The Implicit Association between Pride and Social Status in Japan

Pride is considered to be an emotion related to the attainment of status. People (at least in Canada and Fiji) implicitly associate the pride expression with high status. In a series of four implicit association test (IAT) studies, we explored the implicit association between the pride expression and high status in Japan. Study 1 showed that Japanese participants readily associate the pride expression with high status, and the shame/embarrassment expression with low status. Study 2a, furthermore, confirmed that the pride-high status association is not driven by the shame-low status association, while Study 2b revealed that the pride-high status association cannot be explained by a simple association of pride with general positivity. Finally, Study 3 demonstrated that Japanese participants readily associate the pride expression with high status jobs, and thus conceptually replicated Study 1. Collectively, these studies provide evidence that East Asian people associate the expression of pride with high status.