The role of honour-related vs. individualistic values in conceptualising pride, shame, and anger: Spanish and Dutch cultural prototypes

We investigated how differences in self-related values affect the way in which members from different cultures describe emotion episodes. Spain and the Netherlands were selected for comparison, on the assumption that these countries differ with respect to the importance of individualistic versus honour-related values. This assumption was tested in Study 1. The results showed that honour-related values are indeed more important in Spain, whereas values relating to individualism are more important in the Netherlands. In the second, main study, we investigated whether these differences in values would be reflected in cultural prototypes of pride, shame and anger. Dutch and Spanish respondents completed questionnaires in which they described typical examples of specified components of these emotions. Content analysis of responses revealed systematic differences in the cultural prototypes of pride and shame; these differences can be seen as reflecting the influence of individualistic versus honour-based values on the way in which self-conscious emotions are conceptualised.