The semantic networks of anger and shame in English and Dutch

We propose that the comparison of semantic association networks may provide a novel, implicit approach to study cultural differences in emotional experiences. The idea is that the embedding of emotion words in linguistic systems is a good approximation of their experiential connotations. Because the experience of disengaging emotions (e.g., anger), compared to engaging emotions (e.g., shame), is more prevalent in US than in Western European contexts (Kitayama et al., 2009), we hypothesized that anger takes a more central position in English as compared to Dutch. Moreover, we aimed to explore the different associative networks in which anger and shame are embedded. The semantic networks used in this study were obtained through large free word association studies in the US (Nelson, McEvoy, & Schreiber, 2004), and Dutch (De Deyne & Storms, 2008). Participants in the US (N = 6,000) provided free associations to a total of 5018 cues, while Belgian participants (N = 69,367) provided associations to 12,580 cues. We first identified the most central anger and shame words (based on PageRank) in each language network. Consistent with our expectations, we found that anger vs. shame took a relatively more central role in English than in Dutch. Moreover, anger and shame were differentially associated with words related to self, social context, norms, and valence in English and Dutch. These findings contribute to a growing understanding of cultural differences in emotions between the US and Western Europe.status: publishe