The relational dynamics of anger and shame: scripts for emotional interactions in Germany and Japan

Abstract

This study explored German and Japanese scripts for anger and shame interactions between romantic partners. We started from the idea that emotion scripts structure people’s knowledge about emotional interactions and should vary systematically between cultures in line with the cultural significance of the emotion that the script organizes. Specifically, we expected that emotions that are consistent with culturally dominant relationship ideals (anger in Germany, shame in Japan) compared to those that are inconsistent (anger in Japan, shame in Germany) are experienced more commonly and that scripts for culturally consistent compared to inconsistent emotions should represent more knowledge about interpersonal contingencies. German and Japanese participants (N = 344) indicated for eight anger (or shame) situations how frequently they encounter similar situations, how intensely they would respond with anger/shame, how their partners would react, and how angry/ashamed they would feel after the interaction. In line with our expectations, we found that people encounter shame situations with their partners frequently to the extent that they lead to culturally consistent emotions; this was partially also the case for anger situations. Moreover, we found that, overall, participants took imagined partner responses more into account when imagining interactions around culturally consistent compared to inconsistent emotions, supporting the idea that these scripts represent more interpersonal influence.