American-Japanese cultural differences in attributions of personality based on smiles

Several studies have already documented how Americans and Japanese differ in both the expression and perception of facial expressions of emotion in general, and of smiles in particular. These cultural differences can be linked to differences in cultural display and decoding rules (Ekman, 1972; and Buck, 1984, respectively). The existence of these types of rules suggests that people of different cultures may hold different assumptions about social-personality characteristics, on the basis of smiling versus non-smiling faces. We suggest that Americans have come to associate more positive characteristics to smiling faces than do the Japanese. We tested this possibility by presenting American and Japanese judges with smiles or neutral faces (i.e., faces with no muscle movement) depicted by both Caucasian and Japanese male and female posers. The judges made scalar ratings of each face they viewed on four different dimensions. The findings did indicate that Americans and Japanese differed in their judgments, but not on all dimensions.David Matsumoto was supported in part by a research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 42749-01), and from a Faculty Award for Creativity, Scholarship, and Research from San Francisco State University. We would like to thank Masami Kobayashi, Fazilet Kasri, Deborah Krupp, Bill Roberts, and Michelle Weissman for their aid in our research program on emotion. We would especially like to thank the Editor for her excellent suggestions and help in conceptualizing this research.     

Emotional Empathy as Related to Mimicry Reactions at Different Levels of Information Processing

The hypotheses of this investigation were based on conceiving of facial mimicry reactions in face-to-face interactions as an early automatic component in the process of emotional empathy. Differences between individuals high and low in emotional empathy were investigated. The parameters compared were facial mimicry reactions, as represented by electromyographic (EMG) activity, when individuals were exposed to pictures of angry or happy faces. The present study distinguished between spontaneous facial reactions and facial expressions associated with more controlled or modulated emotions at different information processing levels, first at a preattentive level and then consecutively at more consciously controlled levels: 61 participants were exposed to pictures at three different exposure times (17, 56, and 2350 ms). A significant difference in facial mimicry reactions between high- and low-empathy participants emerged at short exposure times (56 ms), representing automatic, spontaneous reactions, with high-empathy participants showing a significant mimicking reaction. The low-empathy participants did not display mimicking at any exposure time. On the contrary, the low-empathy participants showed, in response to angry faces, a tendency to an elevated activation in the cheek region, which often is associated with smiling.     

Spontaneous Facial Expressions Reveal New Action Units for the Sad Experiences

Facial expressions related to sadness are a universal signal of nonverbal communication. Although results of many psychology studies have shown that drooping of the lip corners, raising of the chin, and oblique eyebrow movements (a combination of inner brow raising and brow lowering) express sadness, no report has described a study elucidating facial expression characteristics under well-controlled circumstances with people actually experiencing the emotion of sadness itself. Therefore, spontaneous facial expressions associated with sadness remain unclear. We conducted this study to accumulate important findings related to spontaneous facial expressions of sadness. We recorded the spontaneous facial expressions of a group of participants as they experienced sadness during an emotion-elicitation task. This task required a participant to recall neutral and sad memories while listening to music. We subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of their sad and neutral expressions using the Facial Action Coding System. The prototypical facial expressions of sadness in earlier studies were not observed when people experienced sadness as an internal state under non-social circumstances. By contrast, they expressed tension around the mouth, which might function as a form of suppression. Furthermore, results show that parts of these facial actions are not only related to sad experiences but also to other emotional experiences such as disgust, fear, anger, and happiness. This study revealed the possibility that new facial expressions contribute to the experience of sadness as an internal state.     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and 6‐Month‐Old Infants' Sensitivity to Facial Expressions

We examined 6‐month‐old infants' abilities to discriminate smiling and frowning from neutral stimuli. In addition, we assessed the relationship between infants' preferences for varying intensities of smiling and frowning facial expressions and their mothers' history of depressive symptoms. Forty‐six infants were presented pairs of facial expressions, and their preferential looking time was recorded. They also participated in a 3‐min interaction with their mothers for which duration of both mother and infant gazing and smiling were coded. Analyses revealed that the infants reliably discriminated between varying intensities of smiling and frowning facial expressions and a paired neutral expression. In addition, infants' preferences for smiling and frowning expressions were related to self‐reports of maternal depressive symptoms experienced since the birth of the infant. Potential implications for social cognitive development are discussed.     

