Events
-
01/13/2016 - 4:00pmAliya Saperstein
-
01/14/2016 - 4:15pmSteven M. Cohen in conversation with Tomás Jiménez
-
01/20/2016 - 12:00pmMichele Elam
-
01/26/2016 - 4:15pmTony Michels
-
02/24/2016 - 12:00pmLori Flores
-
03/02/2016 - 12:00pmStella Rouse
Events Archive
News & Announcements
Culture factors into why we like or dislike people, new Stanford research shows
Culture may play a key role in whether people "like" or "don't like" others, new Stanford research shows.
The differences are notable among Americans of European descent compared with people of Chinese origin.
"People respond more favorably to others who express the distinct kinds of positive emotions valued by their culture," said Jeanne Tsai, a Stanford associate professor of psychology. Tsai directs the Culture and Emotion Lab at Stanford and is one of the lead authors on the study, which was published in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience journal.
Tsai explained that people tend to immediately like and want to approach some people, but not others. "But the reasons for these fast reactions are unclear," she said, suggesting that culture plays a role.
The study involved 19 European American and 19 Chinese female undergraduate and graduate students (18-28 years old) from universities in the San Francisco Bay Area who participated in a study on rating faces. The students viewed faces that differed by expression (excited versus calm), ethnicity (white, Asian) and gender (male, female) while their brains were scanned.
