Tsai, J. L., Knutson, B., &Fung, H. H. (2006). Cultural variation in affect valuation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 90(2), 288.
The authors propose that how people want to feel ("ideal affect") differs from how they actually feel ("actual affect") and that cultural factors influence ideal more than actual affect. In 2 studies, controlling for actual affect, the authors found that European American (EA) and Asian American (AA) individuals value high-arousal positive affect (e.g., excitement) more than do Hong Kong Chinese (CH). On the other hand, ...