The overarching goal of this application is to test a theory regarding nonlinguistic dialects. 6 sets of studies are proposed to test the hypotheses that nonlinguistic emotional dialects are (a) acquired through cultural exposure and (b) provide cues as to cultural identity. Further, (c) emotional dialects of majority group members are understood more accurately by minority group members than vice-versa; (d) emotional dialects are associated with distinct neural patterns of activation; (e) emotional dialect acquisition shows a similar early developmental trajectory to linguistic dialect acquisition, and, (f) bicultural individual is fluent in different emotional dialects will code-switch between dialects in response to subtle primes. The 12 proposed studies are designed to examine emotional communication by members of diverse cultural and ethnic groups, from Japan, India, and the United States. Within these groups, both majority as well as minority group members will be examined. Both the results and the stimuli collected for these studies involving emotions expressed in 3 different channels (the face, body, and voice) from diverse cultural and ethnic groups will be shared and disseminated to other scientists to enhance research and knowledge in this area. The proposed research should have important implications for mental health and inter-group relations. Being less able to understand the emotions being communicated by members of other ethnic or cultural groups probably contributes heavily to a lack of empathy and understanding of less familiar others as well as to inter-group prejudice and discrimination. This work has implications for diverse interactions such as in the client-provider relationships, in which members of diverse ethnic and cultural groups have to interact and sustain relationships.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01MH070833-01A1
Application #
6925838
Study Section
Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes Study Section (SPIP)
Program Officer
Quinn, Kevin J
Project Start
2005-09-20
Project End
2010-08-31
Budget Start
2005-09-20
Budget End
2006-08-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$218,400
Indirect Cost
Name
Tufts University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
073134835
City
Medford
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02155
Rule, Nicholas O; Freeman, Jonathan B; Ambady, Nalini (2013) Culture in social neuroscience: a review. Soc Neurosci 8:3-10
Young, Steven G; Brown, Christina M; Ambady, Nalini (2012) Priming a natural or human-made environment directs attention to context-congruent threatening stimuli. Cogn Emot 26:927-33
Krendl, Anne C; Kensinger, Elizabeth A; Ambady, Nalini (2012) How does the brain regulate negative bias to stigma? Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 7:715-26
Gray, Heather M; Ishii, Keiko; Ambady, Nalini (2011) Misery loves company: when sadness increases the desire for social connectedness. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 37:1438-48
Toosi, Negin R; Ambady, Nalini (2011) Ratings of Essentialism for Eight Religious Identities. Int J Psychol Relig 21:17-29
Adams Jr, Reginald B; Rule, Nicholas O; Franklin Jr, Robert G et al. (2010) Cross-cultural reading the mind in the eyes: an fMRI investigation. J Cogn Neurosci 22:97-108
Pauker, Kristin; Ambady, Nalini; Apfelbaum, Evan P (2010) Race salience and essentialist thinking in racial stereotype development. Child Dev 81:1799-813
Weisbuch, Max; Pauker, Kristin; Ambady, Nalini (2009) The subtle transmission of race bias via televised nonverbal behavior. Science 326:1711-4
Pauker, Kristin; Weisbuch, Max; Ambady, Nalini et al. (2009) Not so black and white: memory for ambiguous group members. J Pers Soc Psychol 96:795-810
Freeman, Jonathan B; Rule, Nicholas O; Ambady, Nalini (2009) The cultural neuroscience of person perception. Prog Brain Res 178:191-201

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