econgirl
  • Home
  • blog
  • Recipes
  • Links
  • Liz's 15 Minute Guides

Why are some African countries more emotionally expressive than others?

11/30/2012

13 Comments

 
Gallup recently published results of a global poll on people's propensity to express or report feeling emotions. The Washington Post has a nice color-coded map of the results here.  While some regions exhibit trends-- the Americas are bubbly with emotion, while the former Soviet Union is more somber-- Sub-Saharan Africa has a lot of variation. What country characteristics might be associated with increased emotional expression in Africa?

I decided to test the relationship between emotionality and wealth as measured by PPP-adjusted GDP per capita, predominant language (a proxy for colonial influence by France or England), and whether at least half the population was Muslim.  I used a linear OLS regression; results are below:
Picture
There was no significant relationship between wealth and emotionality for the African countries. Countries with a Muslim population of at least 50 percent had a slightly higher average emotionality score, but the difference was not statistically significant. 

People in Francophone Africa were, on average, 3 percentage points less likely to report expressing or feeling emotion, a result that was statistically significant. This may not sound like much, but it's a whole standard deviation below the mean emotionality score. (The model also explains more than a quarter of variation in African countries' emotionality scores!)

So why are the Francophones less effusive? A couple hypotheses:
1. Maybe when translated into French, the survey was less likely to result in positive answers for some reason. 
2. The Francophone variable might actually be capturing regional variation, such as lower emotionality in West Africa.
3. The French colonial cultural influence may have included elements of less emotional expression. 

The first issue is hard to address (language and cultural translation is always an issue when trying to compare social tendencies across cultures.) Putting in regional variables could address the second issue. Another interesting thing to look at would be the impact of political instability.  My data, in .dta format for stata, are here:  /uploads/1/7/1/1/1711915/africa_emotionality.dta
13 Comments
fat loss factor program review link
3/29/2013 03:18:50 am


Your means of telling everything in this article is in fact fastidious, all be able to simply understand it, Thanks a lot.

Reply
go here link
4/18/2013 05:32:54 pm

It is true, Africans are emotionally expressive than any other in this world. I think it is due to mainly the poverty and poor economic background. Due to that, the number of crimes and assassinations are increasing. Smuggling is a great issue there.

Reply
Erica Rogers link
8/28/2013 10:12:40 am

I liked your blog and went ahead and created a weebly blog too!

Reply
Kyle Leon Review link
9/29/2013 03:43:11 pm

This may not sound like much, but it's a whole standard deviation below the mean emotionality score.

Reply
index link
11/2/2013 12:26:35 am


This is my first time go to see at here and i am actually happy to read everthing at single place.

Reply
Kizi 2 link
3/17/2014 05:16:21 pm

Very interesting points you have noted, thanks for posting.

Reply
Kizi 2 link
3/25/2014 07:01:07 pm


I like your blog information is very interesting and modern, I love your blog

Reply
yepi link
3/25/2014 07:01:48 pm


I really do not truly have much to say in response, I only wanted to comment to reply great work.

Reply
y8 link
3/25/2014 07:02:11 pm


I would like to appreciate your hard work you did write this post, Thanks for sharing this valuable post.

Reply
friv link
3/25/2014 07:59:24 pm

It is true, Africans are emotionally expressive than any other in this world. I think it is due to mainly the poverty and poor economic background. Due to that, the number of crimes and assassinations are increasing.

Reply
Friv link
5/10/2014 10:18:04 am

I just added your site to my favorites. I really enjoy reading your posts. Thanks!

Reply
Y8 Games link
12/22/2015 07:11:50 am

A great possibility for me and it was a superb knowledge to view this site. Very difficult to uncover these beneficial web page or web site. I have many devices and achieving proper picture of these worked well and energy continues to be seeing about this weblog. Often my own intend to make my personal site as well as my own enjoyment is growing due to this page. I we do hope you may well be more effective.

Reply
cheap research paper link
4/29/2016 10:48:18 pm

Its right, Africans are sensitively open than any other in this world. I think it’s because of mainly the scarcity and unfortunate economic contextual. Because of the number of corruptions and murders are increasing.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    About Liz

    I have worked in economic policy and research in Washington, D.C. and Ghana. My husband and I recently moved to Guyana, where I am working for the Ministry of Finance. I like riding motorcycle, outdoor sports, foreign currencies, capybaras, and having opinions. 

    Archives

    December 2016
    November 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    March 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009

    Categories

    All
    Auto Industry
    Behavioral Economics
    Budget
    China
    Conflict
    Corruption
    Crime
    Currency
    Development
    Dollar
    Economic Data
    Economists
    Environment
    Fashion
    Federal Reserve
    Finance
    Food
    Gender
    Ghana
    Haiti
    Health Care
    India
    Inflation
    Microeconomics
    Money
    Politics
    Poverty
    Race
    Rcts
    Reading Recommendations
    Regulation
    Religion
    Sports
    Stimulus
    Survey
    Taxes
    Technology
    Trade
    Travel
    Viewing Recommendations

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • blog
  • Recipes
  • Links
  • Liz's 15 Minute Guides