Cultural differences in emotional expressions and body language

As our environment becomes increasingly more international, we are interacting increasingly more with people from different cultures. During social interactions, it is important to respond appropriately to the cues that are relevant in a given situation. People are expected to behave in a suitable way to avoid offending others. For example, an appropriate response to a greeting can avoid much misunderstanding. Cultural variations have often been named as possible factors for explaining differences in processing emotions. Because culture is in part about regulating social interaction, one expects to find that cultural norms define display rules that are at least characteristic of the daily expressions of emotions. This chapter addresses whether there are important cultural factors that determine whole-body expressions of emotion, how they are perceived, how they are displayed, and what they are.