My face, my heart: cultural differences in integrated bodily self-awareness
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Electronic versions
DOI
Body-awareness is produced by an integration of both interoceptive and exteroceptive bodily signals. However, previous investigations into cultural differences in bodily self-awareness have only studied these two aspects in isolation. We investigated the interaction between interoceptive and exteroceptive self-processing in East Asian and Western participants. During an interoceptive awareness task, self-face observation improved performance of those with initially low awareness in the Western group, but did not benefit the East Asian participants. These results suggest that the integrated, coherent experience of the body differs between East Asian and Western cultures. For Western participants, viewing one's own face may activate a bodily self-awareness which enhances processing of other bodily information, such as interoceptive signals. Instead, for East Asian individuals, the external appearance of the self may activate higher-level, social aspects of self-identity, reflecting the importance of the sociocultural construct of "face" in East Asian cultures.
Keywords
- Adolescent, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Awareness, Body Image, Culture, European Continental Ancestry Group, Face, Female, Humans, Male, Self Concept, Young Adult
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 10-16 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Cognitive Neuroscience |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 28 Jun 2013 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |