their native language (in-group advantage). However, Canadian and Chinese participants both judged the speaker's feelings to be equivalent or more intense than their actual display (especially for highly aroused, negative emotions), suggesting that similar inference rules were applied to vocal expressions by the two cultures in this task. Our results provide new insights on how people categorize and interpret speech-embedded vocal expressions versus facial expressions and what cultural factors are at play.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0275915