How Emotion Is Experienced And Expressed In Multiple Cultures: Large Scale Experiment

Emotional expression refers to how people communicate their feelings through facial movements, vocal tones, and body language.

It’s a fundamental aspect of human interaction, but it can vary between cultures due to different social norms, values, and communication styles.

These cultural differences may influence which emotions are considered appropriate to express, how intensely they’re displayed, and in what contexts.

Understanding these variations is crucial for effective cross-cultural communication and empathy in our increasingly globalized world.

Cowen, A. S., Brooks, J. A., Prasad, G., Tanaka, M., Kamitani, Y., Kirilyuk, V., ... & Keltner, D. (2024). How emotion is experienced and expressed in multiple cultures: a large-scale experiment across North America, Europe, and Japan. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1350631. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1350631

Key Points

• The study examined how emotions are experienced and expressed through facial movements across cultures in North America, Europe, and Japan.
• At least 21 distinct dimensions of emotional experience were identified that were preserved across cultures and languages.
• Facial expressions predicted at least 12 dimensions of emotional experience with significant accuracy at the aggregate level.
• There was considerable cross-cultural convergence in how emotions are expressed through facial movements, with differences mainly in display tendencies/intensity rather than meaning.
• Individual variability in emotional experience and expression was high, accounting for 70% of the variance explained by facial expressions.
• The findings support a high-dimensional, categorical model of emotion with continuous gradients between categories, rather than discrete basic emotions or purely dimensional models.
• This research has certain limitations such as relying on evocative videos rather than more personal emotion elicitation methods and using English-language based annotations of facial expressions.
• Understanding the cross-cultural universals and variations in emotional expression has broad relevance for fields like psychology, anthropology, and artificial intelligence.

Rationale

Previous research on emotional expression across cultures has largely focused on a small set of “basic” emotions and prototypical facial expressions, limiting our understanding of the full range of emotional experiences and how they manifest in facial movements (Ekman & Friesen, 1971; Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002).

More recent work has suggested that the space of emotional experiences and expressions is more complex, with upwards of 20-30 distinct states (Cowen & Keltner, 2017, 2019, 2020).

However, large-scale studies examining how a broad range of emotions are experienced and expressed across multiple cultures have been lacking.

This study aimed to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive investigation of emotional experiences and facial expressions in response to over 2,000 evocative videos across cultures in North America, Europe, and Japan.

The researchers sought to determine how many distinct emotions are preserved in experience and expression across cultures, to what degree facial expressions predict emotional experiences, and how emotional expressions vary between cultures.

This approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of cultural universals and variations in emotion beyond the traditional focus on a small set of basic emotions.

Method

The study employed a large-scale experimental design using evocative videos to elicit emotions across multiple cultures.

Procedure

Participants from various countries, primarily North America, Europe, and Japan, viewed 15-30 randomly selected videos from a set of 2,185 evocative short videos.

They recorded their facial reactions using webcams and reported their emotional experiences using surveys in English or Japanese.

Participants were selected from 34 emotion categories and provided intensity ratings for each selection, or rated valence and arousal on a scale.

Sample

The study included 1,332 English-language survey participants (678 male, mean age 31.8) and 61 Japanese survey participants (39 male, mean age 38.4).

Participants originated from various countries, with the majority from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan.

Measures

1. Self-reported emotional experiences: 34 emotion categories with intensity ratings (1-100 scale) or valence and arousal ratings (1-9 scale)
2. Facial expression recordings: 45,231 self-recorded reactions to the videos
3. Human annotations of facial expressions: 42 categories of perceived emotion
4. Deep Neural Network (DNN) annotations of facial expressions: 30 emotion labels
5. Facial Action Coding System (FACS) DNN: 36 anatomically based dimensions of facial expression

Statistical measures

The study employed various statistical techniques, including:

1. Principal Preserved Component Analysis (PPCA) to determine the number of distinct emotional dimensions preserved across cultures
2. Linear regression models to predict emotional experiences from facial expressions
3. Correlational analyses to examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in emotional expressions
4. Bootstrap resampling to estimate standard errors in prediction correlations

Results

Hypothesis 1: There are multiple distinct dimensions of emotional experience preserved across cultures.

Result: At least 21 distinct dimensions of emotional experience were identified that were preserved across English-language and Japanese responses.

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Hypothesis 2: Facial expressions can predict multiple dimensions of emotional experience.

Result: Facial expressions predicted at least 12 dimensions of emotional experience with significant accuracy at the aggregate level.

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Hypothesis 3: There is cross-cultural convergence in how emotions are expressed through facial movements.

Result: Considerable cross-cultural convergence was found in the facial actions involved in expressing emotions, with differences mainly in display tendencies (intensity) rather than meaning.

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Hypothesis 4: Individual variability in emotional experience and expression is significant.

Result: Individual variability accounted for 70% of the variance in reported experience explained by expression, while cultural differences accounted for only 11%.

Insight

This study provides a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of how emotions are experienced and expressed across cultures.

The identification of 21 distinct dimensions of emotional experience preserved across cultures challenges traditional models that focus on a small set of basic emotions.

This suggests that human emotional experiences are more diverse and complex than previously thought, yet there are significant cross-cultural similarities in these experiences.

The finding that facial expressions can predict at least 12 dimensions of emotional experience at the aggregate level indicates that facial movements contain rich information about emotional states.

This extends previous research by demonstrating that facial expressions can convey a wider range of emotions than typically studied.

