Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British observers

Transcription

1 Perception, 2004, volume 33, pages 957 ^ 974 DOI: /p3471 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British observers Tsuneo Kito Kurume University, 1635 Mii-machi, Kurume , Japan Billy Leeô Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Scotland, UK; b.lee@ed.ac.uk Received 14 October 2002, in revised form 18 February 2004; published online 25 August 2004 Abstract. We compared performance of Japanese and British observers in deciphering images depicting Japanese interpersonal relationships. 201 Japanese and 215 British subjects were assessed by means of a test consisting of 31 photograph problems accompanied by two or three alternative solutions one of which was correct. Japanese subjects outperformed British subjects on the test overall (z ˆ 3:981, p 5 0:001). A two-factor ANOVA (culture6gender) was performed for each of the problems. A cultural effect was found in 17 problems. Surprisingly, British subjects outperformed Japanese subjects in 7 of these problems. There was a gender effect in 4 problems and a culture6gender interaction in 6 problems. The results indicate that cultural experience facilitates nonverbal appraisal of interpersonal relationships, but it may sometimes cause specific errors. Differences in the perceptual cues used suggest that British subjects had difficulty reading Japanese facial expressions. 1 Introduction In daily life, humans and other social animals must track the emotions and intentions of members of their group, not only towards themselves, but also towards each other. Through monitoring the nonverbal communications that accompany human transactions, we decipher information about interpersonal relationships that may be critical for our prospects within the group: who is friendly and likely to cooperate, who is hostile, who is dominant and who submissive, and who may form alliances with or against us. In humans who have language some of this information is expressed through speech. However, in primary activities, such as finding a partner, making friends, cooperating in groups, and finding leaders, the impact of nonverbal communication is considered to be much greater (Archer 1991). The face, voice, posture, gesture, personal distance, and positioning are established nonverbal channels used to convey emotion, express interpersonal attitudes, amplify speech, and manipulate impressions of the self by others (Argyle 1987). A critical difference between verbal and nonverbal signals is the relation between sign and signifier. In speech this relation is arbitrary and has to be learned, whereas many nonverbal communications are understood directly because they elicit a physiological response. We distinguish biological signs, including the facial display of basic emotions such as joy and surprise which are present in infancy (Izard et al 1995), perceived directly, and are culturally universal (Ekman et al 1987), from enculturated signs such as the `Japanese social smile' which requires a mastery of culture-specific sign ^ signifier conventions to be understood. One way to assess the contribution of direct versus enculturated processes in nonverbal communication is to manipulate the cultural content of displays and/or the cultural background of observers. Biological signals should not show any cultural variation, whilst enculturated displays should reveal an interaction between culture and perception. In a previous study, Kito et al (1997) assessed the impact of culture on perception by comparing how Japanese and American observers perceived images depicting American ô Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed.

2 958 T Kito, B Lee social scenarios. Here, we present a complementary study to assess differences in how British and Japanese observers perceive images depicting Japanese social scenarios. 1.1 Emotion and perception Human beings regardless of race or culture share broadly similar goals, beliefs, and desires. They generally desire sustenance, health, and opportunities, and try to avoid harm, survive, and protect their offspring. Emotions which inform us about the primary risks and opportunities of our environment are the basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Infants have an innate capacity for understanding displays of these emotions (Field et al 1982) and the facial signs are understood by adults universally (Ekman et al 1969; Ekman and Friesen 1971). Infants spontaneously produce expressions of happiness, sadness, and anger, and can identify, imitate, and generate their facial expressions during their first year of life (Malatesta et al 1989). At 10 months they have the ability to use the emotional expressions of others to make choices about ambiguous situations such as in social referencing with parents when in the company of a stranger (Dickstein and Parke 1988). The ability to decipher opportunity and risk from signs displayed by othersöemotion perceptionöis believed to be a principal component of emotional intelligence (Davies et al 1998), and is a construct under much scrutiny and debate (Mayer et al 2000). Later in its development the child knows how to hide emotions and has the motivation to do so, such as in masking negative emotions in the presence of others (Cole 1986). The expression of emotion in enculturated adults is as a result a complex interplay of innate forces and socialisation. Social adaptation requires a mastery of the rules of engagement, not only of basic emotions but also higher emotions, such as shame, guilt, and embarrassment, whose meanings are prescribed by society, fashion, and culture (Kitayama et al 1995). The efficacy with which this is achieved is believed to be predicated on emotional and social intelligence, the major components of which include: self-regard, emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, empathy, interpersonal relationship, stress tolerance, impulse control, reality testing, flexibility, and problem solving (Bar-On 1997). Current debates on emotional intelligence indicate the need for a performance criterion for assessing this putative capacity (Davies et al 1998; Mayer et al 2000). Developments in the performance aspect of emotional intelligence have so far been limited to the emotion-perception subfactor (eg Mayer et al 1999). Researchers have argued that robust performance rather than self-report measures are required to validate a construct that purports to be a competence. A recent review identified the competence emotion perception as the probable substantive component of emotional intelligence once personality factors had been accounted for (Davies et al 1998). Emotion perception may provide a bridge between psychometric studies of emotional intelligence and perceptual studies of human nonverbal communication. Modern studies have emphasised the information aspect of the communication process: information is encoded into bodily signs and signals, transmitted, and decoded back into emotions, states, and attitudes. Effective communication depends on the performance of both emotion encoders and emotion decoders. One current emotional intelligence scale, the MSCEIT assesses emotion decoding (perception) through the identification of emotions from facial expressions (Mayer et al 1999). However, the ability to encode (express) emotion is so far not assessed by any existing measures of emotional or social intelligence. There is some evidence that poor emotion perception may underlie the social deficits seen in autism and Aspergers syndrome. Furthermore, studies of brain-injured patients have indicated a dissociation between facial-emotion and facial-identity processing and cases of selective emotion blindness (Young 1998). These findings are consistent with a specific mechanism for emotion perception and the processing of somatically significant events as suggested by LeDoux (1996) and Damasio (1994).

