{"id":12592,"date":"2018-06-27T03:50:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=12592"},"modified":"2018-06-28T03:51:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T03:51:44","slug":"why-are-russians-so-stingy-with-their-smiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-are-russians-so-stingy-with-their-smiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Russians so stingy with their smiles?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samuel Putnam<\/a>, Bowdoin College<\/a><\/em> and Masha A. Gartstein<\/a>, Washington State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the lead-up to the World Cup, articles<\/a> appeared<\/a> noting that Russian workers were being taught how to properly smile at the foreign soccer fans who would soon be visiting their country. <\/p>\n

One of us \u2013 Masha \u2013 is a Russian immigrant. She\u2019ll be quick to tell you that in Russia, randomly smiling at strangers in public is often viewed as a sign of mental illness or inferior intellect.<\/p>\n

Of course, in the U.S. and many other countries, smiling is a common, reflexive gesture of goodwill. <\/p>\n

There is, indeed, truth to the \u201csmiling gap\u201d: In our psychology research, we\u2019ve noticed a striking difference in how often people smile in the United States when compared to Russia. To Americans, it might be easy to assume that this says something about Russians \u2013 that they\u2019re an unfriendly, callous people. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the case at all. Instead, it\u2019s worth looking at why certain expressions, like smiling, become a key part of social exchanges in some cultures and not others.<\/p>\n

Greasing the social wheels<\/h2>\n

As far as we can tell, there are two likely explanations for the smiling gap.<\/p>\n

The first has to do with how people in different cultures communicate with one another. Different cultures have different \u201cdisplay rules<\/a>,\u201d or norms that dictate how individuals should express themselves.<\/p>\n

Display rules are often governed by something called \u201csocial distance,\u201d which refers to the expectation of privacy in a given culture. Studies have found<\/a> that in Russia, social distance is lower relative to the U.S., meaning that people generally expect to be approached by strangers and there\u2019s more mutual understanding. There\u2019s less pressure to display a positive emotion like smiling to signal friendliness or openness, because it\u2019s generally assumed you\u2019re already on the same wavelength.<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s greater social distance, there\u2019s more wiggle room to get into trouble during a chance encounter. Because Americans expect a modicum of privacy even when out in public, strangers approach one another less frequently. When it does happen, it can be anxiety-inducing. <\/p>\n

So when approaching a stranger, a smile can grease the social wheels of the interaction and help the other person feel at ease.<\/p>\n

The meaning of a smile<\/h2>\n

Second, this phenomenon can be viewed through the lens of cross-cultural differences in personality or temperament. We know<\/a> that different cultures have different ways of experiencing, expressing and regulating their emotions.<\/p>\n

For example, in our work<\/a>, we\u2019ve traced how kids in different cultures develop different temperaments. <\/p>\n

In one series of studies with Helena Slobodskaya<\/a>, a psychologist at Novosibirsk State University Research Institute of Physiology and Basic Medicine, we found that mothers in Russia, compared to American caregivers, reported that their infants and toddlers were more likely to demonstrate negative emotions, such as anger or frustration. The Russian mothers also reported that their young children exhibited lower levels of positive emotional expression, including smiling and laughter.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an interesting twist to these findings. The American toddlers who were most likely to express positive emotions also were better at self-regulation. In other words, they were better at controlling their emotions and behaviors. But Russian toddlers\u2019 inclination to express positive emotions had no such relationship to self-control.<\/p>\n

What do these results tell us? <\/p>\n

In each culture, smiles work in different ways. In Russia, children may only contract their facial muscles when they\u2019re truly happy. It\u2019s an authentic expression of emotion.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., however, kids may develop an understanding that smiling is an important social cue \u2013 one that doesn\u2019t necessarily reflect how they truly feel, but instead signals acknowledgment or appreciation of another person. And this might explain why American kids who smile more also tend to have more self-control. <\/p>\n

Next, the attitudes and beliefs of adults could play a role. American parents may think that children who express themselves in positive ways also possess other beneficial attributes, such as the ability to focus and control their behavior. <\/p>\n

In other words, in the U.S., a happy child is perceived as a \u201cgood\u201d child. Russian caregivers, on the other hand, don\u2019t see any link between a kid who smiles a lot and his or her manners and behavior. So as these kids grow up, they\u2019re less likely to smile in everyday social interactions. <\/p>\n

\"TheNonetheless, until the tournament ends, many foreign soccer fans will be gawking and smiling during every food order and request for directions. In response, many Russians will be gritting their teeth \u2013 and putting on their happy faces.<\/p>\n

Samuel Putnam<\/a>, Professor of Psychology, Bowdoin College<\/a><\/em> and Masha A. Gartstein<\/a>, Professor of Psychology, Washington State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samuel Putnam, Bowdoin College and Masha A. Gartstein, Washington State University In the lead-up to the World Cup, articles appeared noting that Russian workers were being taught how to properly smile at the foreign soccer fans who would soon be visiting their country. One of us \u2013 Masha \u2013 is a Russian immigrant. She\u2019ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":12589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[4710,234,4709,461,104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12593,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12592\/revisions\/12593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}