Empirical Research on the Meaning of Amae and its Universality across Cultures

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Amae episodes include actor's inappropriate behavior or request (according to the actor's age, social status, etc.) as well as his/her expectation that the counterpart will accept the actor's inappropriate behavior or request. We predicted, therefore, that the inappropriateness of behavior/request and the expectation of acceptance are essential for observers to perceive the episode as amae. Six video stories were constructed and presented to subjects, who were requested to describe each story without being hinted about amae. The results indicated that, as expected, that the subjects perceived the episodes as amae most when the episodes included both inappropriate behavior/request and the expectation of acceptance by the counterpart (Study 1). Study 2 examined people's perception about three kinds of people who request amae either often, sometimes, or never. The subjects tended to perceive that those who never request amae are competent and independent to a greater extent, relative to those who request amae often or sometimes. However, when it comes to sociability (i.e., kind, cooperative), those who never request amae were perceived as having those traits least. In addition, the subjects liked those who request sometimes most, when they were asked to choose a person they would like to work or have a fun with, indicating that requesting amae sometimes can be adaptive in the sense it promotes positive interpersonal relationships. Despite the fact that those who never request amae were perceived as most competent, the subjects did not choose them as a job partner. Study 3 examined a possible universality of amae across cultures. The results suggest that amae episodes are universal at least to some extent. Future research should examine people's response to amae episodes in more countries both in Asian and the West.