Judging Facial Emotion Expressions in Context: The Influence of Culture and Self-Construal Orientation

We assessed the impact of social context on the judgment of emotional facial expressions as a function of self-construal and decoding rules. German and Greek participants rated spontaneous emotional faces shown either alone or surrounded by other faces with congruent or incongruent facial expressions. Greek participants were higher in interdependence than German participants. In line with cultural decoding rules, Greek participants rated anger expressions less intensely and sad and disgust expressions more intensely. Social context affected the ratings by both groups in different ways. In the more interdependent culture (Greece) participants perceived anger least intensely when the group showed neutral expressions, whereas sadness expressions were rated as most intense in the absence of social context. In the independent culture (Germany) a group context (others expressing anger or happiness) additionally amplified the perception of angry and happy expressions. In line with the notion that these effects are mediated by more holistic processing linked to higher interdependence, this difference disappeared when we controlled for interdependence on the individual level. The findings confirm the usefulness of considering both country level and individual level factors when studying cultural differences.     

Children's standards for judging their own facial expressions of emotion

This study examined three- to seven-year-old children's abilities to recognize and label their own facial expressions of emotion. Each child posed four facial expressions (Happy, Sad, Angry, and Scared) which were photographed with a Polaroid camera. The child then selected each expression from the array of his/her own photos and labeled the facial expression of each photo. In addition to children's self-evaluations, the photo set's expressive content was evaluated by a panel of adult raters. Happy was the expression easiest for children to pose; Scared was the most difficult. Abilities involved in evaluating one's own facial expression (i.e., recognizing and labeling) appear not to be acquired simultaneously with the ability to pose the expression. Not all children conformed to adult standards in evaluating their own expressions. Nearly one-fifth of the children studied exhibited evidence of an idiosyncratic expressive scheme for at least one of their facial expressions.     

Audience effects in affective imagery: Replication and extension to dysphoric imagery

Subjects imagined situations during which they reported feeling happiness, sadness, anger, or fear, at both low and high levels of imagined sociality. Electromyographic (EMG) activity was recorded from four facial sites overlying the left forehead, brow, cheek, and lip. Controlling for reported emotion, facial EMG activity was influenced by the sociality of the imagery. Results corroborate previous findings of imaginary audience effects on smiling, and extend these effects to imagined situations that elicit dysphoria.This research was supported in part by a University of California Academic Senate grant to the first author. We thank Norman Severe for his assistance in running subjects.     

Weather and Smiling Contagion: A Quasi Experiment with the Smiling Sunshine

Studies have shown that pleasant weather conditions (namely, sunshine) favor positive social relationships and improve moods. However, the effect of sunshine on one nonverbal expression that facilitates social relationships (namely, smiling) has never been studied. In a field experiment, men and women walking alone in the street were passed by a male or a female confederate who displayed a smile to the passersby. The contagion effect of smiling was measured. The study was carried out on days that were evaluated as being either sunny or cloudy, but precaution was taken to control the temperature and not to solicit participants when it rained. It was found that the display of a smile results in a smile more often on sunny days. The positive mood induced by the sun may explain such results.     

Automated measurement of infant and mother Duchenne facial expressions in the Face-to-Face/Still-Face

Although still-face effects are well-studied, little is known about the degree to which the Face-to-Face/Still-Face (FFSF) is associated with the production of intense affective displays. Duchenne smiling expresses more intense positive affect than non-Duchenne smiling, while Duchenne cry-faces express more intense negative affect than non-Duchenne cry-faces. Forty 4-month-old infants and their mothers completed the FFSF, and key affect-indexing facial Action Units (AUs) were coded by expert Facial Action Coding System coders for the first 30 s of each FFSF episode. Computer vision software, automated facial affect recognition (AFAR), identified AUs for the entire 2-min episodes. Expert coding and AFAR produced similar infant and mother Duchenne and non-Duchenne FFSF effects, highlighting the convergent validity of automated measurement. Substantive AFAR analyses indicated that both infant Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiling declined from the FF to the SF, but only Duchenne smiling increased from the SF to the RE. In similar fashion, the magnitude of mother Duchenne smiling changes over the FFSF were 2–4 times greater than non-Duchenne smiling changes. Duchenne expressions appear to be a sensitive index of intense infant and mother affective valence that are accessible to automated measurement and may be a target for future FFSF research.     

