How to see clearly through deceptive emotions | Kristen Lindquist

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Jun 23, 2025

Kristen Lindquist, a psychology and neuroscience professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, highlights how our emotions are shaped by culture. She reveals that emotions act like tinted glasses affecting our perceptions and interpretations. For example, anger in the U.S. signifies boundaries, whereas in Japan, it disrupts harmony. Lindquist also discusses how gender norms influence the interpretation of emotional expressions, leading to real-world consequences. Ultimately, she emphasizes the importance of understanding these cultural lenses for better interpersonal relationships.

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INSIGHT

Emotions Shape Perception

Emotions feel like objective facts but are actually shaped by culture.
They act as lenses coloring our perception of reality.

INSIGHT

Emotions Are Cultural Artifacts

Emotions have a biological basis but are cultural artifacts passed down like language.
Culture shapes which emotions are felt and how they shape perception.

INSIGHT

Brain Predicts Using Emotion

The brain predicts and models the world using culture-shaped past experiences.
Emotions bias perception by altering sensory processing under strong feelings.

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**🌍 Emotions Are Not Universal — They’re Cultural Lenses Shaping Reality**

We often think emotions are hardwired facts — but in truth, they’re deeply shaped by the culture we live in. Emotions *feel* like objective reality, but they’re more like tinted glasses that color our perception.

🧠 **Kristen Lindquist**, professor of psychology and neuroscience, explains how emotion is both *biological* and *cultural*. While our brains come with the machinery to feel, *what* we feel — and *how* we interpret those feelings — is learned through culture, like language or art.

For example:

- In the U.S., anger = drawing a boundary. In Japan, anger = disrupting harmony.

- Westerners under stress may see threats (like misidentifying objects as guns) — a bias driven by intense emotion.

- Emotions aren’t even linguistically universal: only 22% of languages have a word for “fear” like English does. "Surprise" appears in just 13%.

👀 Even facial expressions — long thought to be universal emotional signals — are perceived differently depending on your cultural lens. What looks like anger in the UK may be read as something else in China. “Resting bitch face”? A cultural misinterpretation layered on gender norms.

💬 Gender norms, too, shape how emotions are interpreted. Women’s distress may be dismissed as anxiety. Men are expected to show anger, not sadness. This misalignment leads to real-world consequences — from misdiagnosed heart attacks to internalized shame.

🌏 *Emotions, then, are predictions*, filtered through past experiences, learned behaviors, and societal values. Recognizing that others may see, feel, and react differently — not wrongly — is key to reducing bias and creating connection.

> **The takeaway?** Emotions are not truths — they are interpretations. And when we treat them as such, we become more open, less reactive, and better able to connect across divides.

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