Perceptions of emotion from facial expressions are not culturally universal: evidence from a remote culture.

Publisher: American Psychological Association Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101125678 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1931-1516 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 15283542 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Emotion Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: Washington, DC : American Psychological Association, c2001-

Culture* ; Emotions* ; Facial Expression* ; Perception*; Adult ; Cross-Cultural Comparison ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Namibia ; United States

It is widely believed that certain emotions are universally recognized in facial expressions. Recent evidence indicates that Western perceptions (e.g., scowls as anger) depend on cues to U.S. emotion concepts embedded in experiments. Because such cues are standard features in methods used in cross-cultural experiments, we hypothesized that evidence of universality depends on this conceptual context. In our study, participants from the United States and the Himba ethnic group from the Keunene region of northwestern Namibia sorted images of posed facial expressions into piles by emotion type. Without cues to emotion concepts, Himba participants did not show the presumed "universal" pattern, whereas U.S. participants produced a pattern with presumed universal features. With cues to emotion concepts, participants in both cultures produced sorts that were closer to the presumed "universal" pattern, although substantial cultural variation persisted. Our findings indicate that perceptions of emotion are not universal, but depend on cultural and conceptual contexts.

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DP1 OD003312 United States OD NIH HHS; DP1OD003312 United States OD NIH HHS

Date Created: 20140409 Date Completed: 20140730 Latest Revision: 20211021

20240829

PMC4752367

10.1037/a0036052

24708506