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Feeling good and open-minded: The impact of positive affect on cross cultural empathic responding
Donna Webster Nelsona a Department of Psychology, Winthrop University, SC, USA

To cite this Article Nelson, Donna Webster(2009) 'Feeling good and open-minded: The impact of positive affect on cross

cultural empathic responding', The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4: 1, 53 63 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/17439760802357859 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760802357859

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The Journal of Positive Psychology Vol. 4, No. 1, January 2009, 5363

Feeling good and open-minded: The impact of positive affect on cross cultural empathic responding
Donna Webster Nelson*
Department of Psychology, Winthrop University, SC, USA (Received 14 May 2006; final version received 31 May 2007) Two experiments were conducted with US college students to determine whether affective states influence cross-cultural empathy. Participants read about a target who experienced distress and assumed a perspective that was consistent or inconsistent with US norms. When evaluating targets with a dissimilar (versus similar) cultural perspective, participants in neutral affect (Experiments 1 and 2) or negative affect (Experiment 2) conditions exhibited less perspective taking and emotional empathy. However, those differences were not observed for participants in a positive affect condition. Indeed, students in the positive (versus neutral or negative) affect condition exhibited greater perspective taking and feelings of compassion and sympathy for the dissimilar target. Results support (Fredrickson, B.L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300319; Fredrickson, B.L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden and build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218226) broaden and build theory, suggesting positive affect promotes open-minded, flexible thinking and builds social resources. Keywords: affect; mood; empathy; perspective taking

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Introduction In recent years, psychologists have begun to focus more energy on exploring human potentials, strengths and virtues. One notable body of research has examined positive emotions and the potential benefits they may foster in psychological, cognitive and social domains. In her broaden and build theory, Fredrickson (1998, 2001) proposes that positive emotions are not simply positive end states that signal well-being. Rather, they are a vehicle for acquiring important skills and resources that play a role in promoting both short- and long-term well-being. She argues that positive emotions can exert a broadening effect, leading to greater cognitive flexibility and accessibility of a wider range of possible thoughts and actions. Thus, positive emotions may foster assets such as creativity and an open-minded approach to information or experiences. A review of relevant research reveals that positive affect (i.e., a good mood or pleasant feeling) has been shown to exert just such effects. Isen and colleagues (e.g., Isen, 2000) have amassed extensive evidence that positive affect broadens and expands cognition. For example, positive affect led to more novel thinking in a word association task (Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985), greater flexibility in categorization tasks (Isen & Daubman, 1984; Kahn & Isen, 1993), improved performance on creative problem solving
*Email: nelsond@winthrop.edu
ISSN 17439760 print/ISSN 17439779 online 2009 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/17439760802357859 http://www.informaworld.com

tasks among students (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987) and among physicians (Estrada, Young, & Isen, 1994; Isen, Rosenzweig, & Young, 1991) and less anchoring in the decision-making of physicians (Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997). Overall, this body of research suggests that positive affect leads to flexible and elaborate thought processes, enhanced creativity and an open-minded approach that enables perception of alternate cognitive perspectives (Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999). Additional support for the broadening effect of positive affect may be found in studies of attentional focus (e.g., Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005; Gasper & Clore, 2002). Relevant findings indicate that positive emotions are associated with a global (as opposed to local) bias in visual processing tasks. This supports the notion that positive affect expands or broadens attention. Other support for the broadening effect of positive affect may be found in a study that examined the own-race bias (Johnson & Fredrickson, 2005). This study demonstrated that inducing positive emotion eliminated the tendency for people to show greater ability to recognize and make distinctions between faces of their own (versus another) race. These findings are consistent with the notion that positive emotion promotes a greater tendency toward holistic, openminded processing and this can translate into important social-cognitive effects.

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D.W. Nelson Indeed, Nelson and Baumgarte (2004) found that a lack of appreciation of a different view was largely responsible for decreased cross-cultural empathy (expressed as less compassion, sympathy and tolerance). These findings support earlier work that suggests emotional empathy may be, at least in part, dependent on the cognitive process of perspective taking (Batson et al., 1989; Davis, 1983). There is reason to believe that the likelihood an individual is open to assuming a different perspective (and is consequently more likely to empathize) may depend on motivational or affective factors. Nelson, Klein, and Irvin (2003) conducted a series of studies that suggest the likelihood of taking the perspective of a dissimilar other is influenced by motivated-cognitive processes. Specifically, those individuals who experienced a desire to reach cognitive closure quickly (due to mental fatigue) were less likely to exhibit perspective taking or experience empathic concern when relating to a dissimilar (versus similar) other. When need for cognitive closure was eliminated (as a result of an outcome-dependency manipulation that enhanced the motivation to process information), the deleterious effects of the need for closure on perspective taking and empathy were eliminated. Thus, perspective taking and empathy in relation to a dissimilar other seems to be influenced strongly by the extent to which a person processes information in a closed- or open-minded way. If positive affect leads to a more open-minded approach to social information processing, it should lead to a pattern of perspective taking and empathy effects opposite to those observed by Nelson et al. (2003) for individuals experiencing a need for cognitive closure. Specifically, individuals experiencing positive (versus neutral) affect should exhibit greater cognitive flexibility and a corresponding greater appreciation for a dissimilar perspective. They should also express relatively more empathic concern, since perspective taking seems to be linked to emotional expressions of empathy involving compassion and sympathy. Those ideas were tested in two experiments investigating cross-cultural perception.

