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Positive emotional regard towards the host culture mediates the way bicultural bilinguals detect emotional cues of facial expressions of happiness in a visual search task

Damjanovic, Libby LU ; Athanasopoulos, Panos LU ; Reguliova, Andrea ; Kasai, Chise ; Petersdotter, Linn LU and Roberson, Debi (2025) In Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science
Abstract
We investigated the role of cultural experience in the search advantage for happy faces. European British participants living in the UK, Asian Japanese participants living in Japan, and Asian Japanese participants living in the UK, were required to search for a happy or an angry face target against a background of neutral facial expressions, using Asian Japanese and European American faces. Results showed that British participants displayed a search advantage favouring happy facial expressions, while Japanese participants living in Japan showed response time equivalence for happy and angry expressions. However, the Japanese participants residing in the UK showed a detection advantage favouring happy faces, thus resembling British... (More)
We investigated the role of cultural experience in the search advantage for happy faces. European British participants living in the UK, Asian Japanese participants living in Japan, and Asian Japanese participants living in the UK, were required to search for a happy or an angry face target against a background of neutral facial expressions, using Asian Japanese and European American faces. Results showed that British participants displayed a search advantage favouring happy facial expressions, while Japanese participants living in Japan showed response time equivalence for happy and angry expressions. However, the Japanese participants residing in the UK showed a detection advantage favouring happy faces, thus resembling British participants. Correlational analyses revealed that it is positive emotional regard towards the host culture that underlies visual search performance rather than the length of exposure to the host culture per se. These results reveal how quality rather than quantity of inter-group contact modulates attentional mechanisms relating to out-group learning of facial expressions of emotion. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
in
Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science
pages
18 pages
external identifiers
  • scopus:85219011178
DOI
10.1007/s41809-025-00164-y
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6f726e92-d6d2-4254-b2f7-b7a32a4e2e4f
date added to LUP
2025-03-12 11:54:15
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:13:09
@article{6f726e92-d6d2-4254-b2f7-b7a32a4e2e4f,
  abstract     = {{We investigated the role of cultural experience in the search advantage for happy faces. European British participants living in the UK, Asian Japanese participants living in Japan, and Asian Japanese participants living in the UK, were required to search for a happy or an angry face target against a background of neutral facial expressions, using Asian Japanese and European American faces. Results showed that British participants displayed a search advantage favouring happy facial expressions, while Japanese participants living in Japan showed response time equivalence for happy and angry expressions. However, the Japanese participants residing in the UK showed a detection advantage favouring happy faces, thus resembling British participants. Correlational analyses revealed that it is positive emotional regard towards the host culture that underlies visual search performance rather than the length of exposure to the host culture per se. These results reveal how quality rather than quantity of inter-group contact modulates attentional mechanisms relating to out-group learning of facial expressions of emotion.}},
  author       = {{Damjanovic, Libby and Athanasopoulos, Panos and Reguliova, Andrea and Kasai, Chise and Petersdotter, Linn and Roberson, Debi}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science}},
  title        = {{Positive emotional regard towards the host culture mediates the way bicultural bilinguals detect emotional cues of facial expressions of happiness in a visual search task}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41809-025-00164-y}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s41809-025-00164-y}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}