Article summary with Verbal display rule knowledge: A cultural and developmental perspective by Matthew Wice a.o. - 2019

What is the background of this study?

In the context of social cognitive development, it is considered a great achievement when a child comes to understand the display rules governing the expression of emotion. In order to be capable of gathering knowledge of display rules, a child must have the cognitive ability to understand the difference between apparent and real mental states. This also requires sociocultural knowledge. Display rule norms are subjected to cultural differences, but very limited research is done on the influence of culture on the development of display rule knowledge.  

Display rules: norms concerning the way people should express their mental state. There are two categories: 1) nonverbal display rules concerning the right way of expressing emotions through nonverbal behaviors. For example intensified (exaggerated), de-intensified, neutralized facial expressions or masking emotions. 2) verbal display rules concerning the expressing of emotions in a verbal way, for instance by telling a lie or giving a vaguely formulated answer.

Earlier research showed how cultural differences influence the display rule norms as conformed to by adults. For example, adults from Japan and the United States express disgust through the same facial expression when looking at disturbing images while being alone. However, the adults from Japan masked their expressions when in the company of others. These findings are in accordance with later research, which showed the importance of individuation and self-expression in the United States and the great contrast between the public and the private life of Japanese adults in order to maintain harmony.

Display rule knowledge develops from an early age: 4-year-olds are capable of understanding the difference between contexts in which expressing happiness or sadness is appropriate versus inappropriate. Children who attend preschool are capable of regulating their emotions by hiding their real emotions in an appropriate way, for example when they are gifted something that they do not actually like. Throughout childhood, display rule reasoning increases. Children become more capable of distinguishing apparent from real emotions. Six-year-olds understand that not only negative emotions can be masked, but also the positive emotions. 

What is the goal of this study?

The goal of this study is investigating the development of verbal display rule knowledge among adults, adolescents and elementary school children from two culturally different countries: Japan and the United States. This will be done by presenting two scenario’s: a welfare scenario (in which the expression of a true opinion will likely hurt the feelings of the other person) and a conflicting opinions scenario (in which two people have different opinions but it is not likely that someone’s feelings will get hurt).

Participants were asked to predict the response in both scenarios and to explain the reason behind that specific use of display rule.

Hypothesis: the welfare scenario will be similarly interpreted by the Japanese and Americans (masking the real feelings in order to prevent hurting the feelings of others). Cultural differences will come to light in the context of the conflicting opinions scenario. The Japanese were expected to favor greater regulation of emotional expression because they highly value maintaining harmonious relationship and abiding social norms. The Americans were expected to favor a more direct expression of feelings.

What method was used?

Who were the participants?

Participants from the United States: 34 adults (aged between 18 and 48), 25 adolescents (aged between 12 and 13 years) and 25 elementary school children (aged between 8 and 11 years). All were born in the United States.

Participants from Japan: 34 adults (aged between 19 and 22 years), 41 adolescents (aged between 12 and 13 years) and 25 elementary school children (aged between 6 and 11 years). All were born in Japan.

What materials were used and which procedure was followed?

The participants were asked to respond to two short stories portraying situations designed to evoke verbal display rules.

The welfare scenario: “One day, Rick goes to the house of his aunt for a visit. She cooked a special meal for him. The aunt asks Rick if he enjoys the meal. Rick strongly dislikes the meal.” In this situation, expressing the true opinion is highly likely to hurt the other’s feelings.

The conflicting scenario (adult version): “One day, Rick is at the office talking to a co-worker during a coffee break. The co-worker is talking about a new song he likes. The co-worker asks Rick what he thinks of that song. Rick strongly dislikes the song.”. The version presented to the children differed only in wordings (“school” and “classmates”). In this situation the characters have different opinions, but the chance of feelings being hurt is small.

Participants had to answer the following questions:

1. What do you think that the story’s protagonist will say in response to the question asked by the co-worker or classmate? (display rule endorsement)
2. Why do you think the protagonist answered in the way he did? (display rule motive)

What coding scheme was used to analyze responses to the question regarding display rule endorsement?

Responses to the first question were analyzed with the help of a coding scheme. This scheme used several display rule strategies, which included these possible responses:

• Unmodified (a true opinion is directly expressed, for instance: “I hate this meal” or “I don’t like the song”);
• Neutral (expressing an opinion is being avoided, for instance: “i dislike it”, “it’s alright”, “Why do you like it?”);
• Masked (the true emotion is hidden by expressing a different opinion, for instance answering that he likes the song or the meal).

What coding scheme was used to analyze the motives behind display rule usage?

The coding scheme included four categories of possible motives:

• Welfare: the participant referred to the protagonist being concerned with the feelings of the other person (“He said that because he does not want to hurt her feelings”).
• Instrumental: these motives consists of self-focused reasons for engaging in display rules, like trying to avoid a potential negative outcome (“If he says he dislikes the meal, his aunt will never give him a meal again”).
• Authenticity: the participant referred to honesty, truth or self-expression. Mention was made of the true feelings of the protagonist (“Because he does not like it”).
• Relational: the participant referred to general norms and a broader social context regarding social relationships, for instance: “If he expresses his dislike like that, it could damage their relationship” or “Because saying he hates the meal is very impolite”.

What were the results?

