Perception of culture-specific emotions: measurement and predictors

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Introduction

The perception of emotions as a domain of emotional intelligence, can be considered as the culturally universal capacity to recognize emotions in oneself and others (Brackett et al., 2011; Shao et al., 2015). However, several previous studies (Dailey et al., 2010; Fang et al., 2018; Lyusin & Ovsyannikova, 2016; Martin et al., 1996; Matsumoto et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 2003; Nowicki & Duke, 1994; Srinivasan & Martínez, 2018) assessed emotion perception through identifying images of facial expressions of emotions that are equally or universally expressed, e.g., sadness, happiness and anger (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Ekman, 1972; Shao et al., 2015). Though, every emotion, even the universal ones (Ekman, 1972), may be expressed in specific ways among different cultures (Jack et al., 2012), due to the fact that every national culture has different cultural norms and standards that rule and determinate how individuals express emotions (Fernández et al., 2000; Hofstede, 2011; Matsumoto et al., 2008).

Former studies have aimed to explore this phenomenon by using computer programs to measure the emotion perception of facial gestures among participants with different cultural backgrounds. Their findings provided robust evidence of the importance of cultural specificity for the perception of emotional facial expressions (Dailey et al., 2010; Fang et al., 2018; Srinivasan & Martínez, 2018).

Therefore, the accurate perception of culture-specific emotions in others may depend not only on the main ability to correctly perceive emotions, but also on the similarity in norms and standards between cultures (Elfenbein et al., 2002). Nevertheless, a scale that assesses the perception of the overall culture-specific emotional expressions in individuals from a different culture, had not yet been developed.

Thus, the present study connected theories of emotional intelligence and cultural distance in order to create a self-report that measures the perception of culture-specific emotional expressions in others, called “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”. Furthermore, the study was geared towards discovering the connection of this measurement with the elements of emotional intelligence and cultural distance that inspired its design.

Consequently, the research question was: Is the accurate perception of culture-specific emotions in others positively related to the general ability of emotion perception and the similarity between cultures?

The novelty of the study lies in developing and analyzing the first reliable self-report that measures the perception of culture-specific emotional expressions in individuals from a different nationality and culture. Moreover, the novelty canal so lie in investigating factors that may affect the perception of culture-specific emotions in a situation of cultural differences.

The present study can make significant contributions, the reliability of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” provides methodological relevance for future adjustments of the instruments of emotion perception and emotional intelligence in studies conducted within multicultural environments. Besides, the reliability of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” and the confirmed statistically significant predictors of perception of culture-specific emotions, are a great contribution to the enrichment of theoretical approaches in the field of cross-cultural studies of perception of emotions and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the main significance of the reliability of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” in real-world application, is the creation of effective multicultural training programs aimed at individuals living, working or studying abroad, in order to facilitate better recognition of culture-specific emotions in others.

1. Theoretical approaches to the study of perception of culture-specific emotions

The present chapter contains the theoretical literature review of the main theories and researches in the field of emotional intelligence and perception of emotions; cultural distance and emotional display rules; that influenced the development of the measurement and the conceptual definition of perception of culture-specific emotions.

The first contribution for the development of the concept of emotional intelligence is the theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner, created in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which hypothesizes that individuals have several types of intelligence. Between them are the interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence (Daviset al., 2011; Trujillo Flores& Rivas Tovar, 2005). Interpersonal intelligence can be considered as the ability to understand people's attitudes, intentions and emotions, i.e., to be able to understand the world from the point of view of others, and to be able to manage the interactions with others. Intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and manage personal emotions, to distinguish between the different types of emotional states, and to be able to develop personal goals (Behjat,2012; Birgili &Çalýk,2013).

The two previous definitions influenced the conceptualization of emotional intelligence by Salovey and Mayer, in 1990 (Trujillo Flores& Rivas Tovar, 2005), as the ability to recognize, assimilate, regulate and appreciate emotions on a personal and social context (Mayer et al., 2011; Salovey & Mayer,1990).

Salovey and Mayer established that emotional intelligence has four discrete mental abilities, i.e., four branches: (a) Perception of emotions, involves the ability to recognize emotions in the self and others. Including thoughts, gestures and honest or false emotional expressions in others; (b) Use of emotions, involves the capacity to facilitate thoughts andto simplify intellectual activities, e.g., reasoning, problem solving and interpersonal communication; (c) Understanding of emotions, involves the ability to comprehend the language and meaning of emotions and their experiences; and (d) Management of emotions, involves the capacity to prevent, minimize, improve, or adapt an emotional response in others and oneself, along with the ability to experience a variety of emotions while making decisions about the effectiveness of any emotion in any situation (Brackettet al., 2011; Joseph & Newman, 2010).