3 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British Culture and perception A continuing issue in nonverbal communication concerns which components are independent of culture and which are culturally learned (Russell 1994). A classic study by Ekman et al (1969) revealed that individuals from a pre-literate society could judge with accuracy comparable to Westerners the six basic emotions expressed by a Western face. The recognition of emotions in a culturally unfamiliar face by individuals not exposed to visual mass media provided some evidence for an innate component to nonverbal communication. However, the findings are contested by modern studies that employ ecologically valid techniques (Russell 1994). By using real rather than posed facial expressions, differences in recognition performance have been found between Japanese and Americans, even with the basic emotions (Matsumoto 1992). Cultural differences are also unmasked with free response formats such as describing the emotion expressed by a face, rather than matching it to a preselected emotion word (Izard 1971). Cultural differences in emotional expression are typically attributed to display rulesöadherence to cultural norms for expressing emotions in public. However, basic differences in the ability to recognise and to express certain emotions cast doubt on a simple convention-based account of cultural differences. An early study by Shimoda et al (1978) found differences between English, Italian, and Japanese subjects in ability, not only to discriminate, but also to display facial expressions of certain emotions when instructed to do so. Cultural variations in facial-emotion perception have been linked with Hofstede's cultural dimensions: the perceptibility of happiness correlates with high individualism and low power distance, sadness correlates with collectivism, and fear and sadness with cultures high in uncertainty avoidance (Matsumoto 1989; Schimmack 1996). These findings seem to suggest a basic difference in the emotional worlds of these cultural groups that goes deeper than simple adherence to display rules. Where cultural norms are strong, even the experience of an emotion may be compromised. For example, research on collectivist cultures has shown that a socially more acceptable emotion may be substituted for the natural one, such as shame for anger, and experienced in its place (Kitayama et al 1995). By distorting emotional ecology, cultural experience may cause perceptual attunement (McArthur and Baron 1983) and lead to internal differences in emotional experience. In collectivist Japan an emotion is felt as interpersonally engaging or disengaging, whereas in individualist America it is typically felt as positive or negative (Markus and Kitayama 1991). In the theory of proxemics, Hall proposed that emotional experiences of intimacy, friendliness, and stress were intimately associated with the structure of personal spaces, and that these were contingent on race, climate, culture, kinship, hierarchy, geography, and demography. He proposed that the entire perceptual world was experienced differently by individuals of different race and culture (Hall 1966). 1.3 Background to the present study In relation to the perceptual issue, Archer (1980) conducted a seminal study of interpersonal perception from the perspective of social intelligence. He devised a test consisting of 38 photo snaps of social scenarios and people in their everyday environment. The photographs depicted married couples, lovers, blood relations, or complete strangers, and a two-alternative or three-alternative forced-choice method was used to assess accuracy in judging the correct relationship. The distinguishing features of this study were as follows. First, Archer addressed the perception of interpersonal relationships, rather than the perception of emotion or personality, from isolated faces or individuals. He was concerned with how an observer perceives the inherently social aspect of an interpersonal relationship, thus going beyond the isolated-individual approach to social perception. Second, the photos portrayed ordinary people in their everyday environment, rather than actors in contrived situations. As a