There is other evidence that positive affect has implications for interpersonal perception and relations. Under some circumstances, positive affect may enhance stereotyping (e.g., Bless, Schwarz, & Wieland, 1996; Bodenhausen, Kramer, & Susser, 1994). However, this effect does not occur in all situations, such as when the importance of an impression formation task is salient (Bodenhausen et al., 1994). There is other work that suggests positive affect can exert a beneficial impact on intergroup perceptions. Dovidio, Gaertner, Isen, and Lowrance (1995) found that positive (versus neutral) affect led to more favorable evaluations of outgroup members, more inclusive representations of the ingroup and corresponding reductions of intergroup bias. Those effects seem to be tied to the tendency for positive affect to increase access to unique and positive features of a category (Isen, Niedenthal, & Cantor, 1992). However, positive affect is not hypothesized to reduce intergroup bias in cases where extremely unfavorable attitudes exist between groups (Dovidio, Gaertner, Isen, Rust, & Guerra, 1998). This is because positive affect promotes greater inclusiveness of categorization for neutral or positive categories for which positive associations exist. If positive connections are uncommon or absent (as would be expected for negative categories), the effect would not occur (Isen et al., 1992). Other evidence of possible prosocial effects of positive affect comes from studies demonstrating that positive (versus neutral) affect promotes helping and generosity (Isen, 1987, provides a review of relevant empirical evidence) and inhibits aggression (Isen & Baron, 1991). Furthermore, in the workplace, positive affect has been linked to enhanced cooperation (e.g., Baron, 1990) and intentions to perform organizational citizenship behaviors (Williams & Shiaw, 1999). In sum, there is quite a bit of evidence from diverse sources that positive affect has the potential to exert an array of beneficial psychological, cognitive and social effects. Given those promising findings, a profitable line of inquiry may be exploring ways to cultivate those beneficial effects at opportune times to meet diverse psychological or social challenges (Fredrickson, 2001). These studies focused on the potential facilitative impact of positive affect on the social-cognitive processes involved in cross-cultural relations. An important mechanism whereby positive affect may influence interpersonal relations is by impacting social cognition and information processing. The evidence that positive affect promotes flexible, open-minded thinking suggests positive affect may be a vehicle for facilitating challenging social interactions that depend on social perception. For example, flexible, open-minded processing of social information may help to promote cross-cultural relations by facilitating appreciation of an unfamiliar cultural perspective.

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Experiment 1 Method Participants A total of 54 female and 29 male introductory psychology students from the USA volunteered to take part in this experiment for a small amount of extra course credit. Only participants with English as their first language were included in analyses. Thus, data from three individuals was discarded leaving a final sample size of 52 females and 28 males.

The Journal of Positive Psychology Overview and design Participants were told that the experiment would involve the completion of several different tasks. First, they would be doing a recall and writing task (comprising the affect manipulation), then they would be answering several self-report items, and finally they would be reading about a target person and giving their impressions of that individual. The instructions mentioned that the target person might be from a different cultural background. The procedure (with the exception of the affect manipulation) was modeled after Nelson and Baumgarte (2004). The design of the experiment was a 2 (type of affect: positive or neutral) 4 (cultural perspective: similar social, similar work, dissimilar social or dissimilar work) betweensubjects factorial. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions. It was predicted that participants in the neutral mood condition would exhibit greater perspective taking and empathy in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) conditions. No differences as a function of culture for participants in the positive affect condition were expected. Furthermore, it was expected that participants in the positive (versus neutral) affect condition would exhibit greater perspective taking and empathy in the dissimilar culture conditions. No differences as a function of affect in the similar culture conditions were expected, since taking the perspective of the similar target (who expressed familiar views) would not require flexible thinking. Affect conditions. The first task served as our manipulation of participants affect. In the positive affect condition, students were asked to write about a past peak occurrence where they experienced feelings of elation, joy and pride. They were asked to describe their feelings and explain what the experience meant to them. In the neutral affect condition, students were asked to write about their morning routine. Affect manipulation check. To assess the success of our affect manipulation, participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they were currently experiencing a set of emotions based on positive items from the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). All ratings were made on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Specifically, they rated the extent to which they felt interested, excited, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, happy, content and active. Cultural perspective conditions. Next, participants read a vignette describing a same-sex target who experienced distress in an interpersonal context. Prior to

