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Facial Expressions Are "Not Global"
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:10 AM
from the look-me-in-the-mouth dept.
from the look-me-in-the-mouth dept.
An anonymous reader sends in a BBC report on new research out of Glasgow University, which detected differences in how facial expressions are read between Westerners and East Asians. Using eye tracking, the researchers determined that "people from different cultural groups observe different parts of the face when interpreting expression. East Asians participants tended to focus on the eyes of the other person, while Western subjects took in the whole face, including the eyes and the mouth." Interestingly, the researchers point out that the emoticons used online by the two groups reflect this difference.
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Submission: Facial expressions 'not global' by Anonymous Coward
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Took a PHD to figure this out? (Score:2)
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Maybe, but anecdotal summaries aren't acceptable as evidence in scientific circles.
Besides, the article is a paper published in Current Biology, not a PhD thesis.
In other news..... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Interesting (Score:5, Funny)
^_^
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Re:Interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Cross Culture: (.)(.)
Parent
Re:Interesting (Score:4, Funny)
Why are those eyes downcast?
Parent
Re:Interesting (Score:5, Funny)
Gravity
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Prefered...
( ]*[ )
or
( ]i[ )
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(ovo)
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Cross Culture: (.)(.)
(.Y.)
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Pair of tits or a pair of buns? :)
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^_^
The interesting thing is, even though that's not a common emoticon in the west, it is pretty readily identifiable as a "happy" icon. I wonder if easterners also have automatic recognition of :-) ?
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What is this lousy glyph for "broken rickshaw" doing there?
Nothing to say but... (Score:2)
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Though, really, :-)
Similar Article (Metro) (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Similar Article (Metro) (Score:4, Interesting)
As a psychology student I can already tell you that the idea of "universal expression" only lives on in pop culture, the idea was invalidated in science a fair while ago. While it is debatable whether emotions are natural or culturally generated it is complete uncontroversial to say that expression of emotion is culturally bound.
Just look at something like Amok [wikipedia.org] in Malaysia.
Additionally there have been many studies that show a difference between how Westerners view faces and how non-Westerners do. This study is only interesting in that it puts forward an answer as to why the difference might exist. This is a major issue in psychology because so much research has used white male college students as subjects.
Parent
Re:Similar Article (Metro) (Score:5, Insightful)
I have not personally heard this, and everything I've heard contradicts that. What is this [cornell.edu]?
Finally, the study in the article establishes that faces are READ differently, not that people are making different facial expressions. This is a big difference from the headline being given, but that's science reporting for you.
Facial expressions are, for the most part, universal; from what I see Ekman's studies have for the most part still held up. What are you basing your claim that the idea of universal facial expressions has been "invalidated by science a fair while ago?"
Parent
I don't buy it (Score:2, Interesting)
In order to convince me, they'd have to find that East Asians form expressions with just their eyes that other East Asians can pick up more easily than Westerners. It makes no sense that East Asians can't read each other's facial expressions.
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This is not news... (Score:3, Interesting)
Misleading title (Score:5, Insightful)
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The article answers that question -- the Easterners tested (a whopping sample of 13 people) tended to identify expressions as less-socially-threatening alternatives. So, surprise instead of fear or disgust, for example.
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If the sample size had been larger, the conclusions of this study might have had some value. The only value this study might have is as a test of methodology(using eye movement tracke
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So, surprise instead of fear or disgust, for example.
There was a blurb in an issue of Scientific American, and they found an impression bias among democrats and republicans by using the image of a man sufficiently blurred to look either surprised (or was it confused?) or angry. Democrats more often saw the confused face, republicans saw the anger.
A difference, you say? (Score:5, Funny)
but then I \(^o^)/
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Tracking and expression aren't the same thing (Score:5, Informative)
This is about differences in how cultures track expressions, not in the expressions themselves. There's long been solid evidence that basic facial expressions are universal across human cultures, in their natural form. So if you're really smiling, it's the same muscles involved in much the same way, no matter what culture you're in. However, people also pretend to smile when it's not real. It's long been know that counterfeit expressions don't use all the same muscles, or the same overall pattern. People can be trained to spot this difference quite effectively.
Now, with this recent research showing that different cultures monitor expressions differently, this implies that good counterfeiting is going to be specific to which monitoring patterns it is trying to fool. That would be interesting research. It should show, for instance, that people are better at counterfeiting expressions to other people from their same culture. People from another culture should be better at seeing through your counterfeit expressions than people from your own culture, if that other culture focuses on different parts of the face than yours.
That cultures would focus differently fits with the extensive research on "joint attention." From infancy, we're wired to look at what we see other people looking at. We're very, very good a adopting the perceptual patterns of those around us, at a level that's almost automatic.
