A CROSS-CULTURAL-COMPARISON OF THE INTERPRETATION AND MANAGEMENT OF FACE - UNITED-STATES AMERICAN AND JAPANESE RESPONSES TO EMBARRASSING PREDICAMENTS

This study attempted to compare remedial face work in Japanese and U.S. American cultures. Although the original intent was specifically to examine the phenomenon of embarrassment, the study actually examined the broader notion of face work (i.e., social predicaments) due to difficulty in establishing semantic equivalence of embarrassment between the two cultures. Open-ended questionnaires were administered to both Japanese and U.S. college students. The questionnaire assessed actual experiences of predicaments, affective responses to the predicaments, and the coping strategies used in dealing with the predicaments. Results indicated that (a) U.S. American respondents tended to mention accident type predicaments, whereas Japanese described mistakes; (b) Japanese more frequently reported predicaments involving in group relationships, whereas U.S. Americans more frequently mentioned outgroup relationships; (c) U.S. Americans used humor as a coping response more frequently than did Japanese, whereas Japanese relied heavily on remediation; and (d) Japanese experienced mainly shame in predicaments, whereas U. S. Americans experienced embarrassment and stupidity. These cross-cultural differences were interpreted from existing theories and research.