Differential judgement of static facial expressions of emotions in three cultures

Abstract

Judging facial expressions of emotions has important clinical value in the assessment of psychiatric patients. Judging facial emotional expressions in foreign patients however, is not always easy. Controversy has existed in previous reports on cultural differences in identifying static facial expressions of emotions. While it has been argued that emotional expressions on the face are universally recognized, experimental data obtained were not necessarily totally supportive. Using the data reported in the literature, our previous pilot study showed that the Japanese interpreted many emotional expressions differently from USA viewers of the same emotions. In order to explore such discrepancies further, we conducted the same experiments on Chinese subjects residing in Beijing. The data showed that, similar to the Japanese viewers, Chinese viewers also judged many static facial emotional expressions differently from USA viewers. The combined results of the Chinese and the Japanese experiments suggest a major cross-cultural difference between American and Asian viewers in identifying some static facial emotional expressions, particularly when the posed emotion has negative connotations. The results have important implications for cross-cultural communications when facial emotional expressions are presented as static images.

Culture but not gender modulates amygdala activation during explicit emotion recognition

“…Therefore, our results need to be replicated in a larger sample to allow comparison between Asian subjects of different ethnicities. At the moment, our data support the assumption of Huang et al [33] suggesting that particularly expressions of negative emotions, here anger, might be strongly influenced by so-called nonverbal dialects in expression style. Additionally, behavioral performance and choice of response might also be influenced by cultural stereotypes, in particular by the cultural evaluation of negative emotions.…”

“…[47,60,61] and some studies even suggest that powerful emotions are more intensely experienced and expressed by men, while women rather experience emotions associated with powerlessness, such as fear, sadness and shame e.g., [62]. Despite this gender issue, some cross-cultural studies also indicate that Caucasian expressions of anger are less accurately recognized by Asian participants than by Caucasian subjects, in particular Caucasian Americans e.g., [33,41]. Interestingly, Huang et al also observed an inter-Asian difference in anger recognition, with Chinese subjects performing significantly better than Japanese subjects when confronted with Japanese and Caucasian expressions of anger.…”

“…However, according to findings on cultural differences in emotion processing behavior: e.g. [33-35]; neural correlates: e.g., [16,18], we posited a significant impact of ethnic group on behavioral and neural responses that affects the amygdala: we hypothesized stronger amygdala activation in the female Asian sample as they were out-group to the ethnic group of posers presented (i.e., Caucasians). Considering previous results on the significant effect of duration of stay on emotion recognition performance [36] and amygdala activation in male immigrants [18], we also expected a significant association between duration of stay and behavioral performance and amygdala activation in Asian females.…”

Burkina Faso and France: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Judgment of Action Readiness in Facial Expressions of Emotion

“…During the last two or three decades, the issue of the universality of emotional facial expression has been addressed by several researchers. A large body of research has confirmed that people in many different cultures can reliably identify the emotional category displayed by static facial expressions (Ekman et al, 1987;Mandal, Bryden & Bulman-Fleming, 1996;Matsumoto et al, 2002, among others), even though some cross cultural studies failed to obtain high percentages of accurate recognition (for example, Huang, Tang, Helmeste, Shioiri, & Someya, 2001). The existence of crosscultural differences in judging facial expressions of emotions has crucial implications in many fields, be it of communication (Planalp, 1999) or clinical examination (Gepner, Deruelle, & Grynfeltt, 2001), especially because the specific emotional behaviours of each culture can lead to misattributions from a foreign observer and generate detrimental consequences.…”

In the Eye of the Beholder: Internally Driven Uncertainty of Danger Recruits the Amygdala and Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

“…Fearful expressions are particularly significant cues in this process, as they often predict the presence of a threat in the immediate surrounding (Waters, Lipp, & Spence, 2004;Mogg & Bradley, 1998). However, the meaning of facial expressions is not always clear cut, and may depend on personal idiosyncrasies and cultural codes (Huang, Tang, Helmeste, Shioiri, & Someya, 2001;Shioiri, Someya, Helmeste, & Tang, 1999), leading to individual difference in where uncertainty is aroused in the process of interpreting oneʼs social context. Thus, uncertainty is an attribute that differs conceivably from one individual to another, and in danger situations, may result in hesitation, which hinders the ability to generate a quick and effective action.…”