spontaneous expression of pride and shame: Evidence for biologically innate nonverbal displays

The present research examined whether the recognizable nonverbal expressions associated with pride and shame may be biologically innate behavioral responses to success and failure. Specifically, we tested whether sighted, blind, and congenitally blind individuals across cultures spontaneously displa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2008-08, Vol.105 (33), p.11655-11660
Main Authors: Tracy, Jessica L, Matsumoto, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arm
Behavior
Blindness
Blindness - congenital
Blindness - psychology
Cross cultural studies
Cultural Diversity
Emotional expression
Emotions - physiology
Facial expressions
Failure
Female
Hands
Happiness
Head
Humans
Male
Nonverbal communication
Olympic games
Paralympic Games
Pride
Shame
Smiles
Social Sciences
Sports
Success
Verbal Behavior
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Summary:The present research examined whether the recognizable nonverbal expressions associated with pride and shame may be biologically innate behavioral responses to success and failure. Specifically, we tested whether sighted, blind, and congenitally blind individuals across cultures spontaneously display pride and shame behaviors in response to the same success and failure situations--victory and defeat at the Olympic or Paralympic Games. Results showed that sighted, blind, and congenitally blind individuals from >30 nations displayed the behaviors associated with the prototypical pride expression in response to success. Sighted, blind, and congenitally blind individuals from most cultures also displayed behaviors associated with shame in response to failure. However, culture moderated the shame response among sighted athletes: it was less pronounced among individuals from highly individualistic, self-expression-valuing cultures, primarily in North America and West Eurasia. Given that congenitally blind individuals across cultures showed the shame response to failure, findings overall are consistent with the suggestion that the behavioral expressions associated with both shame and pride are likely to be innate, but the shame display may be intentionally inhibited by some sighted individuals in accordance with cultural norms.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0802686105