4 960 T Kito, B Lee consequence, observers' judgments could be scored correct or incorrect, since there was a de facto correct answer for all the problems. The paradigm circumvents the measurement problem inherent in earlier studies of person perception in which the correct answer is defined either statistically or operationally, since no de facto correct answer exists for a relationship or emotion that has been contrived for experimental purposes. To investigate the cultural issue further, Kito et al (1997) adapted the social intelligence test for Japanese observers, using the original photographs depicting American interpersonal relationships. They assessed the contributions of culture and gender, and compared data from their Japanese observers with those from the American observers obtained by Archer. The comparison revealed that American observers performed better than Japanese observers in 18 of the 38 photograph problems. There was a gender difference in 5 problems with females outperforming males in all these problems. The results suggested an interaction between cultural experience and perception, and a possible gender advantage in interpersonal perception. In the present study, we present a complementary study of Japanese and British observers using a similar photographproblems test, except that new photograph problems were devised depicting Japanese interpersonal relationships. We assessed the effects of culture and gender on accuracy in this task by testing male, female, Japanese, and British observers. We also investigated which perceptual cues: facial expression, gaze, interpersonal distance, body posture, or other, that our observers relied upon to make their judgments. We interpret the findings in terms of cultural experience and interpersonal perception and the possibility of distinct mechanisms for deciphering iconic, biological, and cultural signs. 2 Method 2.1 Subjects The 201 Japanese subjects (119 female, 82 male) recruited for the study were psychology students from Kurume University, Japan, and the 215 British subjects (137 female, 78 male) were psychology students from the University of Edinburgh, UK. 2.2 Stimulus and questionnaire We devised an exploratory test of interpersonal perception consisting of photographs that portrayed Japanese interpersonal relationships. The photographs depicted one, two, or several Japanese people in a range of social situations in their natural environment. 31 photographs were accompanied by two or three alternative solutions, one of which was the de facto correct answer. For British observers, the test was translated into English by a native English speaker fluent in Japanese. The translation was subsequently checked by the authors, one a native speaker of Japanese and the other of English (see Appendix). We used Archer's theoretical categories of interpersonal relationship (Archer 1980) as a guideline to generate photographs according to four categories. (i) Detecting familiarity (problems 1 ^ 8). Subjects were required to judge the nature and likely duration of relationships of differing interpersonal familiarity. The relationships consisted of a teacher and pupil, brother and sister, friends, and dating partners. (ii) Lovers and complete strangers (problems 9 ^ 17). Subjects were required to ascertain intimate relationships, colleagues, strangers, and identify married and unmarried couples. (iii) Blood relatives (problems 18 ^ 28). Subjects were required to identify various parent ^ child and sibling relationships. (iv) Status and competition (problems 29 ^ 31). The problems in this category consisted of relationships of differing status and seniority. Also two sports teams were depicted, one the winners and the other the losers of a tournament.

5 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 961 The categories include the most commonly occurring everyday relationships. We assess in the present study if there is any perceptual evidence for a division of human relationships into these categories. The photographs were taken with a Ricoh DC-2E digital still camera and transmitted to a Macintosh 8100/100AV computer for manipulation. Adobe Photoshop was used to convert the colour images into grey-scale. Claris Macdraw Pro was used to lay out the images and accompanying questions, 6 problems per single A4 sheet and printed out with a Canon Lasershot LB740 printer. 2.3 Procedure The experiment was self-paced: each subject was provided with a test and response sheet, which they completed in their own time. Subjects were instructed that the test consisted of 31 photographs depicting various social scenarios, accompanied by a question along with two or three possible answers, only one of which was true. Subjects had to indicate on the response sheet which answer they considered to be the best account of the depicted relationship and then to choose a reason from five possible alternatives: (i) facial expression; (ii) gaze; (iii) distance; (iv) bodily posture and/or attitude; (v) other. Subjects could select more than one reason to justify their response. These reasons were presented on the basis of a previous study in which subjects composed freely their own reasons for their judgments (Kito et al 1997). The reasons posed by subjects in that study formed the principal categories listed above. Alternative (v) was accompanied by a space in which subjects could insert an idiosyncratic reason for their judgment. 3 Results To assess the effects of culture and gender on performance, differences in overall scores, and scores on the individual problems were analysed. To assess the psychometric properties of the test, internal consistencies and exploratory factor analyses were computed. 3.1 Overall score on the test Frequency distributions of the scores for Japanese and British observers were normal and comparable. w 2 tests proved the distributions did not deviate from normal (w 2 ˆ 18:151, p 5 0:05, and w 2 ˆ 28:424, p 5 0:01 for the two distributions, respectively). The mean and SD of Japanese scores were 16.0 and The mean and SD of British scores was 14.8 and A Mann-Whitney test showed that the mean overall score for Japanese observers was significantly higher than that for the British observers (z ˆ 3:981, p 5 0:001). 3.2 Scores on individual problems Table 1 shows the data expressed as percentage correct scores for the individual photograph problems, plotted separately according to culture and gender. The table also includes total scores for the two groups and the calculated chance score. To investigate the contribution of culture (Japanese/British) and gender (male/female), a two-factor ANOVA (culture6gender) was performed for each of the 31 problems after transforming the data by the arcsine transformation method. Table 2 shows the w 2 values for the individual problems showing the two main effects and the interaction. There was a main effect of culture in 17 of the 31 problems. Japanese subjects outperformed British subjects in 10 of the problems and Britons outperformed Japanese subjects in 7 of the problems. Minor variations in performance were obtained between the different categories of relationship (see table 1): 3 out of 8 differences were obtained for familiarity detection; 6 out of 9 differences for lovers and complete strangers; 6 out of 11 differences for blood relatives; and 2 out of 3 differences for status and competition.

