Is a picture worth the same emotions everywhere? Validation of images from the Nencki affective picture system in Malaysia

Several validated image sets, such as NAPS, IAPS, GAPED, and OASIS, have been developed to elicit affective states. However, these image sets were primarily validated on Western populations within European and American contexts, and none have been fully validated in a Southeast Asian sample, where emotional restraint may also be valued similarly to the East Asian contexts. This study aimed to validate and provide norms for the Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS; Marchewka et al., 2014) within a Malaysian sample. Subsets from the 1356 NAPS images consisting of five image categories (faces, people, objects, landscapes, animals) were presented sequentially to 409 Malaysian adults aged 18 and above, who rated images for valence, arousal and approach/avoidance on a 9-point Likert scale. Valence, arousal and approach/avoidance norms were compared against the original European sample. Malaysian men and women rated images with lower valence and motivation than Europeans, but Malaysian men showed higher arousal ratings compared to European men, while Malaysian women exhibited the opposite pattern, with lower arousal ratings than European women. A linear regression was found instead of a classic 'boomerang' shaped quadratic regression previously observed in Western samples, suggesting that emotional suppression may be at play, in line with social norms. The Malaysian normative ratings will be freely available to all researchers.