Emotion and Autonomic Nervous System Activity in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology Vol. 62; no. 6; pp. 972 - 988
• Main Authors: Levenson, Robert W, Ekman, Paul, Heider, Karl, Friesen, Wallace V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Psychological Association 01-06-1992
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Arousal - physiology; Asia; Autonomic Nervous System; Autonomic Nervous System - physiology; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Cultural Characteristics; Culture; Developing Countries; Emotions; Emotions - physiology; Ethnic Groups - psychology; Ethnography; Facial Expression; Galvanic Skin Response - physiology; Heart Rate - physiology; Human; Humans; Indonesia; Male; Native peoples; Nervous system; Physiological Correlates; Respiration - physiology; Rural Population; Skin Temperature - physiology; Social research; Sumatra; Indonesia; Sumatra
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.62.6.972

Physiology and emotional experience were studied in the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, a matrilineal, Moslem, agrarian culture with strong proscriptions against public displays of negative emotion. Forty-six Minangkabau men were instructed to contract facial muscles into prototypical configurations of 5 emotions. In comparison with a group of 62 Ss from the United States, cross-cultural consistencies were found in (a) autonomic nervous system (ANS) differences between emotions and (b) high configuration quality being associated with increased ANS differentiation and increased report of emotional experience. These findings provide the first evidence that these patterns of emotion-specific ANS activity and the capacity of voluntary facial action to generate this activity are not unique to American culture.