Beliefs about others’ positive emotional expressions: how they diverge by target social class, and why it matters

Our beliefs about others’ emotional expressions are shaped by social identities such as race, gender, and occupation, but does social class also matter? Given rising economic disparities and frequent cross-class interactions, understanding class-based emotion beliefs is critical. We investigated beliefs about others’ emotional expressions in relation to targets’ social class, focusing on two types of positive emotions: self-oriented (e.g. pride) and other-oriented (e.g. gratitude). Across three studies conducted in the UK (Study 1, n = 200, pre-registered), India and UAE (Studies 2a and 2b, total n = 565, exploratory), and the US (Study 3, n = 1,616, pre-registered), higher-class targets were believed as more likely to express self-oriented positive emotions, whereas lower-class targets were more likely to express other-oriented positive emotions. We then examined the consequences of these emotion beliefs (Study 4a, n = 426, exploratory; Study 4b, n = 832, pre-registered), finding that stereotype congruence mediated the joint effect of target social class and emotion type, such that people were more willing to associate with and work in teams with targets whose emotional expressions aligned with expectations. These findings first highlight the cross-cultural consistency of these beliefs, and next point to the behavioural intentions that stem from emotion stereotypes.