For the purpose of the research question, Iinclude a theoretical analysis ofone of the branches of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotions, i.e.,recognition of emotions in the self and others (Brackettet al., 2011; Joseph & Newman, 2010).

The "cascading model of emotional intelligence" by Joseph and Newman (2010) is based on the branches of emotional intelligence by Salovey and Mayer (Brackett et al., 2011; Joseph & Newman, 2010), previously mentioned. It includes three domains of emotional intelligence, these are the ability to perceive emotions followed by the ability to understand emotions and the ability to regulate emotions, respectively (Brackettet al., 2011; Joseph & Newman, 2010), i.e., the abilities of perception, understanding and regulation of emotions.

Shao et al. (2015) tested the" cascading model of emotional intelligence" (Joseph & Newman, 2010)in their research, in order to confirm the hypothesis that perception of emotions is more cultural universal but emotion understanding and regulation are more culture-specific. The research was divided in two different studies; the first study was conducted among MBA students and professionals in Argentina, China, Japan, India and United States; and the second study was conducted among MBA students and professionalism China and United States. The second study was a replication of the first study. The findings of both studies accepted the aforementioned hypothesis. Thus, it was confirmed that perception of emotions is the most universal domain of emotional intelligence, i.e., cultural specificity does not influence the process of perception of emotions; therefore, the main contribution of culture starts with the process of emotional understanding, and furthermore, emotional regulation is the most influenced by the cultural specificity. Nevertheless, the authors were aware of the limitationsthat even though five countries were studied, the scenarios in the test were around the American culture, moreover, the research only studied “universal" emotions (Shao et al., 2015).

It is important to mention the significant contribution of Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen to the field of perception of emotions. Ekman and Friesen (1971)studied the idea of universal facial expressions by Darwin (1872),in individuals from a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. Identifying that six emotional expressions are universal, i.e., six universal emotions: (a) happiness, (b) sadness, (c) fear, (d) disgust, (e) anger, and (f) surprised. Later, Ekman and Friesen (1986) examined the facial expressions of the emotion contempt among participants from Western and non-Western cultures. Discovering that contempt is an emotion expressed by several universal gestures. Therefore, the emotion contempt was added to the list of universal emotions (Ekman & Friesen, 1986). Thanks to these findings, the images, e.g., photographs or videos, of the aforementioned emotional expressions are commonly used to study the perception of emotions(Dailey et al., 2010; Fang et al., 2018; Lyusin & Ovsyannikova, 2016; Martin et al., 1996; Matsumoto et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 2003; Nowicki & Duke, 1994; Srinivasan & Martínez, 2018), and consequently this method was applied in the research of Shao et al. (2015).

Thus, according to Salovey and Mayer's emotional intelligence theory (Mayer et al., 2011; Salovey & Mayer, 1990), and, therefore, the "cascading model of emotional intelligence" (Joseph & Newman, 2010), an emotionally intelligent person is able to accurately perceive emotional expressions in others(Huynh et al., in press). Moreover, this ability has proven to be culturally universal (Shao et al., 2015). However, there is research evidence suggesting that the accuracy of emotion perception is better among people who share similar cultural backgrounds (Elfenbein et al., 2002).

Gendron et al.(2014) examined the perception of facial expressions considered as cultural universal (Ekman, 1972), i.e., happiness, anger, discuss, fear, and sadness; and a neutral expression ,between Americans and an ethnic group from Namibia called the Himbas. The findings revealed that Himbas did not have the same standards of emotional expressions than Americans. Unlike American participants, Himba participants did not perceive these emotions as the expected universal emotional facial expressions. Himbas perceived the facial expressions as behaviors that do not have a necessary relationship to emotions. Proving that perception of emotions may dependon cultural contexts.

Fang et al.(2018), in their research aimed to the study the specificity of emotion perception across cultures, conducted two experimental studies in order to compare the perception of two types of non-intended emotions among Chinese and Dutch participants, (a) the facial expressions of emotions that were morphologically similar to the intended emotion, i.e., anger and disgust for study 1; fear and surprise for study 2. And (b) emotions that were morphologically dissimilar to the intended emotion, i.e., fear for study 1;anger for study 2. The results of both studies showed that, Chinese participants perceived non-intended emotions in a greater degree than Dutch participants, the cultural difference between Chinese and Dutch participants was more significant for the perception of morphologically similar emotions compared to dissimilar emotions ,moreover, the perception of Dutch participants was more influenced by the non-intended emotions that were consistent with the expressions initially displayed. Evidencing that culture is relevant for perceptual strategies at the moment of viewing facial expressions of emotions.

