Author:

Keywords:

Culture, emotion, Acculturation, Implicit measure, emotional similarity, Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, culture, acculturation, implicit measure, MOOD LINKAGE, EXPERIENCE, CULTURE, JAPAN, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Belgium, Emigrants and Immigrants, Emigration and Immigration, Emotions, Ethnicity, Female, Humans, Korea, Male, Middle Aged, Social Adjustment, Social Conformity, Surveys and Questionnaires, Turkey, United States, White People, Young Adult, 1701 Psychology, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, Social Psychology, 5205 Social and personality psychology

Abstract:

The emotional experiences of people who live together tend to be similar; this is true for dyads and groups, but also for cultures. It raises the question whether immigrants’ emotions become more similar to host culture patterns of emotional experience; do emotions acculturate? Two studies, on Korean immigrants in the US (Study1) and on Turkish immigrants in Belgium (Study2), measured emotional experiences of immigrants and host group members with the Emotional Patterns Questionnaire. To obtain a measure of the immigrants’ emotional similarity to the host group, their individual emotional patterns were correlated to the average pattern of the host group. Immigrants’ exposure to and engagement in the host culture, but not their acculturation-attitudes, predicted emotional acculturation.