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reading the vignette, participants were told to keep in mind that the target might be from a different culture. In order to manipulate similarity of perspective, half of the vignettes (similar culture conditions) were based on incidents where the targets distress would be similar to that of the participant given the cultural norms of the USA as identified by Hofstede (1980) and Schwartz (1994). The other half of the vignettes (dissimilar culture conditions) depicted incidents where the targets distress would be very uncommon in US culture and more consistent with norms in some other cultures. The vignettes were borrowed from Nelson and Baumgarte (2004) and targeted two areas of difference in cultural norms. Two of the vignettes related to the dimension of group vs. individual recognition. In the similar culture condition, the target expressed distress because he/she did not receive individual recognition for his/her hard work on a team project. The vignette read as follows:
For almost a year, the accounting division of XYZ company had been plagued by unsatisfactory performance and low employee morale. A new supervisor, Lee, was put in charge of the division and he (labeled she for female participants) worked diligently to turn things around. In the quarter following his appointment, output increased sharply and the work group began operating like a cohesive team. It was clear that Lees hard work and innovative management approach was responsible for the positive changes. At the companys annual banquet, the accounting division was recognized publicly for their improvements. No mention of Lees personal contribution to the improvements was made. Lee felt tremendously hurt that he was not recognized personally. The incident left Lee feeling depressed and dissatisfied at work.

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In the dissimilar culture condition, the distress was because he/she was singled out for individual recognition. Such individual recognition might be embarrassing in some cultures that fall on the collectivist part of Hofstedes (1980) individualism-collectivism dimension but, generally, would not be distressing to someone in US culture. The vignette read as follows:
For almost a year, the accounting division of XYZ company had been plagued by unsatisfactory performance and low employee morale. A new supervisor, Lee, was put in charge of the division and he worked diligently to turn things around. In the quarter following his appointment, output increased sharply and the work group began operating like a cohesive team. It was clear that Lees hard work and innovative management approach was responsible for the positive changes. At the companys annual banquet, Lee was singled out and given an award to recognize his hard work. Lee was mortified by the individual attention and wondered why the division as a whole was not recognized for their success. The incident left Lee feeling depressed and dissatisfied at work.

The final two vignettes related to the issue of dependency in friendship. In the similar culture

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D.W. Nelson extent to which the target was to blame for his or her bad feelings (reverse scored) and the extent to which the targets distress was due to the unpleasantness or difficulty of the situation. These two questions were designed to assess dispositional and situational attributions for the targets responses, respectively. Past research indicates that situational (vs. dispositional) attributions reflect greater perspective taking on the part of the observer (e.g., Nelson & Baumgarte, 2004; Regan & Totten, 1975). Next, they were asked to assess the extent to which the targets emotional reaction was appropriate to the situation. This item has been utilized in prior research (e.g., Houston, 1990; Nelson & Baumgarte, 2004) to tap perspective taking. All responses were reported using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1) not at all to (5) completely. Empathic concern. To assess affective empathy, participants were asked to rate how much they experienced each of several emotions as they read the vignette, including sympathetic, compassionate, moved, warm, softhearted and tender. These items were used in past research (e.g., Houston, 1990; Nelson & Baumgarte, 2004) to assess emotional empathy. All ratings were made using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1) not at all to (5) completely.

condition, the target expressed distress because his/her friend was extremely dependent on him/her. Such dependency on a friend would be uncommon in US culture. The vignette read as follows:
Lee was generally pleased with her (labeled his for male participants) first weeks back at the university after the summer break. She had met a new friend, an exchange student from another university. They were spending nearly every moment of their free time together, and were becoming very close. Lee enjoyed introducing her to family and other friends, and taking her around to all of the interesting places near campus. She was certain their friendship would continue even after her new friend had to return home at the end of the school year. Recent developments in their friendship, however, were causing Lee some concern. Her friend had the habit of giving her gifts and consulting her for virtually all of her day-to-day decisions. It was clear that she depended greatly on Lee. Lee was beginning to feel somewhat anxious about the future of their friendship.
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In the dissimilar culture condition, the target expressed distress because his/her friend was quite independent. Expressing distress about the independent behaviors of a friend would, generally, be less common in the USA. The vignette read as follows:
Lee was generally pleased with her first weeks back at the university after the summer break. She had met a new friend, an exchange student from another university. They were spending nearly every moment of their free time together, and were becoming very close. Lee enjoyed introducing her to family and other friends, and taking her around to all of the interesting places near campus. She was certain their friendship would continue even after her new friend had to return home at the end of the school year. Recent developments in their friendship, however, were causing Lee some concern. Her friend had the habit of talking and being friendly to everyone she met. It was clear that she was very popular with everyone on campus. Lee was beginning to feel somewhat anxious about the future of their friendship.

