Focusing on the negative: cultural differences in expressions of sympathy.
Focusing on the negative: cultural differences in expressions of sympathy.
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DOI：
10.1037/a0037684
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发表时间：
2014-12
影响因子：
7.6
通讯作者：
Tsai, Jeanne L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Koopmann-Holm, Birgit;Tsai, Jeanne L.
关心他人的痛苦被认为是人类的基本反应，然而，令人惊讶的是，我们对塑造人们如何应对他人痛苦的文化因素知之甚少。为此，我们进行了四项研究，检验了这样一种假设，即美国人的同情表达比德国人的同情表达更多地关注消极和积极的方面，部分原因是美国人比德国人更希望避免消极的国家。在研究1中，我们证明了美国的同情卡片比德国的同情卡片包含更少的消极内容和更多的积极内容。在研究2中，我们发现欧洲裔美国人比德国人更希望避免消极的国家。在研究3中，我们证明了这些在避免负面影响方面的文化差异在美国人和德国人在表达对熟人父亲假想死亡的同情时，专注于负面(vs.积极)时的自在程度上起到了中介作用。在研究4中，美国和德国的受试者被随机分配到两种状态之一：(1)“推开负面形象”(即，增加避免负面影响的愿望)或(2)“拉负面形象”接近自己(即，减少避免负面影响的愿望)。然后，参与者被要求挑选一张卡片寄给一位熟人，这位熟人的父亲假设刚刚去世。在不同的文化背景下，“消极推开”条件下的参与者比“消极拉近”条件下的参与者更不可能选择含有消极(与积极)内容的同情卡片。总而言之，这些研究表明，不同的文化在避免负面影响的愿望上存在差异，这些差异会影响同情表达对负面情绪(与积极情绪)的关注程度。我们讨论了这些发现对目前的同情、同情和帮助模式的影响。
Feeling concern about the suffering of others is considered a basic human response, and yet, we know surprisingly little about the cultural factors that shape how people respond to the suffering of another person. To this end, we conducted four studies that tested the hypothesis that American expressions of sympathy focus on the negative less and positive more than German expressions of sympathy, in part because Americans want to avoid negative states more than Germans do. In Study 1, we demonstrate that American sympathy cards contained less negative and more positive content than German sympathy cards. In Study 2, we show that European Americans want to avoid negative states more than Germans do. In Study 3, we demonstrate that these cultural differences in “avoided negative affect” mediate cultural differences in how comfortable Americans and Germans felt focusing on the negative (vs. positive) when expressing sympathy for the hypothetical death of an acquaintance's father. To examine whether greater avoided negative affect results in lesser focus on the negative and greater focus on the positive when responding to another person's suffering, in Study 4, American and German participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) to “push negative images away” (i.e., increasing desire to avoid negative affect), or (2) to “pull negative images closer” to themselves (i.e., decreasing desire to avoid negative affect). Participants were then asked to pick a card to send to an acquaintance whose father had hypothetically just died. Across cultures, participants in the “push negative away” condition were less likely to choose sympathy cards with negative (vs. positive) content than were those in the “pull negative closer” condition. Together, these studies suggest that cultures differ in their desire to avoid negative affect, and that these differences influence the degree to which expressions of sympathy focus on the negative (vs. positive). We discuss the implications of these findings for current models of sympathy, compassion, and helping.
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