Culture-Constrained Affective Consistency of Interpersonal Behavior: A Test of Affect Control Theory With Nonverbal Expressions

In: Social psychology, Band 44, Heft 1, S. 47-58

Abstract

We examined the core hypothesis of affect control theory (ACT; Heise, 2007 ), namely, that human social interaction is guided by culture-constrained affective consistency. Our study is the first empirical test of this principle applied to nonverbal behavior. A group of 120 subjects in 60 dyads were videotaped during a problem-solving task. Their interactions were subdivided into discrete meaningful events and assigned ratings of the friendliness, dominance, and activity displayed by the interactants. We used a computational model based on ACT to predict frequencies of, and likely sequences between, specific patterns of interpersonal affect. The model predicted the data well. We argue that assuming a principle of consistency is valuable for understanding not only individual social cognition, but also the interdependencies between individuals, social settings, and culture.