Emotional experiences are influenced by both biological mechanisms and cultural contexts, which determine how emotions are elicited, expressed, and regulated. The present study examined cross-cultural differences in emotional responses elicited by standardised film clips in Türkiye and Germany. Participants from Türkiye and participants from Germany watched short film clips and GIFs designed to elicit seven specific emotions (Arıkan-İyilikçi et al., 2024). Following each clip, they evaluated how strongly they experienced each discrete emotion, in addition to providing ratings on valence, arousal, motivational intensity, and appraisal dimensions. They also completed the Self-Construal Scale (Singelis, 1994) and the Rational-Experiential Inventory (Betsch, 2004).
The results indicated the presence of significant cultural variations. Participants from Türkiye reported higher levels of anger, sadness and tenderness in response to the same video clips as participants from Germany, indicating cultural differences in the experience of these emotions. Tenderness, a secondary emotion that accompanies the primary emotions, and sadness were reported more strongly by participants from Türkiye than by participants from Germany. This finding suggests that in cultures with a relational self-construal, emotions that strengthen empathy and relationships are experienced more intensely. As a secondary emotion, amusement was reported more strongly by participants from Germany than by participants from Türkiye in response to the tenderness and calmness videos. Participants from Türkiye evaluated anger and sadness videos as more negative, while participants from Germany found sadness and disgust videos more arousing. In contrast, participants from Türkiye found amusement videos to be more arousing.
Participants from Türkiye demonstrated higher scores on independent self-construal, aligning with Kağıtçıbaşı's (2005) 'autonomous-related self,' and exhibited stronger intuitive thinking, with no cultural differences observed in analytical thinking.
These findings show that standardized film clips elicit emotions across cultures while revealing culture-specific emotional profiles, highlighting the importance of understanding cultural differences to improve intercultural communication.