Abstract
Men are from Mars and women from Venus—or so it seems to popular culture. In fact, stereotypes about the emotional lives of men and women are among the best documented stereotypes. In this issue of Emotion Review we are looking at both perceived and actual gender differences in emotion. In particular, the articles published in this issue distinguish between actual differences and perceived differences and present models of the interplay of stereotypes, social norms, and social roles as well as biological differences in shaping an individual’s emotional behavior on one hand and the perception of this behavior on the other. In line with societal expectations men and women do not always react in the same way but it is also the case that when men and women do react in the same way, this reaction is perceived and interpreted differently.
In this special section, Chaplin (2015) discusses how biological and socialization factors interact in the development of gender-specific expressive behavior across childhood and adolescence. McKeown, Sneddon, and Curran (2015) consider gender differences in laughing from an evolutionary perspective. Adams, Kleck, and Hess (2015) in turn consider the stereotypic and phenotypic information conveyed by the face and its effect on the perception of men’s and women’s emotional behavior. Fischer and LaFrance (2015) review the literature on men’s and women’s expressiveness with regard to smiling and crying in the light of a model that considers the impact of emotional intensity as well as social norms and roles in fostering gender differences. Finally, MacArthur and Shields (2015) discuss prevailing cultural beliefs about normative male emotional expression especially with regard to tears. Together these articles provide a picture of the state of the art of our knowledge about gender effects in the expression and perception of emotions and the impact of stereotypes and norms on the one hand and biological and evolutionary forces on the other, in fostering such differences.