Consequently, the findings provided by Shao et al. (2015), Gendron et al. (2014) and Fang et al. (2018) explain that, although emotional intelligence provides people with the universal ability to perceive emotions, emotional expressions may be dependent on cultural influences (Altarriba et al., 2003; Sneddonet al., 2011); therefore, emotions are expressed in specific ways among different cultures (Ekman & Friesen, 1969; Matsumoto, 1990; Scollon et al., 2004), and, thus, the perception of emotional expressions may be more accurate or inaccurate, depending on the cultural similarities or differences between individuals(Dailey et al., 2010; Ekman et al., 1987; Fang et al., 2018; Srinivasan & Martínez, 2018).

Cultural distance is basically defined by Geert Hofstede, as the degree of similarity or difference in norms and values between two cultures (Gavrila&Brandt, 2013). However, in order to understand this concept, it is necessary to understand the cultural dimensions of the Hofstede's model.

Hofstede's initial work “Culture's consequences" was published in 1980, where the data from the company IBM in forty different countries were analyzed, and differences and similarities between cultures were compared. Then, Hofstede extended the study for several years, to finally conclude with a total of six cultural dimensions, known as the Hofstede's model of cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 2011; Wu, 2006). culture emotion human

Thus, based on the characteristics of national culture, the Hofstede's dimensions are: (a) Power distance, linked to the different solutions for the fundamental problems of human inequality; (b) Uncertainty avoidance, associated with the level of stress that a society experiences toward an unknown future; (c) Long term versus Short term orientation, related to the choice of focusing for people's efforts in the future, the present or the past; (d) Individualism versus Collectivism, focused on the integration of individuals into primary groups; (e) Masculinity versus Femininity, connected to the division of social-emotional roles between genders; and (f) Indulgence versus Restraint, i.e., the indulgence versus control of basic human desire of enjoying life (Hofstede, 2011).

People influenced by their national culture, learn how to show or neutralize their expressions according to the situation. They may have the ability to show their feelings by expressing themselves using different combinations of emotions, e.g., sadness mixed with a smile, and to pretend emotional states (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013), depending on what is more socially accepted.

In individualistic cultures, people can be really expressive; however, they may not show negative emotions, e.g., sadness, to people outside their group. Therefore, they prefer to express negative emotions inside their group. Nevertheless, people from individualistic cultures prefer to express more positive emotions, e.g., happiness. Moreover, collectivists do not endorse expressions of any emotion (Matsumoto et al., 2008).Correspondingly, due to the social norms in low uncertainty avoidance, masculine and high-power distance cultures, people also may display smaller amount of emotional expressions. Furthermore, people from high uncertainty avoidance cultures, may regulate better the negative emotions (Fernández et al., 2000).Consequently, expressions of emotions are specifically displayed, depending on the unique features and characteristics of every national culture (Jack et al., 2012; Keltner & Ekman, 2003).

Jack et al.(2012)studied six expressions of emotions categorized as universal, i.e., happiness, surprise, disgust, fear, anger and sadness (Ekman, 1972), using computer graphic platforms in individuals from East Asian culture, i.e., Chinese; and Western Caucasian culture, i.e., European. The study confirmed that these emotions are expressed with culture-specific facial gestures, since the facial expressions of Western Caucasians were differentiated between the six emotions; nevertheless, the expressions of East Asians were characterized by less differences. Hence, the results revealed minimal universality of emotional expressions (Russell, 1995), confirming that emotional facial expressions are culture-specific.

Therefore, display rules and culture-specific experiences of emotions, may shape the mental representations of emotions, shaping emotional events (Barrett, 2012; Engelmann & Pogosyan, 2013).Consequently, the influences of the culture-specific rules, values, and even language (Bagheri et al., 2013; Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002; Koopman-Holm & Matsumoto,2011), may determinate the different ways individual sex press emotions. Categorizing these expressions as specific to a culture (Chen et al., 2018; Jack et al., 2012; Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013; Ohio State University, 2019; Srinivasan& Martinez, 2018).

Thus, for the aim of the present study, I define culture-specific emotions as the overall emotional expressions related to a specific culture. And, perception of culture-specific emotions as the awareness and recognition of culture-specific emotions in others.

In the case of the culture-specific emotions of Russia, a collectivist culture (Hofstede-insights, n.d.) with the stereotype “Russians never smile", the inhibition of the expression of happiness is common in social interactions with strangers, i.e., the people from Russia may feel more comfortable expressing their happiness to people that are closer to them, e.g., their friends and family members (Sheldon et al., 2017).

The perceptual measure of cultural distance or perceived cultural distance, is the subjectively perceived differences or similarities between individuals' cultural values, habits, traditions and norms (Ang et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018; Taušová et al., 2019).Previous studies have confirmed a pronounced perceived cultural distance with Russian culture among international students from Asian countries. In contrast, the students from former USSR countries perceived more cultural similarities with Russian culture. This is explained by the fact that the students from former Soviet republics can speak Russian language fluently, moreover, they share religion and many traditions with Russian culture (Galchenko &v an de Vijver, 2007; Suanet & van de Vijver, 2009).

