Dialecticism and the Co-occurrence of Positive and Negative Emotions Across Cultures

摘要

Emotional complexity (the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect) is more prevalent in EastAsian than North American cultures. Although researchers have attributed this robust findingto dialectical thinking (tolerance of contradiction), this hypothesis has not been experimentallytested. In this study, dialectical thinking about salient life events was manipulated among mainlandChinese and Euro-American participants, and increased dialectical thinking led to greateremotional complexity. Moreover, Chinese exhibited greater dialectical thinking and emotionalcomplexity than did Euro-Americans, and cultural differences in emotional complexity weremediated by a direct measure of dialecticism (Dialectical Self Scale).