Two studies analyzed the relationship between interdependent self-construal, competitive attitudes, emotional expression, coping, and subjective emotional reaction on sadness. This article reports the research carried out in 29 countries. These studies replicate previous research showing that people living in collectivist and high power distance contexts report low verbal expression, and low emotional intensity. Participants sharing collectivist self-construal and competitive attitudes reported more secondary coping (that is, self-modification or suppression reactions). However, only competitive attitudes were related to low verbal emotional expression and low subjective reactions. Participants answered questions related to a typical person and for their personal experience. Results suggest that cultural feelings and display norms can explain the stoical emotional personal style, since actual self-reported and general emotional knowledge patterns were similar. However, the association between coping and subjective reactions was stronger in the personal experience condition, suggesting that internal processes depend on norms less than open verbal behavior.

Key words: emotional expression; cultural dimensions, interdependent self-construal, competitive attitudes, cross-cultural