Therefore, although happiness is considered to be a universal emotion (Ekman, 1972), and it can be universally perceived (Shaoet al., 2015), students from distant cultures may have problems perceiving this inhibited happiness in Russians(Sheldon et al., 2017), and, on the contrary, students from cultures that are similar to Russian culture may not have any problems recognizing it.

Thus, the research hypothesis was: The general ability to perceive emotions and the cultural similarity among international students in the Russian Federation, have a positive significant relationship with the perception of Russian culture-specific emotions.

2. Methodology of the research on perception of culture-specific emotions

Sample

Initially the total of respondents was 121, however, 7 were excluded for the reason that2 respondents were not studying in Russia and 5 were students with Russian nationality. Therefore, the final sample consisted of 114(N= 114) international students living in the Russian Federation; 61 females and 53 males, from Asia (21.1%), Africa (11.4%), Oceania (0.9%), Europe (18.4%), Latin America (21.9%), Anglo-America (5.3%) and Former USSR countries (21.1%); with ages between 18 and 45 years old(M=24;SD=4.5).

The analysis of G*Power (Faul et al., 2007; Faulet al., 2009) confirmed that for the main calculation, i.e., linear multiple regression, a sample size bigger than 89is required. Consequently, the statistical power of the study was achieved.

The present study consisted of an initial pre-test aimed to create the novel and reliable measurement of perception of culture-specific emotions. The pre-test stage was conducted with a mixed methods design, i.e., qualitative and quantitative research approaches (Schoonenboom & Johnson, 2017). Its description and process can be found in the section2.4. Pre-test.

Furthermore, a cross-sectional correlational design (Sousa et al., 2007) was chosen, since this study was aimed to discover the connection of the perception of culture-specific emotions with elements of emotional intelligence and cultural distance, among international students in Russia.

Thus, respondents were recruited via social media and e-mail from November, 2019 to January, 2020. The invitations were geared towards international students in the Russian Federation, and were done in English, Spanish and Russian language. Nevertheless, it was explained that the survey was conducted in the English language, and that their participation in the study was completely voluntary and anonymous.

Therefore, respondents accessed with the linkhttps://forms.gle/ujpTqDstdP8P25Do6 to the survey, then they read the information about the purpose of the study, and consented to their participation. Thereafter, respondents specified their age, gender, nationality, university andhow long have they been living in the Russian Federation; moreover, they completedthe questionnaires of perceived cultural distance, emotional intelligence and perception of culture-specific emotions (See Appendix D, Appendix C and Appendix B),and sent their final responses.

The following main variables were examined in order to support the research question and hypothesis: The general perception of emotions, as an ability of emotional intelligence (independent variable); cultural similarity, as the result of small degrees of perceived cultural distance (independent variable); and the perception of culture-specific emotions (dependent variable).

Therefore, in the present study was developed and tested the measurement for the perception of culture-specific emotions, i.e., “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”(See Appendix A and Appendix B), and were used “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale”(See Appendix C) and the questionnaire scale for “Perceived cultural distance”(See Appendix D).These instruments were selected for the reason that, “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale” was designed based onthe Mayer-Salovey branches of emotional intelligence, mentioned in the previous chapter. Consequently, it includes one sub-scale of the perception of emotions (Brackett et al., 2011;Joseph & Newman, 2010; Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al., 1998; Schutte et al., 2009). And, the questionnaire scale for “Perceived cultural distance” is a measure geared to assess the perceptual cultural distance between respondents' national culture and Russian culture (Galchenko & van de Vijver, 2007; Suanet & van de Vijver, 2009).

Nevertheless, the sub-scale of the perception of emotions of “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale”(Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al.,1998; Schutte et al., 2009), in this study was called with the variable name “general perception of emotions”. Furthermore, in a previous study the questionnaire scale for “Perceived cultural distance” consisted of 16 items, with answer options ranging from 1= very similar to 7= very different (Suanet & van de Vijver, 2009). However, for the present study were used 22 items and response choices from 1= very differentto 7= very similar, in order to assess the variable “cultural similarity”.

