Culture and emotion

Research on culture and emotion has moved beyond the once central nature–nurture. Evidence suggests that there are universal constituents of emotions – the ‘emotional potential’ – rather than universal emotions. Furthermore, the emotional constituents are assembled in culture-specific ways that are meaningful and predictable, resulting in systematic cultural differences in ‘emotional practices’ (i.e., people's actual emotional lives). Whereas emotions are not universal, the underlying rule of emotional life is: Culturally adaptive emotions are more prevalent and intense. After reviewing empirical evidence for each of these claims, we outline some of the future directions for research on culture and emotion.status: publishe