ABSTRACT
From an Asian perspective, all Western cultures may look more or less alike. Indeed, many Westerners believe that there are no real cultural differences among societies in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the European diaspora. Much cross-cultural research has been based on this assumption: it is not hard to find comparative studies of societies in Africa, Latin America, the Pacific, and Asia, but there is very little cross-cultural research comparing various Western cultures to each other. The lack of such studies is all the more striking given that cultural differences among European groups in social and emotional behavior have been the subject of frequent literary comment. Nash, for example, offered his observations of English and Italian passengers disembarking from ships at an Australian port:
“I had occasion twice in one week to meet passengers from ships at the ocean terminal in Sydney. One ship was the Southern Cross, from Southampton, and the other was the Galileo Galilei from Milan. In the one case the dockside was crowded with a throng of people, babies, and grandparents, laughing, weeping, shouting. Men embraced and kissed; women shrieked and rushed into passionate greetings. There was tumultuous confusion. From the other ship the passengers passed sedately down the gangplank, in orderly groups; there were waves of hands and smiles, polite handshakes and impassive greetings such as “how nice to see you again.”
(Nash, 1970, p. 428).