If a Colombian says "I'm upset", it may confuse a Spaniard. It will give him the feeling that he is overacting because the anger his colleague will show may seem more severe than his words. Similarly, when a Basque says he feels 'etsipena' (despair) he is deactivated, without energy. However, 'despair' in Spanish is linked more to active frustration. As these examples show, emotions have different nuances in each language and within the same language, not only because of the translation, but also because of the culture that accompanies each language.

"In Colombia, to be upset implies great anger, while in Spain it is equivalent to saying that you are irritated or hurt," explains Cristina Soriano, senior researcher in language and emotion at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences at the University of Geneva. "Basque despair is more akin to hopelessness and Spanish despair to exasperation; for example, if you say in Spanish that you are 'desperate' it is easy to think that you are going to hit your computer and break it."

Cristina Soriano pointed out these examples as sample of the research she is carrying out to shed light on what terms related to emotions mean in different languages and cultures. Specifically, she is participating in an international project with linguists and psychologists from 34 countries. He has spoken about these issues at the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra, in the framework of the international workshop 'Metaphor, emotions and identity'. The event is part of the MetaforUN line of project 'Public discourse' of the ICS.

Soriano points out the difference between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. He lists a scale where the US and UK are more individualistic than Spain, Spain is more individualistic than Russia and Russia is more individualistic than China. This subject of cultures make the emotion of pride vary in each culture. "A success staff in China, Russia or even Spain," he argues, "is more likely to be defined as 'satisfaction' rather than 'pride'. An Englishman would definitely say he feels pride."

Another emotion worthy of study, apart from pride, is anger. The researcher explains that it is speculated to be a universal emotion; if there is an emotion that can exist in all languages, it is probably anger. But this does not mean that it is the same everywhere. "It is conceptualized more negatively in Spanish and Russian than in English, and there are also more metaphorical expressions about the need to control anger in Spanish than in English," she says. This has to do with the distinction between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. He points out that in more collectivist cultures, emotions that break with social harmony are less well regarded and more important to regulate.

The researcher also relates a curiosity about Russian: "Compared to other languages it does not have many names, emotions are expressed mostly by verbs: to be surprised, to be sad, to be angry. But they don't have a name for frustration." That's why, he explains, there are programs of study that point out that Russian immigrants upon moving to the U.S. feel liberated because they find a word that captures an emotion they had previously been unable to name. "Learning a new language changes the perception of the emotions you had up to that point and colors the new ones you may learn," he reflects.

It can be concluded that it is easier for cultures with more aspects in common to understand each other. Cristina Soriano alludes to several programs of study in which a series of people are shown photographs of people's faces with an expression, and the more similar the culture is to yours, the better the emotion they are expressing is recognized. "In that sense, if we don't read another person's emotions well, we are more exposed to misunderstanding and conflict," he argues.

Another way to distinguish two types of cultures is to look at how someone feels when they violate a social rule . There are two forms: shame and guilt. "In shame cultures," Soriano explains, "the person feels ashamed, that fault touches their essence and their morality. While in the other culture, although their essence is not touched, they feel guilty and responsible". The same event subject is interpreted in two different ways, giving rise to two different emotions, one in each culture subject .

Metaphors in conflicts

Soriano says that he conducted a research on the types of metaphors we use to talk about negotiations and how their use affects conflict resolution. The first metaphor subject has to do with fighting, and consists of saying that there are conflicting objectives, interests are being defended, allies are being sought... "It consists of presenting the negotiation as a war, with a winner and a winner, without trusting the other, and calls for non-understanding," he points out.

Another way to negotiate is to understand conflicts as a construction using metaphors such as setting up the instructions of a negotiation, building a agreement, contributing, etc. "This representation," he says, "calls for both parties to contribute and collaborate. And finally there are the neutral metaphors such as talking about negotiations as a road, a journey. "These neither help nor harm, they are metaphors in which the negotiation is understood as an open process that we don't know where it will end up," he concludes.

Based on this distinction, his team proposed an experiment in which people were made to negotiate. To do this, they were asked to choose whether or not they would cooperate with other people, and depending on the joint decision, they would both win or lose in different proportions. If they both cooperated, they would win money; if neither cooperated, they would both lose a lot of money. And if one decided to cooperate but the other did not, the one who did not cooperate got everything and the one who cooperated lost everything. For each person to make the decision they were given a clue as to how the other person understood the negotiation: a battle, a construction or a trip. "We observed a strong influence of metaphors, especially that if the other person sees the negotiations as a fight, you don't cooperate," he says.