Cultural Differences in the Goals and Strategies People Use to Regulate Others’ Emotions: A Daily Diary Study

Research on regulating others’ emotions is burgeoning, yet most studies rely on Western, individualistic samples. While culture is known to influence the way people regulate their own emotions, it remains largely unclear how culture shapes the regulation of others’ emotions. We address this gap by testing cultural differences in the goals and strategies people use to regulate others’ emotions in a daily diary study. East Asian (n = 87) and Anglo-Celtic (n = 93) participants completed a five-day daily diary (720 entries). Each day, participants indicated their use of four strategies (expressive suppression, distraction, cognitive reappraisal, and receptive listening) and five goals (pro-hedonic, performance, relational bonding, avoiding conflict, and impression management) to regulate others’ emotions. Two key findings emerged. First, East Asians reported greater use of expressive suppression (but not other strategies) than Anglo-Celtic participants. Second, East Asians endorsed greater impression management and avoiding conflict goals (but not other goals) than Anglo-Celtic participants. These results provided a more nuanced picture of how culture shapes how and why people regulate others’ emotions. The findings may inform future research on enhancing cross-cultural communication and intergroup relations.