Responsibility for Bad Deeds – and for Good? The Impact of Cultural Attribution Tendencies on Cognition and Emotion

Appraisal theories of emotion assume that similar evaluations of an event result in similar emotions, whereas the evaluation itself may depend on culturally defined concepts, experiences, and values. In other words, cognitions are crucial for the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, and the impact that culture has on emotions is enclosed in their cognitive determinants. Based on this approach, our interdisciplinary project compares the cognitive elicitation of six emotions in Tonga and Germany. It tests the hypothesis that – driven by different self-concepts and corresponding attribution tendencies – members of both cultures ascribe responsibility to others and self in diverging manners. Consequently, responses should differ when it comes to emotions that hinge on these attributions. Our experimental data supports this hypothesis.