Results Preliminary analyses indicated that no differences emerged on any of the measured variables as a function of gender or whether the vignette targeted a work or social context. Thus, responses were collapsed across these dimensions and analyses were conducted in the context of a 2 (affect: positive or neutral) 2 (cultural perspective: similar or dissimilar) between-subjects factorial. Manipulation checks Affect. The 11 items designed to tap positive affect were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.948) and thus, a composite positive affect index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 2 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on this index and yielded the predicted main effect for affect condition, F(1,76) 71.046, p 5 0.01. As expected, higher scores were observed in the positive affect condition (M 3.41, SD 0.709, n 40) compared to the neutral affect condition (M 2.13, SD 0.737, n 40). Thus, the affect manipulation appears to have been effective. Perceived similarity. Responses to the item tapping participants felt similarity to the target were subjected

Each participant read one vignette and then responded to several questions designed to assess perceptions of similarity and empathic responding. Similarity manipulation check. To assess the extent to which the manipulation of different cultural perspectives was successful in influencing perceptions of similarity, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they felt similar to the target. Responses were made using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from (1) not at all to (5) completely. Cognitive perspective taking. To assess perspective taking, participants were asked a series of three questions. First, they were asked to evaluate the

The Journal of Positive Psychology to a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). As predicted, results yielded a significant main effect for cultural similarity condition, F(1,76) 40.276, p 5 0.01. Overall, participants in the similar culture condition perceived themselves as more similar to the target (M 3.25, SD 0.927, n 40) than those in the dissimilar culture condition (M 1.98, SD 0.974, n 40). A significant main effect for mood was also found. Respondents in the positive mood condition rated the target as more similar (M 2.88, SD 1.042, n 40) compared to the neutral mood condition (M 2.35, SD 1.189, n 40), F(1,76) 6.829, p 5 0.05. Furthermore, a significant interaction between cultural similarity condition and affect condition qualified the aforementioned main effects, F(1,76) 4.475, p 5 0.05. Contrasts between the relevant means indicates that similarity ratings were significantly higher in the similar (vs. dissimilar) culture condition for both the positive affect t(38) 2.795, p 5 0.01 and neutral affect t(38) 6.474, p 5 0.01 respondents (supporting the overall success of the cultural similarity manipulation). However, the dissimilar target was rated as more similar by participants in the positive affect condition when compared to respondents in the neutral affect condition t(38) 3.503, p 5 0.01. No differences in similarity ratings as a function of affect were found for the similar culture target. This pattern of findings suggests that, although the positive affect respondents recognized the dissimilarity in cultural perspective expressed by the dissimilar target, they were less extreme in their ratings of difference, relative to the neutral affect participants. These results are consistent with past research (Dovidio et al., 1995) showing that positive affect can promote more inclusive ingroup representations, essentially broadening views of similarity. The relevant means are presented in Figure 1. Dependent measures Cognitive perspective taking. The three items designed to tap cognitive empathy were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.71). Thus, a composite perspective-taking index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 2 2 ANOVA was performed on this index and yielded a significant main effect for mood condition F(1,76) 11.668, p 5 0.01, and a significant main effect for culture condition F(1,76) 11.668, p 5 0.01. Those main effects were qualified by the predicted interaction effect F(1,76) 5.025, p 5 0.05. Planned comparisons revealed that, as expected, participants in the neutral mood condition exhibited greater perspective taking in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) condition t(38) 3.610, p 5 0.01. No differences as a function of culture were found for participants in the positive affect

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condition t(38) 0.945, ns. Furthermore, participants in the positive (versus neutral) affect condition exhibited greater perspective taking in the dissimilar culture condition t(38) 3.780, p 5 0.01. No differences as a function of affect were found in the similar culture condition t(38) 0.885, ns. The relevant means are presented in Figure 2. Empathic concern. The six items designed to tap affective empathy were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.898). Thus, a composite empathic concern index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 2 2 ANOVA was performed on this index and yielded a significant main effect for mood condition F(1,76) 33.028, p 5 0.01, and a significant main effect for culture condition F(1,76) 11.584, p 5 0.01. Those main effects were qualified by the predicted interaction effect F(1,76) 12.356, p 5 0.01. Planned comparisons revealed that, as expected, participants in the neutral mood condition exhibited greater empathic concern in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) condition t(38) 4.386, p 5 0.01. No differences as a function of culture were found for participants in the positive affect condition t(38) 0.091, ns. Furthermore, participants in the positive (versus neutral) affect condition exhibited greater empathic concern in the dissimilar culture condition t(38) 5.727, p 5 0.001. No significant differences as a function of affect were found in the similar culture condition t(38) 1.897, ns. The relevant means are presented in Figure 2.

