Running head: RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EXPRESSION OF HAPPINESS 1 Russians Inhibit the Expression of Happiness to Strangers: Testing a Display Rule Model

Cultural stereotypes and considerable psychological research suggest that Russians are less happy and more stoic than Americans and Westerners. However, a second possibility is simply that cultural norms deter Russians from displaying happiness that they actually feel. To test this second possibility, three studies compared the emotional inhibition tendencies in U.S. and Russian student samples. Although Russians and Americans were no different on subjective well-being (SWB), a consistent 3-way interaction was found such that Russians (compared to Americans) reported greater inhibition of the expression of happiness (versus unhappiness), but mainly to strangers (versus friends/family). Russians also viewed their peers and countrymen as behaving similarly. Furthermore, a consistent interaction was found such that the degree of happiness inhibition with strangers was negatively correlated with SWB in the U.S. samples but was unrelated to SWB in the Russian samples. Given the equivalent levels of SWB observed in these data, we suggest that Russians may not be less happy than Americans, as this would illogically entail that they exaggerate their SWB reports while also claiming to inhibit their expression of happiness. Implications for emotion researchers and international relations are considered. RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 3 Russians Inhibit the Expression of Happiness to Strangers: Testing a Display Rule Model Westerners who visit Russia often come away with the impression that Russians are stoic or even gloomy. Shopkeepers do not seem pleased to see shoppers; subway-riders endure the ride stony-faced; and public officials are almost invariably bad-tempered. Internet travel guides echo this stereotype of Russian culture. For example, recent travel blogs have asked, “Why Don’t Russians Smile?” (Golubeva, 2014; Sternin, 2015). Furthermore, considerable evidence supports the supposition that Russians are unhappy, consistently ranking at the bottom relative to other countries on well-being measures (e.g., Kööts-Ausmees & Realo, 2015; Marks, Abdallah, Simms, & Thompson, 2006). Such differences have been explained as being more than a mere response bias (Veenhoven, 2001), instead reflecting the tumultuous political history of soviet bloc countries (Allik et al., 2011), or the lower wealth, poorer climate, or lower autonomy experienced in Russia (Fischer & Boer, 2011; Fischer & Van de Vliert, 2011). Still, other studies challenge the idea that Russians are objectively less happy than Americans, or suggest that any such differences are small, or are decreasing (e.g., Ingelhardt, Foa, Ponarin, & Welzel, 2013). Recent statistics, for example, reveal that the percent of Russians who feel very happy grew from 5% in 1990 to 29% in 2015, and that university students are the happiest segment of the Russian population (WCIOM, 2016; see also Kiseleva & Strielkovski, 2016). Also, according to the 2016 World Happiness Report, Russia is up to 56 place (out of 150) on an integrated index of happiness, and Russia is also one of the ten countries with the fast growing happiness level (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report). In sum, the data are somewhat mixed on whether contemporary Russians, especially students (who are sampled in the current studies), are less happy than Westerners or Americans in particular. Regardless, the question is largely moot from our perspective, because our research RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 4 addressed a different issue—namely, whether Russians are more likely to inhibit the expression of positive emotions, compared to Americans or to Westerners more generally. In other words, one reason Russians may strike foreigners as stoic and unsmiling is that they are simply following a cultural norm against the open expression of warmth to strangers. We attempt to demonstrate that this second possibility may be the correct one. Our research drew from the “display rules” concept extensively studied by Matsumoto and his colleagues (Matsumoto, 1990, 1991; Matsumoto, Kasri, & Kooken, 1999). According to these researchers, emotion display rules are “culturally prescribed rules learned early in life through socialization” that dictate “how, when, and to whom people should express their emotional experiences.” In our research, we focused primarily on “which” emotions people display (happiness versus unhappiness), as well as “to whom” they are displayed (friends/family versus strangers), postulating that Russian culture socializes members to inhibit the expression of positive emotions, especially to strangers, even when they are feeling quite happy or positive. Feeling versus Expression across Cultures However, consideration of the research literature in cultural psychology reveals the difficulty of distinguishing between “actual feelings” versus “mere expressions” of happiness. A general problem is that researchers typically rely on self-reports to assess the level or intensity of felt emotion—self-reports that are themselves expressions that are likely affected by cultural display rules, as well as by actual