6 962 T Kito, B Lee Table 1. Percentage correct scores for the individual photograph problems. Problem Japanese British Chance level female male average female male average There was a main effect of gender in 4 of the problems. Females outperformed males on problems 4 and 22 whilst males outperformed females on problems 7 and 31. There was a culture by gender interaction in 6 of the problems. In 4 of these problems (2, 13, 26, and 27) a cross-over interaction was obtained: Japanese males were relatively more accurate than Japanese females, whilst the reverse was true for British subjects. Six problems (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 31) portrayed locations potentially familiar to the Japanese observers. Table 2 reveals that 2 of these items (6 and 8) obtained better, but one (31) caused a worse performance by the Japanese observers compared with the British observers. 3.3 Perceptual cues used in the judgments Table 3 shows, for Japanese and British subjects, the selection frequencies of the cues expressed in terms of percentage usage for the 31 problems comprising the test. The percentages do not sum to 100% because subjects could select more than one cue per photograph problem. In Japanese subjects the order of preference for cue type is: facial expression, bodily position, distance, and gaze. In British subjects the order of preference is: bodily position, facial expression, distance, and gaze. In free description under the category `other', both groups volunteered similar cues. These were most frequently: clothing, age, background, `looks similar', and atmosphere.

7 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 963 Table 2. w 2 values for the individual photograph problems. Significant differences are indicated, with the letters J or B denoting better performance in Japanese or British subjects, respectively. Similarly, M or F denotes better performance in males or females, respectively. Problem Culture Gender Culture6Gender ** B * * F ** J **M ** J ** B ** J ** J * ** J ** ** J ** B ** J * J 5.10* F ** B ** J ** B * ** ** J ** B ** B 8.00**M 5.50* Note: * p 5 0:05, ** p 5 0:01: Table 3. Cue selection frequencies expressed as percentage usage for the test overall. Japanese British Facial expression 54.4 (37.0) 52.3 (30.8) Gaze 12.6 (8.6) 16.0 (9.4) Distance 32.2 (21.9) 30.7 (18.1) Bodily position/attitude 39.2 (26.7) 57.1 (33.6) Other 8.6 (5.9) 13.6 (8.1) Note: The ratios shown in the brackets are normalised to 100% and indicate the relative power of the contributing cue. 3.4 Psychometric properties of the test Item consistency was assessed by calculating Cronbach a values separately for Japanese and British data. For Japanese data, a ˆ 0:26. ForBritishdata,a ˆ 0:09. Both values are low, so Cronbach's a was recalculated excluding selected items showing a negative total-item correlation. With these items excluded, a increased to 0.34 for British data and 0.43 for Japanese data.