Thus, “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale”, is a reliable (Cronbach's á =0.87) self-reportwith a sub-scale “Perception of Emotions”, i.e., items 5, 9, 15, 18, 19, 22, 25, 29, 32, and 33 (Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al.,1998; Schutte et al., 2009),influenced by the Mayer-Salovey branches of emotional intelligence(Brackett et al., 2011; Joseph & Newman, 2010). It also includes three other sub-scales: “Managing Own Emotions”, i.e., items 2, 3, 10, 12, 14, 21, 23, 28, 31; “Managing Others' Emotions”, i.e., items 1, 4, 11, 13, 16, 24, 26, 30; and “Utilization of Emotions”, i.e., items 6, 7, 8, 17, 20, 27. Therefore, it consists of 33 items on a 5-point Likert scale, with response choices ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. The items 5, 28 and 33 are reverse code (Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al.,1998; Schutte et al., 2009). Examples of the items are: “I know when to speak about my personal problems to others”, “I like to share my emotions with others.”, “I seek out activities that make me happy” and “When I feel a change in emotions, I tend to come up with new ideas.” (See Appendix C).

The “Perceived Cultural Distance” questionnaire scale, is a reliable (Cronbach's á =0.92) 7-point Likert scale aimed to the measurement of Perceived Cultural Distance among international students in the Russian Federation (Suanet& van de Vijver, 2009). It consists of 22 items, with response choices ranging from 1=very different, to7=very similar. Examples of the items are: “How similar or different do you find the relation to family in Russia and your home country?”, “How similar or different do you find the way people talk to each other in Russia and your home country?” and “How similar or different do you find the social contacts in Russia and your home country?”(See Appendix D).

And “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”, is the first self-report aimed to measure the perception of culture-specific emotions in others. It is a 5-point Likert scale with 14 items and response choices ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. The items 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 13 are reverse code. The items of this scale were based on: (a) The results of a semi-structured interviews that analyzed the personal experiences of cross-cultural misunderstandings of emotional expressions, and (b) the sub-scale “Perception of Emotions” of “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale” (Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al.,1998; Schutte et al., 2009). Examples of the items are: “There are moments when I cannot recognize what emotion the people from the host country are expressing.” or “There are moments when I cannot recognize what emotion the people from Russia are expressing.”, and “I am always aware of the facial emotional expressions of the people from the host country.” or “I am always aware of the facial emotional expressions of the people from Russia.” (See Appendix A and Appendix B).Due to the fact that “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”is a novel self-report developed in the present study, its reliability (Cronbach's á =0.90) was initially verified in pre-test stage, and, additionally, in the study conducted among international students in the Russian Federation.

The pre-test stage consisted of three parts: (1) A semi-structured interview (Edwards & Holland, 2013) was conducted in order to identify if that lack of emotion perception in people from another culture is influenced by cultural misunderstandings. The interviews took place in the city of Moscow, Russia, between May 18 and May 19, 2019.Participants were university students and young professionals living in the Russian Federation. The total of participants was 21, 12 Russians and 9 foreigners from Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Grenada, Guatemala, India and Sant Vincent and the Grenadines. The interviews were conducted in English, Spanish and Russian language, and consisted of two main questions: “1. Have you ever experienced any problems expressing your emotions to people from other countries? Did they recognize what emotion you wanted to express?”, “2. Can you describe any other personal experience of cultural misunderstanding related to emotions? What influenced these misunderstandings?”. In addition: “How long do you have living in Russia?” (for foreigners), or “For how long do you have interacting with other cultures?” (for Russians).

The answers showed that 10participants, 4 Russians and 5 foreigners, experienced problems and cultural misunderstandings related to emotional expressions. Consequently, 11 participants, 7 Russians and 4 foreigners, did not have any problem or experiences. In fact, these 11 participants expressed surprise, or even confusion, about the questions. They assumed that those situations do not exist. In resume, their argument was that culture is not important, it depends if the person has the ability to express or perceive emotions. Nonetheless, some of them mentioned negative experiences related to the language barrier. However, they mentioned that in these cases, people can find the way to non-verbally communicate emotions, e.g., with gestures or mimics.

Nevertheless, the 10participants that experienced problems and cultural misunderstandings related to emotional expressions, were totally the opposite. They answered “yes” to everything and mentioned how common these experiences can be. Many of them even expressed excitement about sharing these experiences. In general, most of the experiences mentioned were about foreigners not recognizing, or understanding, the participant's emotional expressions. These 10 participants were more aware about the cultural differences. Besides, they also mentioned experiences related to the language barrier, but in this case, as a relevant factor.

Furthermore, compared to the other 11 participants, these 10 participants had more years living in a foreign country or interacting with people from other countries. Therefore, the participants that are just starting their experiences in a foreign country, or do not interact with foreigners on a daily basis, were more likely to answer that they did not experience problems and culture is not important.

Consequently, the participants that spent more time in a foreign country or interacting with a foreign culture, become more aware about the cultural differences. Possibly, this cultural awareness that is developed with time, may also facilitate the awareness of culture-specific emotional expressions. Thus, living in a foreign country for a longer period of time can be considered as a relevant influence on the perception of culture-specific emotions; therefore, the number of years living in the Russian Federation was also considered as a possible significant predictor for the perception of (Russian) culture-specific emotions.