feelings. Another general problem is that the feeling and expression of emotion are both entangled with many other processes, including emotion coping, emotion regulation, and emotion sharing, all known to differ across cultures (Chang, 1996; Erber & Erber, 2000). Moreover, different cultures hold widely varying views on what affects are ideal RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 5 to feel, what expressions should look like, how emotions should be labeled, and how and when emotions should be displayed (Matsumoto, 1990; Mesquita & Frijda, 1992; Tsai, 2007). Cultural differences in actual feeling. To gain further traction on the slippery distinction between actual feeling versus mere expression, we consider relevant research comparing individualist/Western cultural samples with collectivist/Asian cultural samples (although caution is needed, as Russia is not always clearly a collectivist culture; Chirkov et al., 2003; Latova & Latov, 2008; Stetsenko et al., 1995). For example, Asians (compared to Americans and Europeans) report objectively lower levels of positive emotion while doing tasks designed to elicit such responses (Mauss & Butler, 2010; Soto, Levenson, & Ebling, 2005). This is consistent with other findings indicating that Asian individuals do not seek to feel strong positive experience, instead aspiring to moderation. For example, while Chinese individuals’ view of happiness is quiet, peaceful, and reserved, Americans’ view is energetic and emotional (Lu & Gilmour, 2004; see also Tsai, 2007). Another study found that happiness for Americans, compared to other nationalities, involves a significantly broader array of positive feelings (Oishi, Grahan, Kesebir, & Galinha, 2013). Also relevant to the “Russians really are less happy” possibility is the finding that nonWesterners typically report more mixed emotions (i.e., experience positive and negative emotions at the same time) compared to Westerners (Schimmack, Oishi, & Diener, 2002). This phenomenon reflects non-Westerners’ dialectical view of emotions, in which apparent opposites need not be experienced as antithetical and contradictory (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). For example, Lu and Gilmour (2004) found that Chinese participants see happiness and unhappiness as two states that often go hand in hand; life is bittersweet. Moreover, research shows that in some Asian cultures people deliberately choose to do things that make them feel unhappy or sad, thus RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 6 avoiding happiness and positive affect (Erber & Erber, 2000). Likewise, non-Westerners are more likely to dampen their positive emotions instead of savoring them (Joshanloo et al., 2014). In the words of Leu, Wang, and Koo (2011), Asians are wont not only to find the “good in the bad,” as many Westerners do, but also to “find the bad in the good.” Cultural differences in mere expression. However, existing evidence also supports the possibility that any differences between Russians and Westerners primarily reflect the expression (vs. inhibition) of emotion. Previous studies of emotion regulation—especially regulation with respect to outward expression—have revealed that Asian respondents value emotional control and suppression, whereas U.S. respondents value free and open emotional expression (Butler, Lee, & Gross, 2009; Soto et al., 2005). Western European values such as independence and selfassertion encourage open emotional expression in almost all situations, with suppression reserved for social threats (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Matsumoto, 1990; Oyserman et al., 2002; Tsai & Levenson, 1997; Wierzbicka,1994). In contrast, Asians may use emotion suppression in service of in-group goals—for example, suppressing anger with a friend in order to preserve that person’s feelings or status (Wierzbicka, 1994). In general, happiness and positive emotion expression are more valued in individualist cultures (Eid & Diener, 2001; Joshanloo et al., 2014), and less valued in Asian cultures (Matsumoto & Kudoh, 1993, Tsai, Knutson, Fung, 2006). It may be difficult, however, to apply findings regarding Asian or strictly collectivist cultures to Russian culture, because Russia is intermediate between East and West, and has historically had relatively greater exposure to Western ideas. In the next section, we consider some distinct aspects of Russian culture, in comparison with U.S. culture. Emotion Expression in Russia and the United States RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 7 In the U.S., happiness is primarily conceived as a strongly positive emotional condition (Oishi et al., 2013). In contrast, the Russian word for happiness (счастье) expresses more of an existential ideal than a feeling (Levontina & Zalizniak, 2001) and is thought to reflect luck and good fortune as much as one’s own actions or accomplishments (Diener, Kahneman, & Helliwell, 2010; Oishi et al., 2013). The authenticity or truth of emotional expression is considered to be more important than whether these emotions reflect a happy or an unhappy state (Sternin, 2000). Moreover, similar to other non-Westerners, Russians demonstrate hesitation towards pursuing or demonstrating happiness or success, which is often connected to the belief in the “evil eye”—the idea