8 964 T Kito, B Lee To assess whether the low a scores reflect the presence of (i) subscales within the test or (ii) diversability of underlying capacities, both of which could elicit idiosyncratic performance between observers, an exploratory factor analysis was calculated. The correlation matrix revealed item pair correlations are uniformly low (the highest correlation observed was 0.22 between items 5 and 7). The results did not indicate subscales or principal factors. The psychometric outcomes are discussed in relation to test construction and perceptual performance. 4 Discussion The principal result of this study is the detection of a cultural difference in the perception of interpersonal relationship. The result complements the interaction between culture and perception suggested in a previous study based on images of American interpersonal relationships (Kito et al 1997). Unexpectedly, some of the photograph problems produced superior performance in cross-culture perception compared with the sameculture condition. We comment on the perceptual significance of these apparently paradoxical findings. 4.1 Can British observers decipher Japanese nonverbal communications? What nonverbal signals present difficulties for cross-culture perception? Facial expression and interpersonal distance were the cues most frequently attended to in deciphering relationship. Certain problems which depicted couples looking at the camera (11, 12, 14, and 15) required the ability to decipher posed or `public' Japanese facial expressions. British people did comparatively badly in these photographs. It is possible that the pose removed spontaneity and the physiological signs and symptoms that trigger a sympathetic or empathetic response. In contrast, photos of the younger Japanese couples (1 through 7) produced comparable performance in Japanese and British subjects (except that British subjects were slightly better at problem 1 and Japanese subjects at problem 6). Two separate processes may underlie these differences: first, the younger couples depicted are students and so represent the same peer group as most of our subjects tested; second, the younger couples appear more spontaneous in that they do not adopt the portrait pose seen in the older couples. The first process suggests an age interaction such that observers are perceptually attuned to members of their own peer group. A contribution of this factor seems likely, given patterns of social affiliation. The second possibility is that the spontaneous photographs contain direct biological signalsöbasic emotions that elicit a physiological reaction or somatic state. The portrait pose, on the other hand, presents an enculturated display which British observers are unaccustomed to and thereby fail to sympathise or empathise with. The Japanese social smile, for example, has been identified as a facial display that Westerners find particularly difficult to decipher (Kupperbusch et al 1999). We found some support for this in the different perceptual cues which British and Japanese subjects elected to use in solving the photograph problems. Japanese observers most frequently attended to facial expression, whereas British observers most frequently attended to bodily position in deciphering Japanese relationships (see table 3). In 7 problems (1, 10, 16, 23, 25, 30, and 31) British observers, paradoxically, performed better than Japanese in deciphering Japanese relationships. These photographs suggest the possibility of direct perception in the British observers and a form of indirect or stereotype-mediated perception in the Japanese. We suggest that certain signs in the photographs triggered cultural reflexes which short-circuited normal perceptual analysis and diminished the observational powers of the Japanese. The effect is most marked in problems 10, 16, and 25 where British subjects scored very highly (ca 80% correct) compared with moderate or chance-level performance in the Japanese observers. All three relationships are characterised by an age disparity. The age disparity signals to

9 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 965 the Japanese observer a likely kinship relationship rather than a marital or collegial one. It is well-established that the collectivist culture endorses social hierarchy and age veneration (Smith and Schwartz 1997). It is possible therefore that the deviant relationships portrayed in these photographs were subtly denied by our Japanese observers. The individualist culture, in contrast, endorses personal freedom including choice of partner (Hofstede 1980). It is possible that our British observers were perceptually more resilient to the deviant relationships. Perceptual analysis remained intact and further social information processing allowed the correct solution to be reached. No definitive gender differences were detected by our photograph problems. We obtained a gender difference in only 4 of the 31 photograph problems, with no suggestion of a female superiority. Rather, the effects were borne out by interactions in some of the problems (see table 2). The results suggest that culture and gender exert an interdependent influence on perception. 4.2 What perceptual cues were used in the judgments? In tasks involving judgments about interpersonal relationships from nonverbal cues it is widely acknowledged that the principal perceptual cues are: facial expression, gaze, interpersonal distance, and bodily position. In both our observer groups facial expression was cited with high frequency, and with few exceptions as a major cue for diagnosing relationship. The process of communication requires decoding the internal states of other persons. Under normal circumstances the face usually provides the singular most faithful representation of this. Our results provide support for the effectiveness of facial expression in diagnosing social situations. Bodily position and attitude were also cited with high frequency by both groups of observers. The effectiveness of bodily position as an interpersonal cue can be illustrated by considering particular photograph problems. In problems 6, 22, and 28 characterised by positive bodily contact, and problems 30 and 31 characterised by status and competition, both observer groups relied heavily on bodily position to diagnose relationship. British observers, in contrast to Japanese, attached greater significance to body posture even than to facial expression in their judgments. For example, they relied especially on this cue for problems 10, 13, and 16 and scored better than the Japanese in 2 of these problems. Waldron (1975) has argued that bodily position plays a compensatory role when other cues are insufficient or ambiguous. It is likely that in our study the British observers were compensating for their difficulty with facial emotion discrimination in these problems. In problems 8 and 9, interpersonal distance was the cue most frequently cited by both observer groups as the basis of their judgments. In problem 8, it may be that observers noticed the unequal distances between the subjects depicted: the man on the left whose relationship is in question is standing noticeably farther away from the two women than they are standing from each other. In problem 9, the subtle positioning of the couple depicted may have served as the decisive cue where the usual signs such as facial expression, age, and posture, in this case did not provide an unambiguous solution to the problem. Hall (1966) proposed in the theory of proxemics that personal space is structured around 4 principal distances according to the types of interpersonal interactions which take place in them. These are: intimate distance, personal distance, social distance, and public distance. Problems 8 and 9 yielded high performance in both observer groups, suggesting that personal distance was an effective cue for deciphering these relationships. In problems 2, 3, 18, 20, and 26, the gaze cue was cited frequently by both observer groups. It is well-known that the eyes are capable of expressing a variety of emotions, eg fear, aggression, affection, and that the eyes are honest and cannot lie. Where people engage in frequent eye contact, this creates a feeling of affection and