These findings also revealed expressions of emotions beyond facial gestures, since almost all participants pointed out the relevant role of language in emotional expressions and perception of emotions. Therefore, emotional expressions also involve the language, i.e., verbal communication, and, thus, it is important to take into account the cultural factors of non-verbal and verbal ways to communicate, in order to measure the perception of culture-specific emotions.

(2)The 14 items of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” (See Appendix A) were created based on: (a)The results of the semi-structured interview questions geared towards emotional expressions and cultural misunderstandings, previously mentioned.(b)And the items 5, 9, 15, 18, 19, 22, 25, 29, 32, and 33of “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale”(See Appendix C),that assesses emotion perception as the result of the recognition, awareness and understanding of emotions in oneself and others, without using images of facial expressions (Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al.,1998; Schutte et al., 2009).

In order to verify the reliability of the scale in pre-testing stage, I needed to collect the data of 32 respondents, which represents the 80% of the Power with the prevalence of the problem 0.05 (Perneger et. al, 2014). Therefore, the final sample consisted of 32 respondents (N= 32), 21 females and 11 males. Between May 18 and May 21, 2019, respondents were invited via social media to participate in the survey, clarifying that the questionnaire was available only in English language. Once they agreed, they accessed to “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”, available on the website onlintespad.com from May 22 to May 26, 2019.

For the reason that "The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” is aimed to measure the perception of emotions specific in individuals from a different cultural background, the ideal was to have a really diverse sample. Consequently, respondents were international students and young professionals from Armenia (6.3%), Australia (3.1%), Bolivia (3.1%), Colombia (3.1%) France (3.1%), Ghana (3.1%), Greece (9.4%), Grenada (3.1%), India (9.4%), Italy (3.1%), Japan (3.1%), Macedonia (6.3%), Nicaragua (25%), Peru (3.1%), Russia (3.1%), Somalia (3.1%), Spain (3.1%) and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (3.1%); that were living in a foreign country at the moment that the survey was conducted. These countries were Costa Rica (3.1%), France (3.1%), Japan (3.1%), Russia (68.8%), Taiwan (3.1%), United States (15.6%) and Uzbekistan (3.1%). Furthermore, respondents had an average of 3.8 years living in the foreign country (M= 3.8), the minimum of years living in the foreign country was0.75 years, i.e., 9 months, and the maximum was 12 years, moreover, the standard deviation of years living in the foreign country was 2.81 (SD= 2.81).

Once the 32 respondents completed the questionnaire, I accessed to the answers in the website onlintespad.com, and started to collect the results. When the table of data was prepared and the items1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 13were reversed, I proceed with the statistical analysis of Cronbach's alpha in IBM SPSS Statistics. The result confirmed an internal consistency of .90 (Cronbach's á =0.90) (See Table 1), which verifies the high reliability (Taber, 2018)of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”. Furthermore, due to the fact that the generalized exploratory factor analysis exposes very inaccurate performance in small samples (Jung, 2013),this analysis was not included in the pre-test.

Table 1. Reliability for “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” - Pre-testing stage

Note. The total of respondents was 32 (N= 32). The internal consistency for the total of 14 items of the scale is .90 (Cronbach's á =0.90).

(3) After the reliability was proven, and before “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” was used for research aim and hypothesis, a cognitive interview (Willis & Artino, 2013) was conducted among 6 participants that were part of the reliability study, and 6 participants that did not participate in the previous study and met the instrument for the first time. Therefore, the total of participants was 12 young professionals and students, 8 females and 4 males, from the Russian Federation, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, living in the city of Moscow, Russia. All participants confirmed to have a good level of English language.

First, I asked the participants to carefully read the 14 items of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”. Thereafter, the participants answered my questions: “Can you please tell me, did you understand the questions? Or did you have problems understanding any of them?”, “Do you think that the scale needs any change? Should something be deleted or added?”. In addition: “Do you have any other relevant comments or suggestions about the scale?”

In general, 11 participants affirmed that they did not find mistakes in the scale, and confirmed that the questions were understandable. During the feedback, 4 of the foreign female participants mentioned personal experiences of cultural misunderstanding with Russian culture, some declarations were: “I could never understand Russians' emotions” and “I know this (Russian) teacher for several years, I could never understand her emotions”.

Nevertheless, 1 participant commented that two items needed to be rewritten in order to make sense of the main idea, and provided the following suggestion: “Question 2. I cannot understand the way that the people from the host country express their emotions, because they are not familiar with my cultural standards. It is better to replace it with: because these emotions. And question 3. I find hard to recognize the facial gestures of the people from the host country and what emotion they are trying to express. It is better to replace it with: the facial expressions.”.