The Mystery of the European Smile: A Comparison Based on Individual Photographs Provided by Internet Users

The aim of the study was to analyze cross-cultural differences in preference for smiling among the users of one of the most popular instant messaging sites called Windows Live Messenger in terms of facial expression (smiling vs. non-smiling) on the photographs accompanying their profiles. 2,000 photos from 10 countries were rated by two independent judges. Despite the fact that 20 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Internet users from a former Soviet bloc appear to smile less often than those from Western Europe. Also, replicating past research, women irrespective of their nationality smiled more than men.     

Japanese Children’s Knowledge of the Facial Components of Basic Emotions

While numerous studies have investigated children’s recognition of facial emotional expressions, little evidence has been gathered concerning their explicit knowledge of the components included in such expressions. Thus, we investigated children’s knowledge of the facial components involved in the expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise. Four- and 5-year-old Japanese children were presented with the blank face of a young character, and asked to select facial components in order to depict the emotions he felt. Children’s overall performance in the task increased as a function of age, and was above chance level for each emotion in both age groups. Children were likely to select the Cheek raiser and Lip corner puller to depict happiness, the Inner brow raiser, Brow lowerer, and Lid droop to depict sadness, the Brow lowerer and Upper lid raiser to depict anger, and the Upper lid raiser and Jaw drop to depict surprise. Furthermore, older children demonstrated a better knowledge of the involvement of the Upper lid raiser in surprise expressions.     

Multiple Messages: Facial Recognition Advantage for Compound Expressions

The impact of singular (e.g. sadness alone) and compound (e.g. sadness and anger together) facial expressions on individuals' recognition of faces was investigated. In three studies, a face recognition paradigm was used as a measure of the proficiency with which participants processed compound and singular facial expressions. For both positive and negative facial expressions, participants displayed greater proficiency in processing compound expressions relative to singular expressions. Specifically, the accuracy with which faces displaying compound expressions were recognized was significantly higher than the accuracy with which faces displaying singular expressions were recognized. Possible explanations involving the familiarity, distinctiveness, and salience of the facial expressions are discussed.     

How the Experience of Emotion is Modulated by Facial Feedback

The facial feedback hypothesis states that facial actions modulate subjective experiences of emotion. Using the voluntary facial action technique, in which the participants react with instruction induced smiles and frowns when exposed to positive and negative emotional pictures and then rate the pleasantness of these stimuli, four questions were addressed in the present study. The results in Experiment 1 demonstrated a feedback effect because participants experienced the stimuli as more pleasant during smiling as compared to when frowning. However, this effect was present only during the critical actions of smiling and frowning, with no remaining effects after 5 min or after 1 day. In Experiment 2, feedback effects were found only when the facial action (smile/frown) was incongruent with the presented emotion (positive/negative), demonstrating attenuating but not enhancing modulation. Finally, no difference in the intensity of produced feedback effect was found between smiling and frowning, and no difference in feedback effect was found between positive and negative emotions. In conclusion, facial feedback appears to occur mainly during actual facial actions, and primarily attenuate ongoing emotional states.     

Cultural Differences of Body Movements between China and Japan

Body movements, as one of the expressive ways in nonverbal communication, can deliver much underlying information of culture sea.This essay aims at exploring some details of body movements between China and Japan based on three simply observable signs: facial expressions, gestures and postures, thus hoping to further enhance awareness of cultural differences in these two countries.     