10 966 T Kito, B Lee friendliness, or in strong eye contact a feeling of intimacy. In the present study, the power of the gaze cue may have been underestimated. Only a few of the photographs presented in the test captured natural gaze behaviour, as many subjects were depicted looking directly at the camera. 4.3 Emotional construction of the perceptual world Cultural differences in emotional expression are generally attributed to display rules. The conformity principle implies an underlying similarity of emotional experience across cultures with differences occurring at the level of expression. Certain lines of evidence question the principle that differences are restricted to the expression of emotions. Marked differences in social perception and reasoning have been demonstrated between idiocentric and allocentric individuals such as self-serving biases and attribution errors. The former has been attributed to the dichotomy between interdependent and independent self-concepts (Singelis 1994), while the latter to biases in selective attention (Trafimow et al 1991). There is some evidence for basic differences in perception due to cultural attunement and adaptation. An early study showed that even under conditions of conscious imitation the facial display of certain emotions is not possible by individuals from different cultural groups. Basic differences in both discrimination and capacity to enact certain emotions imply that different emotional worlds are constructed by different cultures. Whether these differences are racial or cultural cannot be ascertained from this study. Hall proposed that emotional experiences of intimacy, friendliness, and stress, were inextricably associated with cultural practices in demarcating personal and geographical space and territory. He proposed that the entire perceptual world was experienced differently by individuals of different cultures. The influence of culture on the emotional worlds of its members is therefore exerted at several levels of experience: through rules endorsing and restraining the expression of emotions; through perceptual attunement to the emotional habitat; and through specific processes of social identity. Culture frames the meaning of events, coerces how they are appraised, and prescribes which emotion is the correct response. This is especially true of situations calling for the so-called higher emotions which are inherently social and presuppose interpersonal perception. 4.4 Interpersonal perceptiveness Psychometric investigations indicated little evidence of subscales or distinct categories of relationship. Emotion perception did not emerge from the exploratory factor analyses of either observer groups. It is worth noting, however, that facial emotion is only one of several factors that conjunctively specify interpersonal relationship. It is possible in the present study of relationship perception that the correlation structure for emotion perception was washed out by conjunctive factors (see below). The relationship categories: lovers and strangers, blood relatives, familiarity, and status and competition, were not upheld as perceptually distinct. One possibility is that performance on the test was idiosyncratic; observers adopted different cognitive styles (the score of observer A is based on items a, b, and c; while that of observer B is based on items x, y, z, etc). Performance idiosyncrasy would abrogate item consistency even where perception is good individually and face validity is high. Deciphering relationships is a complex competence likely to deploy diverse capacities, including emotion perception, emotional self-awareness, interpersonal relationship, and problem solvingösubfactors which comprise emotional intelligence, as well as the general and social intelligences. With different routes to deciphering relationship, the scope for idiosyncratic problem solving is high, and internal consistency is commensurately low, compared with a simpler perhaps purer competence such as numeracy or literacy.

