EXAMINING AFFECTIVE VALENCE IN JAPANESE AND BRAZILIAN CULTURAL PRODUCTS: AN ANALYSIS ON EMOTIONAL WORDS IN SONG LYRICS AND NEWS ARTICLES

Abstract

Across cultures, emotions are valued differently. In East Asia, individuals avoid extremely positive or negative emotions, while in Latin America, individuals value positive emotions and dampen negative emotions. This paper investigates how these tendencies are present in cultural products across Japan and Brazil. We analyzed the valence of the emotion in song lyrics (Study 1) and news articles (Study 2). The analysis was based on a database of 1034 words that were previously validated in terms of valence (negative, neutral or positive). Results from both studies suggest that positive words are more frequently used in Brazil than in Japan, and neutral words are more frequently used in Japan than in Brazil. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that Brazilian culture is more likely to value positive emotions than Japanese culture.