Navigating intercultural misunderstandings: An examination of emotion brokering

Communication difficulties are inevitable when individuals interact with members of a different culture. The experience of such communication barriers may be particularly salient for those from immigrant families who need to navigate multiple cultures. Youth from immigrant families are known to serve as cultural brokers to help their families navigate communication with those in the host culture. Most brokering research has examined language brokering (i.e., interpreting language for others). An unstudied brokering process and the focus of the present research is emotion brokering: the interpretation of emotion norms for others. In this investigation, we examined the occurrence of emotion brokering for close family members in a sample of Latinx college students.

We conducted an exploratory survey to identify situations where participants perceived intercultural emotion-based misunderstandings and reported emotion brokering (Study 1). We then employed a more focused survey to further understand the contexts in which individuals brokered emotions (Study 2).

Results revealed that many participants encountered intercultural emotion-based misunderstandings and experienced brokering emotions (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, the findings illustrated the typical contexts and emotions involved in the emotion brokering experience.

The findings provide insight into a distinct form of cultural brokering. In addition, findings illustrate how cultural variation in emotion impacts daily social interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).