Does Culture Shape Our Understanding of Others' Thoughts and Emotions? An Investigation Across 12 Countries

• Published in: Neuropsychology 2022-10, Vol.36 (7), p.664-682
• Main Authors: Quesque, François, Coutrot, Antoine, Cox, Sharon, de Souza, Leonardo Cruz, Baez, Sandra, Cardona, Juan Felipe, Mulet-Perreault, Hannah, Flanagan, Emma, Neely-Prado, Alejandra, Clarens, Maria Florencia, Cassimiro, Luciana, Musa, Gada, Kemp, Jennifer, Botzung, Anne, Philippi, Nathalie, Cosseddu, Maura, Trujillo-Llano, Catalina, Grisales-Cardenas, Johan Sebastián, Fittipaldi, Sol, Magrath Guimet, Nahuel, Calandri, Ismael Luis, Crivelli, Lucia, Sedeno, Lucas, Garcia, Adolfo M., Moreno, Fermin, Indakoetxea, Begoña, Benussi, Alberto, Brandão Moura, Millena Vieira, Santamaria-Garcia, Hernando, Matallana, Diana, Pryanishnikova, Galina, Morozova, Anna, Iakovleva, Olga, Veryugina, Nadezda, Levin, Oleg, Zhao, Lina, Liang, Junhua, Duning, Thomas, Lebouvier, Thibaud, Pasquier, Florence, Huepe, David, Barandiaran, Myriam, Johnen, Andreas, Lyashenko, Elena, Allegri, Ricardo F., Borroni, Barbara, Blanc, Frederic, Wang, Fen, Yassuda, Mônica Sanches, Lillo, Patricia, Teixeira, Antônio Lúcio, Caramelli, Paulo, Hudon, Carol, Slachevsky, Andrea, Ibáñez, Agustin, Hornberger, Michael, Bertoux, Maxime
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognition; Cross Cultural Differences; Educational Status; Emotion Recognition; Emotions; Female; Human; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders; Mentalization; Neuropsychology; Social Cognition; Theory of Mind
• ISSN: 0894-4105; 1931-1559; 1931-1559
• DOI: 10.1037/neu0000817

Measures of social cognition have now become central in neuropsychology, being essential for early and differential diagnoses, follow-up, and rehabilitation in a wide range of conditions. With the scientific world becoming increasingly interconnected, international neuropsychological and medical collaborations are burgeoning to tackle the global challenges that are mental health conditions. These initiatives commonly merge data across a diversity of populations and countries, while ignoring their specificity. Objective: In this context, we aimed to estimate the influence of participants' nationality on social cognition evaluation. This issue is of particular importance as most cognitive tasks are developed in highly specific contexts, not representative of that encountered by the world's population. Method: Through a large international study across 18 sites, neuropsychologists assessed core aspects of social cognition in 587 participants from 12 countries using traditional and widely used tasks. Results: Age, gender, and education were found to impact measures of mentalizing and emotion recognition. After controlling for these factors, differences between countries accounted for more than 20% of the variance on both measures. Importantly, it was possible to isolate participants' nationality from potential translation issues, which classically constitute a major limitation. Conclusions: Overall, these findings highlight the need for important methodological shifts to better represent social cognition in both fundamental research and clinical practice, especially within emerging international networks and consortia. Key Points Question: We estimate the influence of cultural factors on social cognition assessment. Findings: Participants' nationality accounted for more than 20% of the variance of social cognition scores. Importance: Cognitive tasks are developed in highly specific contexts and should not be used in other cultures without adaptations. Next Steps: Finer-grain analyses of cross-cultural variations coupled with neural correlates of performances' convergences and divergences.