The quantification of smiling using a microcomputer-based approach

This study examines the relationship between the ratings made of a set of smiling and neutral expressions and the facial features which influence these ratings. Judges were shown forty real face photographs of smile and neutral expressions and forty line drawings derived from these photographs and were asked to rate the degree of smiling behavior of each expression. The line drawings of the face were generated by a microcomputer which utilizes a mathematical model to quantify facial expression. Twelve facial measures were generated by the computer. Significant differences were found between the ratings of smile and neutral expressions. The Mode of Presentation did not contribute significantly to the ratings. Using the facial measures as separate covariates, five mouth measures and one eye measure were found to discriminate significantly between the ratings made on smile and neutral expressions. When entered as simultaneous covariates, only four mouth measures contributed to the differences found in the expression ratings. Future research projects which may utilise the computer model are discussedThe research reported in this paper was conducted in the Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide. The authors would like to thank Ulana Sudomlak for her assistance in the gathering and recording of the data for this project, and the reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Video ethology: Television as a data base for cross-cultural studies in nonverbal displays

This demonstration study attempts to indicate how live television programming might provide an economical and easily-accessed source of material for cross-cultural investigation. This study compared the nonverbal displays of emotion for American and Canadian television game show contestants. Results suggested that although Americans and Canadians did not differ significantly in the types of emotions displayed, Americans were rated as being significantly more expressive in their emotional display. In addition, Americans differed from Canadians in their forms of nonverbal display. American females were seen as using their hands more than the Canadian females. American males were seen to smile more than their Canadian counterparts. Discussion explored how methodology introduced in this study could be conveniently expanded to more conclusively explore culturally determined display rules. Consideration of current video cassette technology facilitating this form of investigation was discussed.This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under grant number 410-84-0640.     

Consumer Socialisation and Value Orientations among Estonian and Chinese Young People

This paper asks if Estonian and Chinese tweens’ access to pocket money influences their brand valuation, as well as value orientations in the context of perceived peer popularity and personal well‐being. Surveys conducted in autumns 2006 (China n = 188) and 2007 (Estonia n = 111) show an inherent cultural resistance among tweens in both countries towards using material standards to evaluate people and social relations. Access to own money correlates strongly with more consumerist values and strengthen the initial indications that individualist and expressive values are more highly esteemed by Estonian tweens, while social inclusion and approval are more vital for the Chinese.     

Are Spontaneous Expressions and Emotions Linked? an Experimental Test of Coherence

We measured facial behaviors shown by participants in a laboratory study in which a film was used to elicit intense emotions. Participants provided subjective reports of their emotions and their faces were recorded by a concealed camera. We did not find the coherence claimed by other authors (e.g., Rosenberg & Ekman, 1994) between the displayed facial expressions and subjective reports of emotion. We thus concluded that certain emotions are not a necessary or sufficient precondition of certain spontaneous expressions.     

Effects of Activated and Dispositional Self-Construal on Emotion Decoding Accuracy

The present study examined effects of temporarily salient and chronic self-construal on decoding accuracy for positive and negative facial expressions of emotion. We primed independent and interdependent self-construal in a sample of participants who then rated the emotion expressions of a central character (target) in a cartoon showing a happy, sad, angry, or neutral facial expression in a group setting. Primed interdependence was associated with lower recognition accuracy for negative emotion expressions. Primed and chronic self-construal interacted such that for interdependence primed participants, higher chronic interdependence was associated with lower decoding accuracy for negative emotion expressions. Chronic independent self-construal was associated with higher decoding accuracy for negative emotion. These findings add to an increasing literature that highlights the significance of perceivers’ socio-cultural factors, self-construal in particular, for emotion perception.     

Infant “surprise” expressions as coordinative motor structures

This study found that the facial action of moderately or widely opening the mouth is accompanied by brow raising in infnats, thus producing surprise expressions in non-surprise situations. Infants (age = 5 months and 7 months) were videotaped as they were presented with toys that they often grasped and brought to their mouths. Episodes of mouth opening were identified and accompanying brow, nose, and eyelid movements were coded. Results indicated that mouth opening is selectively associated with raised brows rather than to other brow movements. Trace levels of eyelid raising also tended to accompany this facial configuration. The findings are discussed in terms of a dynamical systems theory of facial behavior and suggest that facial expression cannot be used as investigators' sole measure of surprise in infants.This research was conducted as part of the second author's undergraduate honors program project and was supported in part by a grant from the NICHHD #1RO1 HD 22399-A3 awarded to G. F. Michel.