After analyzing this suggestion, I considered that in order to avoid any kind of misinterpretations in the second item, it was better to replace the word “they” with “these expressions”. For the reason that “they” can be mistaken for “those people". Furthermore, due to the fact that the present study was conducted among international students living in the Russian Federation, the word “host country” was changed for “Russia” in all the 14 items of the scale (See Appendix B).

Before proceeding to the main calculations, the sociodemographic characteristics of the sample were checked, and the countries of the respondents were clustered into groups. The total of 114 respondents were nationals from Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Serbia, Spain, SriLanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Initially, these 49 countries were clustered into 7 groups, the groups were Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, Latin America, Anglo-America and Former USSR countries or Former Soviet republics. However, due to the small percent of sub samples among Anglo-America, i.e., Canada and United States, and Oceania, i.e., Australia, these countries were clustered together into one group called “Anglo”. These groups were coded as Africa= 1, Anglo= 2, Asia= 3, Europe= 4, Former Soviet Republic= 5 and Latin America= 6. And moreover, the gender of the respondents was coded as Female= 1 and Male= 2.

Thereafter, all items in “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” and “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” that are reverse code, were reversed. Since all items of the measures were required in the online survey, there was no need to check for missing items.

A calculation of Cronbach's alpha was performed in IBM SPSS Statistics to prove the reliability of the novel measurement “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale". Furthermore, a structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were computed in IBM SPSS Amos, with the aim of confirming the number of factors, model fit and validity of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”.

The Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaire scale for “Perceived cultural distance”, “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” and the four sub-scales of “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale”, were also calculated in IBM SPSS Statistics, in order to examine their reliability and to proceed with the confirmation of the research question and hypothesis.

Therefore, a linear multiple regression analysis with the enter method was performed in IBM SPSS Statistics, with the aim of verifying the significant predictors for the perception of culture-specific emotions among the variables “age”, “gender”, “group”, “years living in Russia”, “cultural similarity”, “emotional intelligence” and the four sub-scales of emotional intelligence, i.e.,” Perception of emotion”, “Managing own emotions”, “Managing others´ emotions”, and “Utilization of emotions”. Moreover, a structural equation modeling and linear regression were computed in IBM SPSS Amos, in order to verify the model-fit between the perception of culture-specific emotions and the significant predictors.

The sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents were based on their gender and regional group. Females represent the 53.5% of the sample and males the 46.5%. The majority of students were from Latin American countries (21.9%), followed by Asian countries (21,1%) and Former Soviet Republics (21.1%). Students from European countries represent the 18.4% and from Africa the 11.4%. And the sample consists of a small percent of students from Anglo countries (6.1%), i.e., Canada, United States and Australia (See Table 2). Moreover, no significant outlier was observed among their age and period of time living in Russia.

Table 2. Sociodemographic Characteristics of Respondents

Note. The total of respondents was 114 (N = 114). Respondents were on average 24 years old (M= 24; SD= 4.5), with a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 45 years old. a Respondents indicated their nationality, for statistical procedures these countries were clustered into groups. Respondents also indicated their number of months and/or years living in the Russian Federation; therefore, the minimum was one month and the maximum was 16 years, and respondents had an average of 2.4 years living in the Russian Federation (M= 2.4; SD= 2.8).

The calculation of Cronbach's alpha for “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” confirmed a high internal consistency of .90 (Cronbach's á =0.90). Furthermore, the Cronbach's alpha for the questionnaire scale for “Perceived cultural distance” calculated an excellent internal consistency of .91 (Cronbach's á =0.91).“The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale” showed good internal consistency of .88 (Cronbach's á =0.88). For the sub-scale “Perception of Emotions" was revealed aninternal consistency of .77 (Cronbach's á =0.77), for “Managing Own Emotions” an internal consistency of .80 (Cronbach's á =0.80), for “Managing Others' Emotions” an internal consistency of .72 (Cronbach's á =0.72), and for “Utilization of Emotion” an internal consistency of .64 (Cronbach's á =0.64)(See Table 3).

Table 3. Reliability Statistics

Note. The reliability of the three measures used in the research and the four sub-scales of “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale”, was confirmed through calculations of Cronbach's alpha.

The structural equation modeling for “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”, revealed that the standardized estimates of most items correlate with the scale with coefficients greater than 0.5, except for item 12 (standardized estimate= 0.4) and item 14 (standardized estimate= 0.25). Nevertheless, the model fit indexes CMIN/df =1.447, RMSEA=0.063, CFI=0.968 and GFI=0.906, are acceptable. Therefore, the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed one main factor and supported the validity evidence for “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”(See Figure 1).

