The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) modulates cultural variation in emotional experience

Prior work suggests that people who carry a 7- or 2-repeat allele of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) are more sensitive to environmental influences than those who do not carry this allele. Since culture is an important aspect of the environment for all humans, the carriers of this allele may be more likely to show culturally typical response patterns than non-carriers. The current work tested this hypothesis in the domain of emotional experience. Whereas European Americans typically report experiencing positive emotions more than negative emotions, this positivity bias is atypical for East Asians. Accordingly, we predicted that the positivity bias in emotional experience would be moderated by both DRD4 and culture. 194 European Americans and 204 East Asians rated the frequency of actually experiencing various positive and negative emotions in a typical week. As predicted, we found a significant culture × DRD4 interaction for emotional experience. East Asian carriers (versus non-carriers) of the 7/2R allele of DRD4 reported experiencing greater emotional balance (i.e., weaker positivity bias), than non-carriers of these alleles. For European Americans, however, the pattern was reversed such that the positivity bias was stronger, albeit non-significantly, among the carriers than among the non-carriers. Of note, the culture × DRD4 interaction effect was absent for desirability ratings of experiencing the same set of emotions. Implications for cultural acquisition processes are discussed.