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Discussion The purpose of this study was to examine whether positive affect would facilitate perspective taking and emotional empathy in the context of cross-cultural perception. Replicating past work by Nelson and Baumgarte (2004), it was found that US college students in a neutral mood experienced less emotional and cognitive empathy for a target experiencing

Experiment 1 5 4 3 2 1 0 Positive Affect Neutral Affect 3.30 2.45 1.50 3.20

Similar Culture Dissimilar Culture

Figure 1. Similarity ratings as a function of affect and cultural perspective. Experiment 1.

Similarity Ratings

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Experiment 1 5 4 3 2 1 0 Positive Affect Neutral Affect Similar Culture Dissimilar Culture 3.70 3.52 3.52 2.63

D.W. Nelson characteristics were responsible for the aforementioned results. In Experiment 1, respondents rated their mood prior to completing the dependent measures. The procedure was modified for Experiment 2, such that mood ratings did not occur until after completion of the dependent measures in order to reduce concerns about experimental demand. Furthermore, it was hoped to eliminate any differences in cognitive processes across conditions that could have been present in Experiment 1. Specifically, in that study participants in the positive affect condition were asked to write about a positive event and explain what it meant to them. It is possible that, besides inducing positive affect, the explanations of the positive events may have produced a broadening of thought. This possibility could be ruled out with an alternate induction of mood that did not require explanatory processes. Finally, it was hoped to assess whether any affective state, not specifically positive affect, might enhance cross-cultural empathy. Thus, a negative mood condition was added to test whether the observed effects for cross cultural empathy were simply due to a greater focus on emotion in general (positive or negative) as opposed to the hypothesized broadening effect of positive affect.

Perspective Taking 5 4 3
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Similar Culture 3.62 3.63 3.28 2.25 Dissimilar Culture

2 1 0 Positive Affect Neutral Affect

Empathic Concern

Figure 2. Perspective taking and empathic concern as a function of affect and cultural perspective. Experiment 1.

Experiment 2 Method Participants A total of 80 female and 35 male introductory psychology students from the USA volunteered to take part in this experiment for a small amount of extra course credit. Only participants with English as their first language were included in analyses. Thus, data from one individual was discarded leaving a final sample size of 79 females and 35 males. Overview and design Participants were told that the experiment would involve the completion of two separate studies. First, they would be taking part in a pilot study examining communication processes. After completion of that study, they would be asked to take part in a second study on social perceptions. The procedure (with the exception of the affect manipulation and affect manipulation check) was modeled closely after Experiment 1. The design of the experiment was a 3 (type of affect: positive, neutral or negative) 4 (cultural perspective: similar social, similar work, dissimilar social or dissimilar work) between-subjects factorial. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions. It was expected to find convergent support for the hypotheses tested in Experiment 1. Specifically, it was predicted that individuals in the positive (versus

distress stemming from an incident reflecting unfamiliar (versus familiar) cultural norms. When evaluating the dissimilar target, they viewed his or her responses as relatively inappropriate and tended to attribute his or her distress to dispositional as opposed to situational forces, essentially assigning more blame to him or her. Furthermore, emotional empathy, including feelings of compassion, sympathy and the like, was lessened with respect to the target whose behaviors reflected different cultural norms. Extending past findings, it was found that those differences in empathy as a function of cultural perspective did not occur for respondents experiencing positive affect. Instead, participants experiencing positive (versus neutral) affect exhibited greater perspective taking and emotional empathy for a dissimilar target. In sum, the results of Experiment 1 provide support for the expected broadening effect of positive affect. Indeed, those experiencing positive (versus neutral) affect exhibited flexible thinking that translated into appreciation of unfamiliar views and compassion for a person expressing the dissimilar perspective. An important next step is to assess the generalizability of the obtained mood effects. Thus, a second experiment that utilized an alternative mood induction procedure designed to accomplish several goals was planned. First, it was hoped to reduce the possibility that demand

