International Journal of Intercultural Relations 30 (2006) 51–75 Emotion expression and the locution ‘‘I love you’’: A cross-cultural study Richard Wilkins, Elisabeth Gareis à Department of Communication Studies, B8-240, Baruch College/CUNY, 55 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10591, USA Received in revised form 11 July 2005; accepted 12 July 2005 Abstract This exploratory study is aimed to advance the understanding of emotion expression across cultures by focusing on the declaration of love and studying its expression across cultures. In particular, the use of the locution ‘‘I love you’’ was investigated. Results indicate that the use of the locution ‘‘I love you’’ fluctuates greatly across cultures: It is used exclusively for romantic declarations of love in some cultures, but has a much wider distribution in others. Interestingly, nonnative speakers seem to use the locution ‘‘I love you’’ more in English than their native language. Differences are also noticeable within cultures, particularly across genders and age groups. Thus, females tend to use the expression more often than males. In addition, there seems to be more widespread use of the locution now than just a few decades ago. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Emotion expression; Love; Intercultural communication 1. Introduction This research treats emotions as cultural artifacts whose meanings are symbolically constructed, historically transmitted, and expressed by individuals in ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel 0147-1767/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.07.003 à Tel.: +1 646 312 3731; fax: +1 914 524 7559. E-mail addresses: richard.wilkins@baruch.cuny.edu (R. Wilkins), egareis@baruch.cuny.edu (E. Gareis).