The responses of the participants were assessed by using the following measures:

• Degree of display rule usage;
• Types of display strategies (masking, neutral, unmodified) endorsed;
• Motives for display rule usage.

No differences were observed between both groups in display rule endorsement in response to the conflicting opinions scenario and the welfare scenario.

What were the results regarding the welfare scenario?

Age had a significant effect on the degree of display rule usage in response to the welfare scenario. As expected, adults endorsed a greater expression regulation in comparison to adolescents and children. The results show that age predicts the degree of display rule usage. No cultural differences were observed.

Regarding the types of display strategies, endorsement of unmodified responses decreased with age. No differences between the age groups were observed with regard to the endorsement of neutral responses. Endorsement of masking responses increased with age.

Age was no predictor of neutral responses, but it did positively predict the likelihood of endorsing masking responses and negatively the likelihood of endorsing unmodified responses.

Welfare motives were endorsed more often than the other motives. This is in accordance with the hypothesis that welfare concerns are the main motive in response to the welfare scenario. Among the cultural and age groups, the quality of the welfare responses was remarkably similar.

The endorsement of relational motives increased with age: adults mentioned them more often. This indicates that adults are more inclined to refer to the broader social context. For instance, one Japanese adult mentioned how aunts are older (of a higher status) so complaining is not done. An American adult mentioned how guests should appreciate and respect the effort.

The endorsement of authenticity motives decreased with age: adults mentioned fewer authenticity motives than children and adolescents. Children frequently mentioned the true feelings as the main motive for the display rules use.

Conflicting opinions scenario: what were the results regarding the degree of display rule endorsement?

Culture had a significant effect on degree of display use in response to the conflicting opinions scenario. Adults from Japan endorsed modifying their expressions to a greater extent than the adults from the United States. There were no differences between Japanese and American adolescents and children in their display rule endorsement. Japanese adults endorsed greater display use compared to the Japanese children. Among the Americans, no differences were observed.

Culture proved to moderate the relationship between degree of display rule endorsement and age. Among the Japanese only, age positively predicted the degree of display rule endorsement.

Conflicting opinions scenario: what were the results regarding the types of display strategies used?

Adults from the United States were more likely to endorse unregulated responses, while adults from Japan were more likely to endorse neutral strategies. Japanese adults had the tendency to avoid certain questions, for instance by counter-questioning, while the Americans expressed their responses very openly. With regard to masking strategies, no differences were observed.

Remarkably, Japanese adults tended to reply with the display rule of masking in the welfare scenario, while they displayed a more neutral attitude regarding the conflicting opinions scenario.

Conflicting opinions scenario: what were the results regarding the motives for display rule use?

A comparison within the age groups showed that adults from the United States endorsed more authenticity motives, while those from Japan endorsed more relational motives. The Americans’ motives referred to the character’s true feelings and were expressed in a factual manner (“That is how Rick feels about the song and his co-worker asked for his opinion about it”). The motives also demonstrated the importance of self-expression: being able to communicate one’s true feelings. The relational motives mentioned by the Japanese show how much they value etiquette and a respectful communication to maintain a good relationship. 

Least mentioned were instrumental motives. Those were endorsed less than authenticity motives (except for Japanese adults and American children) and less than welfare motives among American adults and adolescents.

What do the results show?

Americans and Japanese both try to protect the welfare of other people by endorsing the use of masking display rules, which increased with age. This finding is in accordance with earlier studies on display rules.

In the context of conflicting opinions, Americans and Japanese endorsed contrasting degrees of display rule usage. A gradual emergence of cultural differences was observed in the period between child- and adulthood. Regarding the adult groups, a greater emotion regulation was observed among the Japanese. The adolescents and children did not differ. Display rule behavior was viewed by Americans in terms of authenticity motives and by Japanese in terms of relational motives.

The results of this study demonstrate the influence of social norms on the development of display rule knowledge. The responses given by Japanese and American children to both scenarios were remarkably similar. Cultural differences emerged gradually in response to the conflicting opinions scenario: Japanese and American adults endorsed different display rule behaviors and different motives behind those behaviors.

Children in both groups had the tendency to endorse directly expressing their true feelings and mentioned similar motives. This finding could be indicative of a lack of sensitivity to display rule norms due to having little experience with these kind of situations. However, the children expressed welfare concerns in their responses to the welfare scenario, by referring to protecting others from emotional harm. This indicates that children have an early sensitivity to moral issues involving welfare, harm and the (emotional) needs of other people.

An increase with age regarding display rule knowledge and the endorsement of relational motives was observed in both groups. With time, children get better at estimating when it is socially expected to mask an opinion in order to spare the feelings of the other person.

In response to the conflicting opinions scenario, it was observed that Americans developed a greater expression of true feelings which reflected authenticity motives. With age, the Japanese tended to endorse less expression of true feelings which reflected relational harmony motives. The gradual emergency of cultural differences between the two groups demonstrates the progressive process of individuals gaining culture-specific display rule knowledge.

What is the conclusion of this study?

Display rule norms form an important component of social knowledge. This study is helpful in terms of acquiring a better understanding of display rules by adding a cultural dimension to the development of display rule knowledge. In a broader context, the research contributes to an better understanding of the relationship between socio-cognitive development and culture by showing how social knowledge may change over time in diverse cultures.