The Journal of Positive Psychology neutral or negative) affect condition would exhibit greater perspective taking and emotional empathy for a target who expressed a dissimilar cultural perspective. No differences in the dependent variables were expected for those in the negative (versus neutral) mood condition, as negative mood was not expected to exert a broadening effect. As in Experiment 1, no differences as a function of affect were expected in the similar culture conditions, since appreciating a familiar viewpoint does not require flexible thinking. Furthermore, it was predicted that participants in both the neutral and negative mood conditions would exhibit greater perspective taking and empathy in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) conditions. No differences were expected as a function of culture for participants in the positive affect condition. Affect conditions. Participants were told the first study examined communication processes. They would be asked to read a series of statements aloud and speech patterns would be observed. Participants were randomly assigned to a positive affect, neutral affect or negative affect condition. In each case, they read a series of 25 statements designed to induce the appropriate mood. The statements were developed by Seibert and Ellis (1991) as a means of inducing various mood states experimentally. Their mood induction procedure is similar to Veltens (1968) procedure, but utilizes fewer items and incorporates contemporary language intended to be familiar to typical college students. Positive statements include items such as being in college makes my dreams more possible and most people like me. Neutral statements include items such as it snows in Idaho and most high schools have a band. Negative statements include items such as my classes are harder than I expected and nobody understands me or even tries to. The complete set of 75 items may be found in Seibert and Ellis (1991). Cultural perspective conditions. After completion of the affect induction task, participants were told the second experiment would begin. They were then asked to read one of the vignettes (randomly assigned) describing either the similar or dissimilar target. Prior to reading the vignette, participants were told to keep in mind that the target might be from a different culture. After reading the vignette, participants were asked to respond to the relevant items tapping perspective taking and empathic concern. All of these materials were identical to those utilized in Experiment 1. Affect manipulation check. Immediately following the completion of the dependent measures, respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they

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experienced a set of positive and negative emotions based on items from the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). All ratings were made on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Specifically, they rated the extent to which they felt interested, excited, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, active, distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, jittery and afraid. After completing and submitting the affect manipulation check, all participants were asked to read a list of 10 happy statements in order to ensure that their mood was reasonably positive at the conclusion of the session.

Results Preliminary analyses indicated that no differences emerged on any of the measured variables as a function of gender or whether the vignette targeted a work or social context. Thus, responses were collapsed across these dimensions and analyses were conducted in the context of a 3 (affect: positive, neutral or negative) 2 (cultural perspective: similar or dissimilar) betweensubjects factorial. Manipulation checks Affect. To begin, the nine items designed to tap positive affect were subjected to a reliability analysis and found to be highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.91). A composite positive affect index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 3 2 ANOVA was performed on this composite and yielded the predicted significant main effect for mood condition F(2,108) 29.679, p 5 0.01. Multiple Tukey HSD comparisons revealed that respondents experienced more positive affect in the positive affect condition (M 3.61, SD 0.729, n 39) compared to the neutral affect condition (M 2.93, SD 0.887, n 38) and less positive affect in the negative affect condition (M 2.12, SD 0.924, n 37) compared to the neutral affect condition ( p 5 0.05 in all cases). Next, the nine items designed to tap negative affect were subjected to a reliability analysis and found to be highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.89). A composite negative affect index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 3 2 ANOVA was performed on this composite and yielded the predicted significant main effect for mood condition F(2,108) 41.776, p 5 0.01. Multiple Tukey HSD comparisons revealed that respondents experienced more negative affect in the negative affect condition (M 3.09, SD 0.86, n 37) compared to the neutral affect condition (M 1.82, SD 0.757, n 38) or the positive affect condition (M 1.65, SD 0.60, n 39) (p 5 0.01 in each case). Differences in negative affect

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Experiment 2 Similarity Ratings 5 4 3 2 1 0 Similar Culture 3.35 2.42 3.22 1.60 Neutral Affect 3.28 1.58 Dissimilar Culture

D.W. Nelson
Experiment 2 5 4 3 Positive Affect Negative Affect 2.38 2 1 0 Positive Affect Neutral Affect Negative Affect Similar Culture Dissimilar Culture 3.50 2.37 2.04 3.48 3.56 Similar Culture Dissimilar Culture 3.46 2.58

3.33

Figure 3. Similarity ratings as a function of affect and cultural perspective. Experiment 2.

for the neutral versus positive affect conditions did not reach significance. Taken together, the results for the two measures of affect suggest that the affect manipulation was effective. Perceived similarity. Responses to the item tapping participants felt similarity to the target were subjected to a 3 2 ANOVA. As predicted, results yielded a significant main effect for cultural similarity condition, F(1,108) 62.072, p 5 0.01. Overall, participants in the similar culture condition perceived themselves as more similar to the target (M 3.28, SD 0.128, n 56) than those in the dissimilar culture condition (M 1.87, SD 0.126, n 58). A marginal main effect for mood was also found, F(2,108) 3.027, p 5 0.053. Respondents in the positive mood condition had a tendency to rate the target as more similar (M 2.88, SD 0.154, n 39) compared to the neutral mood condition (M 2.41, SD 0.156, n 38) or the negative mood condition (M 2.43, SD 0.158, n 37). The interaction between cultural similarity condition and affect did not reach significance, F(2,108) 1.877, p 5 0.158. However, the relevant pattern of means resembles those obtained in Experiment 1. Specifically, although the dissimilar target was rated as relatively less similar by respondents in all affect conditions, those ratings were less polarized for respondents in the positive affect condition. The relevant means for each cell of the design are presented in Figure 3. Dependent measures Cognitive perspective taking. The three items designed to tap cognitive empathy were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.768). Thus, a composite perspective-taking index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 3 2 ANOVA was performed on this index and yielded a marginal main effect for mood condition F(2,108) 2.616, p 5 0.078, and a significant main effect for culture condition F(1,108) 18.160, p 5 0.01. Those main effects were qualified by the predicted significant interaction effect F(2,108) 3.157, p 5 0.05. Planned comparisons revealed that, as expected, participants in the neutral mood condition exhibited greater perspective taking in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) condition

