Gender and the Role of Emotional Regulation in Intercultural Communication

Abstract

This article addresses the question as to why female migrants are more negatively affected than male migrants when confronted with unfamiliar traits in communication in the host country, but they are nevertheless more willing to adapt to the foreign style of communication. To answer this question, the different management of emotional regulation (Thayer et al. 2003) by both genders was investigated. A broad survey conducted among Spanish migrants in Germany led to the conclusion that the female migrants actually perceive the investigated traits more frequently and are also more negatively affected by them. But, in comparison to the males, they have an increased ability to recognize and understand their emotions although they also display an increased tendency to ruminate. However, most of the women counteracted this tendency with a heightened ability to regulate their emotions through antirumination emotional repair strategies. According to the data, this abilityseems to lead to a greater willingness to understand the views of the natives and thus possibly to being more disposed to integrate into the host society.