11 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 967 Table 1 indicates that a number of items yielded near-chance scores in both groups of observers (2, 5, 6, 7, 15, 18, 21, 23, 24, and 27). These items are either too difficult (the information specifying relationship is too subtle) or observers responded ambivalently to the photographs. Ambiguous items or items which were too difficult would also diminish the correlation structure. In further work, item consistency could be increased by including easier items and items more clearly graduated in difficulty. The objective is to define a scale of interpersonal perceptiveness that titrates precisely the visual information that specifies human relationship. 5 Conclusion We explored culture and perception through an analysis of interpersonal perception in same-culture and cross-culture viewing conditions. The finding that Japanese observers show a perceptual advantage over British observers complements previous work with images portraying American interpersonal relationships. The interaction between culture and perception shows that observers are perceptually attuned to their cultural habitats. We found a further interesting interaction between culture and perception. Cross-culture perception was sometimes good and in some cases, paradoxically, even better than in the same-culture condition. The interaction suggests separate direct and mediated processes in nonverbal communication. The challenge is to define a precise and reliable scale of interpersonal perceptiveness that assesses its underlying processes. Whether these processes are related to the mechanisms suggested by studies of emotional intelligence and neurobiology remains an issue for further research and may have implications for the assessment of deficits of social perception, such as seen in Aspergers and autism. Acknowledgments. We thank Elizabeth Austin for her useful discussions, advice, and assistance on psychometric matters. References Archer D, 1980 How to Expand Your S.I.Q. (Social Intelligence Quotient) (New York: M Evans and Company Inc) Archer D, 1991 ``A world of gestures: Culture and nonverbal communication (Video)'', available from the University of California Extension Media Centre, 2176 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA Argyle M, 1987 Bodily Communication (London: Methuen) Bar-On R, 1997 The Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i): A Test of Emotional Intelligence (Toronto: Multi-Health Systems) Cole P M, 1986 ``Children's spontaneous control of facial expression'' Child Development ^ 1321 Damasio A R, 1994 Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain (New York: Putnam) Davies M, Stankov L, Roberts R D, 1998 ``Emotional Intelligence: In search of an elusive construct'' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ^ 1015 Dickstein S, Parke R D, 1988 ``Social referencing in infancy: A glance at fathers and marriage'' Child Development ^ 511 Ekman P, Friesen W V, 1971 ``Constants across cultures in the face and emotion'' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ^ 129 Ekman P, Friesen W V, O'Sullivan M, Chan A, Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis I, Heider K, Krause R, LeCompte W A, Pitcairn T, Ricci-Bitti P E, Scherer K, Tomita M, Tzavaras A, 1987 ``Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion'' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ^ 717 Ekman P, Sorenson E R, Friesen W V, 1969 ``Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotions'' Science ^ 88 Field T M, Woodson R, Greenberg R, Cohen D, 1982 ``Discrimination and imitation of facial expressions by neonates'' Science ^ 181 Hall E T, 1966 The Hidden Dimension (New York: Doubleday) Hofstede G, 1980 Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage) Izard C, 1971 The Face of Emotion (New York: Appleton ^ Century ^ Crofts)

12 968 T Kito, B Lee Izard C E, Fantauzzo C A, Castle J M, Haynes O M, Rayias M F, Putman P H, 1995 ``The ontogeny and significance of infants' facial expressions in the first nine months of life'' Developmental Psychology ^ 1013 Kitayama S, Markus H R, Matsumoto H, 1995 ``Culture, self, and emotion: A cultural perspective on `self-conscious' emotions'', in Self-Conscious Emotions: The Psychology of Shame, Guilt, Embarrassment, and Pride Eds J P Tangney, K W Fischer (New York: Guilford) pp 439 ^ 464 Kito T, Imamura Y, Yamatsuka Y, 1997 ``Shakaiteki-chino no sokutei: D. Archer no `How to expand your S.I.Q.' ni motozuku nichi-bei hikaku'' [Measurements of social intelligence: A Japanese ^ American cross-cultural study based on D Archer's `How to expand your SIQ'] Bulletin of the Graduate School of Comparative Studies of International Cultures and Societies, Kurume University 6 19 ^ 40 Kupperbusch C, Matsumoto D, Kooken K, Loewinger S, Uchida H, Wilson-Cohn C, Yrizarry N, 1999 ``Cultural influences on nonverbal expressions of emotion'', in The Social Context of Nonverbal Behaviour Eds P Philippot, R S Feldman, E J Coats (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp 17 ^ 44 LeDoux J, 1996 The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (New York: Simon and Schuster) McArthur L Z, Baron R M, 1983 ``Toward an ecological theory of social perception'' Psychological Review ^238 Malatesta C Z, Culver C, Tesman J R, Shepard B, 1989 ``The development of emotion expression during the first two years of life'' Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 54 1^104 Markus H, Kitayama S, 1991 ``Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation'' Psychological Review ^ 253 Matsumoto D, 1989 ``Cultural influences of the perception of emotion'' Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology ^ 105 Matsumoto D, 1992 ``American ^ Japanese cultural differences in the recognition of universal facial expressions'' Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 23 72^84 Mayer J D, Caruso D, Salovey P, 1999 MSCEIT Item Booklet (Research Version 1.1) (Toronto: Multi-Health Systems) Mayer J D, Caruso D, Salovey P, 2000 ``Selecting a measure of emotional intelligence: The case for ability scales'', in The Handbook of Emotional Intelligence Eds R Bar-On, J D A Parker (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass) pp 320 ^ 342 Russell J A, 1994 ``Is there universal recognition of emotion from facial expression? A review of the cross-cultural studies'' Psychological Bulletin ^ 141 Schimmack U, 1996 ``Cultural influences on the recognition of emotion by facial expressions: Individualistic or Caucasian cultures?'' Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology ^ 50 Shimoda K, Argyle M, Ricci-Bitti P, 1978 ``The intercultural recognition of emotional expressions by three national racial groups: English, Italian and Japanese'' European Journal of Social Psychology ^ 179 Singelis T M, 1994 ``The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals'' Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ^ 591 Smith P B, Schwartz S H, 1997 ``Values'', in Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology Eds J W Berry, M H Segall, C Kagitcibasi (Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon) pp 77 ^ 118 Trafimow D, Triandis H C, Goto S G, 1991 ``Some tests of the distinction between the private self and the collective self'' Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ^ 655 Waldron J, 1975 ``Judgment of like ^ dislike from facial expression and body posture'' Perceptual and Motor Skills ^ 804 Young A, 1998 ``Perceiving social and physical environments'', in Mind, Brain and the Environment Ed. B Cartledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp 72 ^ 106