Perspective Taking 5 4 3 2 1 0 Positive Affect Neutral Affect Empathic Concern Negative Affect

3.42

3.29

3.15

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Figure 4. Perspective taking and empathic concern as a function of affect and cultural perspective. Experiment 2.

t(36) 3.92, p 5 0.01. Similarly, participants in the negative mood condition exhibited greater perspective taking in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) condition t(35) 3.261, p 5 0.01. In contrast, no differences as a function of culture were found for participants in the positive affect condition t(37) 0.467, ns. Furthermore, when relating to the dissimilar target, perspective taking was higher in the positive affect condition relative to the neutral affect condition, t(37) 3.175, p 5 0.01, or the negative affect condition, t(36) 2.52, p 5 0.05. Differences in perspective taking for the neutral versus negative affect conditions were not significant t(37) 0.79, ns. Finally, when relating to the similar target, no differences as a function of affect were found. The relevant means are presented in Figure 4. Empathic concern. The six items designed to tap affective empathy were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs alpha 0.929). Thus, a composite empathic concern index was computed by summing and averaging responses. A 3 2 ANOVA was performed on this index and yielded a significant main effect for mood condition F(2,108) 6.819, p 5 0.01) and a significant main effect for culture condition F(1,108) 21.738, p 5 0.01. Those main effects were qualified by the predicted significant interaction effect F(2,108) 3.978, p 5 0.05. Planned comparisons revealed that, as expected, participants in the neutral mood condition exhibited greater empathic

The Journal of Positive Psychology concern in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) condition t(36) 3.657, p 5 0.01. Similarly, participants in the negative mood condition exhibited greater empathic concern in the similar culture (versus dissimilar culture) condition t(35) 3.848, p 5 0.01. In contrast, no differences as a function of culture were found for participants in the positive affect condition t(37) 0.424, ns. Furthermore, when relating to the dissimilar target, empathic concern was higher in the positive affect condition relative to the neutral affect condition, t(37) 4.840, p 5 0.01, or the negative affect condition, t(36) 3.73, p 5 0.01. Differences in empathic concern for the neutral versus negative affect conditions were not significant t(37) 0.70, ns. Finally, when relating to the similar target, no differences as a function of affect were found. The relevant means are presented in Figure 4.

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building of enduring social resources. These results make an important contribution to the positive psychology (Seligman, 2002) body of work, providing additional evidence that capacities and strengths can be fostered as a means of improving personal and social functioning.

Discussion
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The findings of Experiment 2 provide convergent support for the broadening effects of positive mood reported in Experiment 1. Using distinct methodology to induce affect, it was found that persons experiencing a positive mood (compared to a neutral or negative mood) displayed more cognitive and affective empathy for a target person who expressed views reflecting norms of a dissimilar culture. Relating successfully to a person with dissimilar and unfamiliar (compared to familiar) views requires a relative degree of flexibility and open-mindedness. It was in the positive mood condition only that participants displayed this sort of flexibility in thought. The fact that those in a negative mood did not exhibit this tendency suggests that the greater perspective taking and empathy for a dissimilar target found in Experiment 1 can not be explained as due to a greater focus on emotion in general. Rather, the positive mood seems to have exerted a unique influence on participants cognitions, rendering them more flexible in their thinking and facilitating the processes of perspective taking and empathy.

Practical applications These findings have important practical implications as well. Societies around the world continue to become increasingly diverse with respect to cultural values, norms and behaviors. If individuals remain embedded in their own points of view and unable to appreciate divergent viewpoints or ways of doing things, intercultural tension and conflict are likely consequences. Indeed, cross cultural social exchanges present challenges that have the potential of resulting in very negative outcomes. This highlights the importance of finding avenues for facilitating cross-cultural understanding and appreciation. Empathy is an interpersonal skill with great relevance to cross cultural relations because it is known to facilitate prosocial behavior and minimize conflict and social disruption (Davis, 1994). These findings suggest that this important interpersonal skill can be cultivated at opportune times by tapping into positive emotions. Thus, calling on positive emotions when facing unfamiliar social exchanges may help individuals with different backgrounds to respond to one another with tolerance and compassion. This will serve the important function of promoting the construction of cooperative as opposed to oppositional relationships, helping individuals and societies function in an adaptive and harmonious way.