But contra the broad claim here, genuine emotions expressed through facial expressions are not culture-specific, but universal to humanity, essentially genetic.
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This is about differences in how cultures track expressions, not in the expressions themselves. There's long been solid evidence that basic facial expressions are universal across human cultures, in their natural form.
Yes, but it's not just tracking, it's usage of expressions as you allude to. Do not think that because a Japanese man is smiling at you that he is expressing happiness. He could just as easily be expressing anger or sadness. It's similar to the way the Japanese avoid saying "no." "Yes" in Japanese is "hai" (pronounced somewhat like "Hi" in english.) A short "hai" might not indicate agreement, but simply acknowledgement much like we use 'Okay." A medium "hai" will indicate agreement, but a long drawn-out
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The same way they know that many songbirds have a language and apes don't is that a deaf songbird will not sing the same way as its parents, whereas a normal songbird will. Apes, however, make the same grunting whether deaf or not.
Ask a few blind people, cross-culturally, to make expressions depicting puzzlement, concern, frustration, fatigue, pride, lust etc -- things a little more complex than a smile, frown, or l
There are Six (Score:2)
ANGER. FEAR. SURPRISE. SADNESS. JOY. DISGUST.
These six emotional responses produce identical facial expressions globally, including interactions of these (surprise + joy at a gift opening, frinstance), as long as that's the only input. Anything more, and the facial expression as well as interpretation of it (say, pride mixed in since the gift was from your child who made it by hand being mixed with the other two), is open to cultural differences.
That was a single paragraph summary of facial expressions, glo
ah, the inscrutable asian and the volatile gaijin (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.csupomona.edu/~tassi/gestures.htm [csupomona.edu]
mutual incomprehensibility
co-author site (Score:4, Informative)
Here is the site of one of the co-authors:
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/staff/index.php?id=RJ002 [gla.ac.uk]
The article in question is not quite published yet:
Jack, R. E., Blais, C., Scheepers, C., Schyns, P. G., & Caldara, R. (in press) Cultural Confusions Show Facial Expressions are Not Universal Current Biology
Here is an earlier one using the same methodologies (PDF):
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/docs/download.php?type=PUBLS&id=1404 [gla.ac.uk]
It is about where western and eastern people look at faces using eye tracking when for example learning or recognizing a face. There were some subtle differences.
It's bunk. (Score:2)
There are two facial expressions that have the same universal meaning in every culture, expressed with the emotions of joy and disgust. Everything else has a cultural-context to varying degrees, but if you eat something that tastes horrible -- that face you make will be understood by anyone.
2-year-old repost? (Score:2)
Re: emoticons and east asia (japan) focusing on eyes:
http://science.slashdot.org/story/07/05/13/059239/Culture-Determines-Which-Emoticon-You-Use [slashdot.org]
So we should nuke them then? (Score:2)
See, they aren't like us, after all. Probably not even the same type of insect. We butterflies must not let the moths prevail. Ready the nuclear cannons, and prepare for the ultimate war!
Anyone worked with Indians? (Score:3, Interesting)
They way they shake their heads when saying yes completely fucks with my mind every time!
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Definitions (Score:4, Insightful)
Given that the test was given to people from different backgrounds, they likely grew up speaking different languages. Even though presumably the East Asian subjects may have learned English, their understandings of some English words may be based on translations of their native words, and the words may not be exact matches.
One might suggest that this problem can be dodged by asking the subjects for a suggested physical response rather than for a word. Instead of "Is this person feeling 'fear' or 'surprise'" you might ask "Is this person thinking of running away or is this person thinking that he didn't expect what just happened" but even then cultural expectations about behavior would play a heavy role.
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It's interesting in that some expressions are universal due to a biological basis, but some are cultural. Previously, some anthropologists assumed they were all cultural, but this has been shown otherwise. See the work of Paul Ekman [wikipedia.org].
Happiness or Anger? (Score:2, Interesting)
It's interesting in that some expressions are universal due to a biological basis, but some are cultural.
Quite true.
Smiling with teeth for humans is a universal expression of happiness. Or at least near universal. But for most other mammals, showing teeth is a sign of aggression and anger.
Bad examples... (Score:4, Insightful)
Comparing caricatures with realistic depiction of humans? Come on... That ain't even a proper straw-man.
Try these instead:
Japanse Spiderman manga [dtaweb.com] vs. American Spiderman Comic. [flickr.com]
Note how lips, nostrils and ears are generally [dtaweb.com] unarticulated (particularly noses and ears that often are not present at all, or are just hinted) and how much more detailed american [blogspot.com] (comic) faces are.
On the other hand... manga artists attribute much greater attention to eyes and hair.
You can tell the character by his/her eyes immediately.
Bigger and more detailed the eyes - more innocent the character. Slits with a tiny dot for a pupil - evil fucker.
Parent
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