13 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 969 APPENDIX Photograph problems comprising the test of interpersonal perception À (1) These two people (a) just met two or three hours ago; (b) are sisters; (c) are friends who have known each other for some years. (2) These two people (a) have known each other for two years and are in love; (b) are brother and sister; (c) just met two or three hours ago. (3) This woman is (a) talking to a colleague while having lunch; (b) watching television while having lunch; (c) having lunch with her children. (4) These two people are (a) cousins; (b) complete strangers to each other; (c) a teacher and his pupil. (5) These two people are (a) brother and sister; (b) girlfriend and boyfriend; (c) complete strangers to each other. (6) These two people are (a) cousins; (b) pretending to be a couple; (c) in love. À For the correct answers see final page.

14 970 T Kito, B Lee (7) These two people are (a) members of the same club; (b) boyfriend and girlfriend; (c) are brother and sister. (8) The man on the left is (a) dating the woman in the middle; (b) dating the woman on the right; (c) just a friend of the two women. (9) These two people are (a) newlyweds; (b) colleagues; (c) brother and sister. (10) These two people are (a) husband and wife who married over 30 years ago; (b) members of the same poetry club; (c) brother and sister. (11) These two people are (a) sister and brother; (b) a married couple; (c) neighbours. (12) These two people are (a) friends who have known each other since they were children; (b) cousins; (c) a married couple.

15 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 971 (13) These two people are (a) a married couple; (b) brother and sister; (c) complete strangers to each other. (14) These two people are (a) colleagues; (b) parent and child; (c) a married couple. (15) These two people are (a) brother and sister; (b) a married couple; (c) complete strangers to each other. (16) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) a married couple; (c) colleagues. (17) These two people are (a) a married couple; (b) pretending to be a married couple.

16 972 T Kito, B Lee (18) These two people are (a) a nursery school worker and one of the infants under her care; (b) strangers; (c) mother and child. (19) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) complete strangers to each other. (20) These two people are (a) friends who have known each other for more than ten years; (b) complete strangers to each other; (c) sisters. Photograph 1 Photograph 2 (21) The same girl appears in both of these photographs. Which of the two photographs shows her with her mother? (a) photograph 1; (b) photograph 2.

17 Interpersonal perception in Japanese and British 973 (22) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) pretending to be parent and child. (23) The daughter of the woman in the centre is (a) the girl on the right; (b) the girl on the left; (c) neither. (24) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) complete strangers to each other. (25) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) colleagues; (c) complete strangers to each other. (26) This woman is (a) mother of both the boy and the baby; (b) mother of the baby only; (c) mother of the boy only. (27) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) pretending to be a parent and child.

18 974 T Kito, B Lee (28) These two people are (a) parent and child; (b) complete strangers; (c) teacher and pupil. (29) These two people are (a) members of the same club; (b) parent and child; (c) colleagues; a manageress and a member of her staff. (30) These two people work for the same company. Which of the two is the manager? (a) the man on the right; (b) the man on the left. Photograph 1 Photograph 2 (31) These two photographs were taken after a softball match. Which of the two teams won? (a) the team shown in photograph 1; (b) the team shown in photograph 2. Correct answers 1.c 2.a 3.a 4.c 5.b 6.c 7.b 8.c 9.b 10.a 11.b 12.c 13.a 14.c 15.b 16.b 17.b 18.c 19.b 20.c 21.a 22.a 23.c 24.b 25.b 26.a 27.b 28.c 29.a 30.a 31.b ß 2004 a Pion publication

19 ISSN (print) ISSN (electronic) Conditions of use. This article may be downloaded from the Perception website for personal research by members of subscribing organisations. Authors are entitled to distribute their own article (in printed form or by ) to up to 50 people. This PDF may not be placed on any website (or other online distribution system) without permission of the publisher.