The multiple regression analysis with the enter method revealed that among the independent variables in the model, only Years Living in Russia, Cultural Similarity and General Emotion Perception were significantly related to the perception of culture-specific emotions F (9, 104) = 12.12, p<.001,R2 =.51. Consequently, the coefficients of Years Living in Russia, Cultural Similarity and General Emotion Perception are statistically significant to the prediction, p<.01. Moreover, the calculation reported a multiple correlation coefficient .71, signifying the 51.2% of the variability of the perception of culture-specific emotions (See Table 4).

Furthermore, the indexes CMIN/df =0.757, RMSEA=0.000, CFI= 1.000 and GFI= 0.991, revealed an excellent model fitness for the regression analysis between the perception of culture-specific emotions and the significant predictors. Thus, the model confirmed significant relation of Years Living in Russia (standardized estimate= 0.26), Cultural Similarity (standardized estimate= 0.59) and General Emotion Perception (standardized estimate= 0.21),with the perception of culture-specific emotions (See Figure 2).

Figure 1. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale (PSCE)

Table 4. Multiple Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting the Perception of Culture-specific Emotions

Note. Perception of culture-specific emotions is the dependent variable. a Sample clustered into 6 groups: Asia, Africa, Anglo, Europe, Latin America and Former USSR countries or Former Soviet republics. b The number of months and/or years living in the Russian Federation represented by the total of years. c Cultural Similarity is the variable name for the small degrees of perceived cultural distance. d General Emotion Perception is the variable name for the sub-scale Perception of Emotions. The general scale of Emotional Intelligence was added as apredictor variable into the calculation; however, the regression analysis excluded this variable from the model. *p<.05.** p<.01.

Figure 2. Multiple Linear Regression for Significant Variables Predicting the Perception of Culture-specific Emotions

A scale aimed to assess the perception of the overall culture-specific emotional expressions in individuals from a different culture, had not been developed before. Thus, in the present study, I designed a self-report that measures the perception of culture-specific emotional expressions in others, called “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”.

The reliability of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” was initially verified in pre-test stage. Although the sample in pre-test was very culturally diverse, the scale obtained a high internal consistency. Moreover, the high reliability of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” was confirmed one more time in the research conducted among international students in the Russian Federation.

Furthermore, the 14 items of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” contain one factor with acceptable fitness indexes; therefore, the factorial validity evidence for this novel scale has been proved (Stough et al., 2009).

In the existing literature can be found instruments of perception of emotions that are main lyaimed at measuring the recognition of images of emotional facial expressions. In particular, the facial expressions of those emotions identified as “universal” (Ekman, 1972), e.g., happiness, sadness and anger (Dailey et al., 2010; Fang et al., 2018; Lyusin & Ovsyannikova, 2016; Martin et al., 1996; Matsumoto et al., 2000; Mayer et al., 2003; Nowicki & Duke, 1994; Srinivasan & Martínez, 2018).

In addition, there are well-known instruments of emotional intelligencethat include the assessment of perception of emotions. “The Emotional Quotient Inventory” (EQ-i),a measurement of emotional intelligence that contains the factors of emotional self-awareness and empathy, i.e., to be aware how others feel (Bar-On, 2006). These factors of emotional self-awareness and empathy, i.e., to be aware how others feel, are also included in the “Emotional and Social competence Inventory” (ESCI) (Boyatzis &Goleman, 2007).The “Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test” (MSCEIT), that has the original branch of perception of emotions, contains tasks of recognition of emotional facial expressions (Mayer et al., 2003). And “The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test” or “The Assessing Emotions Scale” (Malouff, 2014; Schutte et al.,1998; Schutte et al., 2009), that includes the sub-scale of perception of emotions, the main reference for the design of “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale”. Nevertheless, all the aforementioned instruments of emotional intelligence, assess the ability of perception of emotions in oneself and others without including cultural influences on emotional expressions.

Therefore, “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” is the first self-report designed with the aim of assessing the recognition of the overall non-verbal and verbal ways of emotional expressions in people from a different culture. Furthermore, since perception of emotions is part of emotional intelligence construct (O'Connor et al., 2019), “The Perception of Culture-specific Emotions Scale” can also make a relevant contribution to the field of studies on emotional intelligence in a multicultural context.

The results of the multiple regression analyses revealed that the perception of culture-specific emotions among the international students in the Russian Federation, is significantly predicted by the similarity between their culture and Russian culture, the number of years living in the Russian Federation and the general ability of emotion perception.

Thus, the research question “Is the accurate perception of culture-specific emotions in others positively related to the general ability of emotion perception and the similarity between cultures?”, is answered by the following affirmation: The general ability of emotion perception, the similarity between cultures and living in the foreign country for a longer period of time, are positively related to the accurate perception of culture-specific emotions in others.