Overall discussion Theoretical contributions These findings have important theoretical implications in that they provide new support for Fredricksons (1998, 2001) broaden and build theory. As would be predicted by her theory, positive affect led to greater cognitive flexibility and an open-minded approach to new and unfamiliar information (i.e., a broadening tendency) manifest as greater cross-cultural perspective taking. Furthermore, these social-cognitive effects were linked to enhancements in cross-cultural emotional empathy. The enhanced empathy that was observed as a function of positive affect provides an example of the

Final considerations: limitations, strengths and future directions It is important to note that the greater cross-cultural perspective taking and empathy observed in these studies was in the context of a dissimilar and largely unfamiliar cultural perspective. The observed mood effects may not apply across cultures where strong conflict and extremely unfavorable attitudes already exist. In such instances, perceivers may be motivated to confirm us-them distinctions and think of unfavorable associations with respect to members of the divergent culture. If positive affect broadens cognition and perceivers are strongly motivated to view a target unfavorably, they may identify more differences between groups (Isen, 1987) and think of more reasons to blame the target for any distress, essentially reducing perspective taking and, in turn, empathy. This caveat is consistent with what Dovidio et al. (1998) note about conditions where positive affect is likely or unlikely to reduce intergroup bias. Indeed,

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Davis, M.H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 113126. Davis, M.H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Dovidio, J., Gaertner, S., Isen, A., & Lowrance, R. (1995). Group representation and intergroup bias: Positive affect, similarity and group size. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 856865. Dovidio, J., Gaertner, S., Isen, A., Rust, M., & Guerra, P. (1998). Positive affect, cognition and the reduction of intergroup bias. In C. Sedikides, J. Schopler & C. Insko (Eds.), Intergroup cognition and intergroup behavior (pp. 337366). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Estrada, C.A., Isen, A.M., & Young, M.J. (1997). Positive affect facilitates integration of information and decreases anchoring in reasoning among physicians. Organizational and Human Decision Processes, 72, 117135. Estrada, C.A., Young, M.J., & Isen, A.M. (1994). Positive affect influences creative problem solving and reported source of practice satisfaction in physicians. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 285299. Fredrickson, B.L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300319. Fredrickson, B.L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden and build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218226. Fredrickson, B.L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 313332. Gasper, K., & Clore, G. (2002). Attending to the big picture: Mood and global versus local processing of visual information. Psychological Science, 13, 3440. Hofstede, G. (1980). Cultures consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Houston, D.A. (1990). Empathy and the self: Cognitive and emotional influences on the evaluation of negative affect in others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 859868. Isen, A.M. (1987). Positive affect, cognitive processes, and social behavior. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 20, 203253. Isen, A.M. (2000). Positive affect and decision making. In M. Lewis, & J.M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (2nd ed., pp. 417435). New York: Guilford Press. Isen, A.M., & Baron, R.A. (1991). Positive affect in organizations. In L. Cummings & B. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (pp. 152). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Isen, A.M., & Daubman, K.A. (1984). The influence of affect on categorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 12061217. Isen, A.M., Daubman, K.A., & Nowicki, G.P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 11221131. Isen, A.M., Johnson, M.S., Mertz, E., & Robinson, G.G. (1985). The influence of positive affect on the unusualness of word associations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 14131426. Isen, A.M., Niedenthal, P.M., & Cantor, N. (1992). An influence of positive affect on social categorization. Motivation and Emotion, 16, 6578.

positive affect is not hypothesized to reduce intergroup bias in cases where strong hatred exists between groups. This is because positive affect promotes greater inclusiveness of categorization for neutral or positive categories for which positive associations exist. It does not have this effect for negative categories, since positive associations are unlikely in such cases (Isen et al., 1992). The paradigm used to test the hypotheses in this paper has other strengths and limitations that deserve consideration. This study made use of experimental materials that were utilized in past research (Nelson & Baumgarte, 2004) and was able to demonstrate a replication of prior results along with an extension of the findings. Thus, this study helped to confirm earlier observations that a lack of appreciation for different cultural norms or values can have negative emotional and social effects. This study also served to advance our understanding of those effects by demonstrating that they could be overcome through the use of positive affect. The borrowed experimental materials involved written descriptions of target persons (to which participants were assigned randomly) and self-report items designed to tap participant perceptions. While this experimental procedure has the value of allowing the control of many potential extraneous variables, it also has potential limitations. Specifically, this paradigm did not allow observation of the impact of positive affect on actual social exchanges. A profitable area of future investigation would be the examination of just such interpersonal interactions under the influence of positive compared to neutral or negative affect. These findings suggest an optimistic outlook for the possibility of affect-moderated enhancements in cross-cultural interactions.

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