that visible success can lead to envy and suspicion from others, and to ultimate misfortune and unhappiness (Haber, 2013). This belief usually concerns interactions with unfamiliar people or acquaintances, while genuine expression of emotions is culturally expected towards close friends and family members (Berger, 2012). Also relevant is the notorious reluctance of Russians to smile in public, or to strangers (Gasparyan, 2011). Sternin (2000) argued that a smile for Russians is meant to be very sincere and should never simply mirror someone else’s smile. Also, when Russians smile, they must have a very concrete and logical reason to do so. Any ambiguity about why someone smiles could lead to confusion and worry in others; thus, it should be avoided. Sternin (2000) cited a famous Russian saying in support of this: “Laughter with no reason is a sign of stupidity.” According to Gasparyan (2011), when the root causes of smiling or laughter are unclear, Russians err on the negative or cynical side when guessing the reasons. Americans, on the other hand, usually assume that a smiling or laughing person is just happy or having a good time. Interestingly, Stefanenko (2014) claimed that the Russian tendency to withhold or limit smiling is a historically recent phenomenon. Stefanenko’s content analysis of Anna Karenina, RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 8 written in 1877 by Leo Tolstoy, led her to conclude that a tendency to withhold smiles was not a traditional characteristic of Russian culture, but instead emerged only in the 20 century during the Soviet regime. Similarly, Mondry and Taylor (1998) analyzed the “New Russians” who appeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union, concluding that they view being able to control one’s emotions as cool. Stefanenko also argued that Russia is a “high-context” culture, in which much information is derived from people’s facial expressions and other nonverbal cues. This observation ties back to Sternin’s (2000) proposal that Russians do not want their smiles to be “empty,” conveying the wrong information. Still, neither Sternin nor Stefanenko conducted empirical research on contemporary Russians, and thus their ideas remain to be corroborated. These literary and anthropological analyses are consistent with some empirical research. For example, when asked to select which of six emotion display categories people “should” do in various situations and categories (express, de-amplify, amplify, mask, qualify, or control), Russians selected the “emotional control” category more frequently than did Asians or Americans (Matsumoto et al.,1998). Matsumoto, Yoo, Hirayama, and Petrova (2005) found that this pattern extended specifically to the control of happiness expression. The main goal of the current research was to replicate and extend this latter finding. Using continuous rather than nominal measures to assess inhibition—and including SWB as a corroboratory measure—we explore the idea that the “unhappy Russians” stereotype merely reflects different emotion display rules—rather than differing emotional fact—within Russia. Study 1 reports unpublished data collected in the late 1990s (Lyubomirsky, 2000). Studies 2 and 3 report data collected in 2014 and 2015. All three studies tested the following 3-way interaction hypothesis: Russians (compared to Americans) will be more likely to inhibit the expression of happiness (compared to unhappiness), especially with regard to strangers (compared to friends RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 9 and family). In addition to this primary 3-way interaction hypothesis, we also expected to observe main effects of emotion type (i.e., people inhibit unhappiness more than happiness; Gross & John, 2003) and social target (people inhibit more to strangers than to friends/family; Matsumoto et al., 2008). We did not predict a main effect difference of nationality (Russians do not inhibit more, overall), and we ventured no particular 2-way interaction hypotheses. Study 1 Method Participants and Procedure The sample (N = 155) was comprised of two cultural groups. Russian students (N = 67) were recruited from Moscow State University from introductory psychology classes and participated in exchange for 10 rubles. U.S. students (N = 88) were recruited from the introductory psychology pool at the University of California, Riverside, and participated in exchange for course credit. The gender and age composition of the participants were as follows: 73% female (Mage = 19.8) in the Russian student sample and 65% female (Mage = 18.8) in U.S. student sample. All participants completed measures via paper-and-pencil in 1998, and all measures were translated and back-translated before being administered to Russian students. Materials To assess emotional inhibition we used an indirect approach, employing two incomplete stems: “When happy, I express my happiness to.....” and “When unhappy, I express my unhappiness to....” Each of the two stems was followed by the same six options: Everyone, Acquaintances, Friends, Family, Significant Others, and No One. Participants were asked to select as many options as they desired. We computed the percentage selected for each of the twelve options, to facilitate cross-cultural comparisons. RUSSIANS INHIBIT THE EMOTION OF HAPPINESS 10