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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cultural Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1488779

Cultural fit in emotion versus language: A study of Dutch-speaking Belgians and Turkish migrants in Belgium

Provisionally accepted
Rüya Su Sencan Rüya Su Sencan 1*Batja Mesquita Batja Mesquita 1Katie Hoemann Katie Hoemann 1,2
  • 1 KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  • 2 University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We examined the cultural fit in meaning-making in emotional contexts in two complementary ways: first, based on patterns of emotion endorsement (emotional fit), second, based on patterns of word use describing emotional situations (language fit). Dutch-speaking Belgians and Turkish migrants in Belgium (Ns = 100) described two positive and two negative emotional situations, and rated the intensity of their experience on a set of emotion terms.Language patterns in the descriptions, as quantified by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, were more effective than rating patterns in distinguishing between cultures. The two fit measures did not converge; they were in fact negatively associated in some analyses, particularly for Turkish migrants' emotional fit and language fit with Belgian culture, suggesting that when these migrants felt similar emotions, they were attending to different aspects of the experience. Future research should disentangle the implications of various types of cultural fit on outcomes relevant to immigrant minorities.

    Keywords: culture, emotion, Language, emotional fit, cultural fit, Immigrant minority

    Received: 30 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sencan, Mesquita and Hoemann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rüya Su Sencan, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.