Beyond the Paradox: Gendered Emotion Experiences Across Cultures
Le résumé fourni par la source
Gender differences in emotion affect gender relations and are well-documented in Western societies, but have been sparsely studied across countries. It is thus imperative to investigate whether and why these gender differences vary across cultures. In a large-scale dataset covering 60 countries (N = 19,936; Mage = 37.26), the current pre-registered study examined cross-national variation in gender differences in distinct emotion experiences and systematically tested whether economic development and related socio-structural factors predict this gap. For communal emotions (compassion, gratitude, and love), greater economic development predicted larger gender differences: gender differences favoring women are larger in more economically developed (higher HDI) countries. Further analyses suggested that this pattern may be explained by decreased cultural collectivism (prioritizing interpersonal harmony over individual autonomy) and higher female labor force participation, but not by occupational sex segregation (men and women in different occupations). For power-related emotion (anger), country-level development predicts lower experiences in both genders. However, development more closely relates to less anger among women, leading to narrower gender gaps among more developed countries. Further analyses suggested that this effect of HDI may be explained by greater gender equality in highly developed countries. Unexpectedly, women reported consistently more powerless negative emotions (fear, sadness, anxiety) than men across countries. Importantly, these patterns held even after controlling for multiple confounding factors such as data quality, and country- and individual-level demographic characteristics. Overall, these findings suggest that gendered emotion experiences vary systematically across cultures and distinct cultural factors shape gender differences in communion- vs. power-related emotions.
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