Beliefs about Positive Emotional Expressions Diverge by Target Social Class: Evidence from Four Countries

Our beliefs about others’ emotional expressions depend on their racial, gender, and occupational identities, but what about their social class? In four studies, conducted in the UK (Study 1, n = 200, pre-registered), India, UAE (Study 2a and 2b, total n = 565, exploratory), and the US (Study 3, n = 1,616, pre-registered), we investigated beliefs about others’ emotional expressions in relation to the targets’ social class, focusing on self-oriented (e.g., pride) and other-oriented (e.g., gratitude) positive emotions. Contrary to expectations, we found no consistent evidence for positive associations between higher social class and positive emotional expressions. However, as predicted, we found that across cultures, people associate higher social class with expressing more self-oriented positive emotions, and lower social class with more other-oriented positive emotions. These findings extend the functional view of positive emotional expressions to the domain of social class and highlight the consistency of these beliefs across cultures.