Adderley Positive Research Incubator
Hosted by: Center for Positive Organizations

Culture and Physiology Shape the Link Between Emotion and Health
Featured Scholar: Chayce Baldwin, University of Michigan

Description: Emotion is intimately linked to health—an observation that permeates global discourse and policy initiatives alike. Yet, the research behind it overwhelmingly relies on narrow populations that underrepresent over 85% of the world. In the first part of this talk, I draw on data from more than 2 million people in over 150 countries to show that the emotion-health link, though fundamentally physiological, differs strikingly across cultures. I first present evidence that culture modulates the loneliness-health link, then extend this pattern to the emotion-health link more broadly. Next, I show that culture interacts with physiology at multiple levels, shaping the emotion-health link distinctly across short- and long-term timescales. In the second part of this talk, I explore how physiology and culture, as two major shapers of emotion, might be leveraged to regulate emotion more effectively, in more lasting ways, and in tune with the rhythms of daily life.