Social Engineering Blogs

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National Geographic – Triumph, an Instinctive Expression

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Courtesy of StockVault

The moment of victory is a part of our inherent need for dominance.

Humintell’s director, Dr. David Matsumoto, was interviewed by National Geographic for their weekend radio show about athletes and their expression of winning in competitive sports.

“Chest thumping and celebrating over the conquered rival has become so ubiquitous in sports that psychologist and judo coach, David Matsumoto began to wonder about the roots of these types of behaviors. He’s now a Professor of Psychology at San Francisco State University and now has found that this impulse to display dominance is common among all humans, even blind athletes who have never witnessed the phenomenon visually.“

Dr. Matsumoto goes on to note that the value of the victory just achieved also plays an important role in the outward display of emotion.

To find out more about the universal triumph display, listen to National Geographic Weekend’s podcast below. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why Russians Aren’t Smiling in Sochi

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Photo Courtesy of StockVault

According to Ed Leigh and The National Journal, Russians aren’t returning smiles that are so freely given by many American and Europeans during this exciting and joyous time of the Winter Olympics.

Why are these smiles not reciprocated?

Well, its not as spiteful as you might think.  When Leigh asked a native Russian why no one was returning his smiley greetings he was told, “In Russia only two types of people smile: idiots and rich people—and rich people don’t walk on the street.“

What may be perceived as a friendly and sincere greeting from Americans and many Europeans, comes off as a forced and insincere gesture for Russians.  In their culture, one must have a good reason for smiling and that reason should be obvious to the smiler and the receiver of the smile.

So its more of the cultural norm than a personal attack against another culture or nationality.  For Russians, a smile in public is not the polite expression that Americans reflexively offer strangers on the street.  When people smile without hesitation—for no reason—Russians tend to find those grins artificial or insincere and they think those people have a few screws loose.

Americans, on the other hand, seem to smile for any reason at all. The “American smile” has a long-standing bad reputation in Russia, explained Michael Bohm, the opinion-page editor of The Moscow Times.

There are many reasons why Russians do not smile as readily as other cultures.  As the article points out during the early Soviet era in the 1980s when anti-U.S. propaganda abounded, Soviet media regularly blasted reports called “Their Customs,” explaining that Americans, a power-hungry people, smiled to deceive others.

“There’s so much to be happy about here!“ the Soviet government told its people—guaranteed jobs and housing, free education, a nuclear war chest to protect the empire – yet the people were waiting in line to buy bread or milk.

The very form of government can dictate how its people control their expression of emotions, according to Dr. David Matsumoto, an expert on microexpressions, gesture, and nonverbal behavior. In collectivist nations, like Russia and China, people tend to neutralize happy expressions, blending in with the rest of the population.  In contrast, members of individualist societies, like the United States, crack smiles freely and often, reflecting the openness of their political climate.

Everyday life for Russian people has historically been grueling, and their hardships were reflected in their expressiveness.  Russia’s poker face “has little to do with Dostoevsky or the cold climate,” Bohm says, and much more to do with centuries of government oppression and corruption.

What are your thoughts on the Russian poker face?
Test your cross cultural adaptation skills with our IntelliCutlure.

The Victor’s Stance

hi-judo-anger-852-jpgIn recent years there has been much talk about the stance a winner takes after a competition.  Originally labeled as pride, this “victory” stance has been studied by many researchers.  With the winter Olympics just around the corner it is prudent to note new research findings for the triumphant body language of the victor’s stance.

Time Magazine reports on the new findings from researchers at San Francisco State University that suggest the victory stance may be inherited and that athletes instinctively display this “aggressive dominance” over their opponent.

“It raises interesting questions about the history of sports in general,” says Dr. David Matsumoto, lead author of the study and professor of psychology at the university, “They are rarified forms of competition, and there is something very basic and primal about sports that lends itself nicely to these reactions and keeps them alive.”

Matsumoto became aware of the ubiquitousness of this posture during his years as the U.S. Olympic coach for judo.  “What I saw everyday in training and in competition had nothing to do with pride,” he says. “It’s all about just having clobbered somebody. It’s a sign or signal given to other members of the community who are watching.”

He goes on to note that it’s likely an evolutionary trait, based on a need to express triumph, and dominance – and that it was something instinctive, that athletes weren’t even aware of conscious of doing.

From his previous work, Matsumoto coded these behaviors as expressing dominance rather than pride.  This was due to the fact that pride tends to be more reflective involving more gentle and internally directed behaviors. It also occurs at least a few seconds after the victory.

Dr. Matsumoto and his colleagues to studied video of Olympic judo medal matches and zeroed in on the athletes’ very first reactions after the match was over. CBC News  reports that the researchers reviewed more than 35 athletes from different countries, including congenitally blind competitors in the 2004 Paralympics.  Their report published in the journal Motivation and Emotion, they found that victors consistently engaged in any of a number of dominance behaviors, including throwing their hands up, expanding their chests, shouting, making fists, or pumping the air. The losers in the matches never exhibited such reactions, instead keeping their heads down and averting their gaze from those nearby.

The same effect was documented among Paralympic athletes who were born blind, and never had the opportunity to observe these dominance displays. “This is a phenomenon that is occurring in people all around the world, in people who are blind and never saw it happen,” he says. “There is something wired in us to do that at that particular moment.”