Contributions about cultural factors included already in Vangelisti’s (2009b) Handbook and especially in Kowalski’s (2009) chapter will not be included here to avoid any duplication and overlap between this and those publications. There are clearly cultural differences in relationship beliefs across countries as they relate to how emotionality is experienced and expressed (Brase, Caprar, & Voracek, 2004; Goodwin & Gaines, 2004; Mesquita & Albert, 2007; Shweder, Haidt, Horton, & Joseph, 2008). Here is where Bakan’s (1968) dichotomy of communal versus agentic relationships is worth mentioning. As Spiegel (1971) indicated, there are cultures in the Mediterranean basin, such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, that place more value on being together communally in expressive conversation than on relating agentically or instrumentally, such as in United States and other industrialized countries.

In this chapter, only cross-cultural differences will be included if they are relevant to hurt feelings either directly or indirectly. Results from studies inside a single country without cross-cultural comparisons will not be included unless they are specifically related to hurt feelings. Furthermore, there may be genetic differences in how pain is experienced. For instance, there may be physiological differences between African Americans and white Americans in how much physical pain may be experienced and endured (Campbell, France, Robinson, Logan, et al., 2008; Diatchenko, Nackley, Tchivileva, Shabalina, & Maixner, 2007; Nielsen, Staud, & Price, 2009). How these possible differences in physical pain apply to how hurt feelings are experienced, expressed, and shared culturally will be the subject of this chapter.