Importantly, the study reveals that while there is considerable cross-cultural convergence in how emotions are expressed through facial movements, there are also notable differences in display tendencies.

For example, many facial expressions in Japan were found to be more nuanced (less intense) than those in North America and Europe.

This finding helps reconcile conflicting theories about cultural universals and variations in emotional expression, suggesting that the underlying meaning of expressions is largely preserved across cultures, but the intensity of expression varies.

The high degree of individual variability in emotional experience and expression is a crucial insight.

This suggests that while there are cultural patterns, individual differences play a more significant role in how people experience and express emotions.

This finding underscores the importance of considering both cultural and individual factors in understanding emotional processes.

Future research could explore how these findings apply to more personal forms of emotion elicitation, such as social interactions.

Additionally, investigating how these emotional dimensions are expressed through other channels (e.g., voice, body language) could provide a more comprehensive understanding of emotional communication across cultures.

Strengths

The study had many methodological strengths including:

1. Large-scale design with over 45,000 facial reaction videos and participants from multiple countries
2. Use of diverse, naturalistic stimuli (2,185 evocative videos)
3. Combination of self-report, human annotations, and machine learning techniques for analyzing facial expressions
4. Cross-cultural and cross-linguistic approach, including English and Japanese speakers
5. Data-driven, inductive statistical modeling to characterize emotion taxonomies
6. Use of advanced techniques like Principal Preserved Component Analysis to identify shared dimensions across cultures

Limitations

This study also had many methodological limitations, including:

1. The study relied on evocative videos rather than more personal or interactive forms of emotion elicitation, which may limit generalizability to real-world emotional experiences.
2. The facial expression annotations were based on English-language categorizations, which may have introduced cultural bias in the analysis of Japanese expressions.
3. The study focused primarily on North American, European, and Japanese participants, limiting generalizability to other cultural groups, particularly non-Western and non-industrialized societies.
4. Participants were aware of being recorded and instructed to react expressively, which may have influenced the naturalness of their expressions.
5. The study did not account for potential differences in the spontaneity or naturalness of expressions between cultures.

These limitations suggest that while the study provides valuable insights into cross-cultural emotional expression, further research is needed to fully understand how emotions are expressed in more naturalistic settings and across a broader range of cultures.

Implications

The results of this study have significant implications for various fields:

1. Psychological Theory: The findings support a high-dimensional, categorical model of emotion with continuous gradients between categories. This challenges both traditional discrete emotion theories and purely dimensional models, suggesting a more nuanced understanding of emotion is necessary.
2. Cross-Cultural Psychology: The study reveals both universalities and cultural variations in emotional experience and expression. This highlights the need for cultural sensitivity in understanding and interpreting emotions while also recognizing shared aspects of human emotional experience.
3. Affective Computing and AI: The identification of multiple dimensions of emotion that can be predicted from facial expressions has implications for developing more sophisticated emotion recognition technologies that work across cultures.
4. Clinical Psychology: Understanding cultural differences in display tendencies (e.g., more nuanced expressions in Japan) could inform more culturally sensitive approaches to diagnosing and treating emotional disorders.
5. Communication and Business: Insights into cross-cultural similarities and differences in emotional expression could improve international communication and business practices.
6. Education: The findings could inform emotional intelligence training programs, helping individuals better understand and navigate cross-cultural emotional expressions.

Variables that influence the results include cultural background, individual differences, the nature of the emotion-eliciting stimuli, and the context of the emotional expression (e.g., being recorded versus natural settings).

References

Primary reference

Cowen, A. S., Brooks, J. A., Prasad, G., Tanaka, M., Kamitani, Y., Kirilyuk, V., … & Keltner, D. (2024). How emotion is experienced and expressed in multiple cultures: a large-scale experiment across North America, Europe, and Japan. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1350631. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1350631

Other references

Cowen, A. S., & Keltner, D. (2017). Self-report captures 27 distinct categories of emotion bridged by continuous gradients. Proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 114(38), E7900-E7909. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702247114

Cowen, A. S., & Keltner, D. (2020). What the face displays: Mapping 28 emotions conveyed by naturalistic expression. American Psychologist, 75(3), 349. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000488

Cowen, A. S., & Keltner, D. (2020). Universal facial expressions uncovered in art of the ancient Americas: A computational approach. Science advances, 6(34), eabb1005.

Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of personality and social psychology, 17(2), 124. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0030377

Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: a meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 128(2), 203.

Keep Learning

1. How might the findings of this study impact our understanding of emotional intelligence across cultures?
2. What are the potential implications of the high individual variability in emotional experience and expression for personality theory?
3. How could the identification of multiple dimensions of emotion influence the development of more nuanced psychological interventions for emotional disorders?
4. In what ways might the observed cultural differences in display tendencies (e.g., more nuanced expressions in Japan) reflect broader cultural values or norms?
5. How might the methods used in this study be adapted to investigate emotional expression in small-scale, indigenous societies?
6. What are the ethical considerations in developing AI systems for emotion recognition based on these findings, particularly across cultures?
7. How might the study’s findings about the complexity of emotional expression inform approaches to emotion regulation and well-being across cultures?
8. In what ways could the observed similarities and differences in emotional expression across cultures influence strategies for global marketing and advertising?
9. How might the study’s methodology be extended to investigate the development of emotional expression throughout the lifespan across different cultures?
10. What are the potential implications of this research for understanding and addressing cross-cultural misunderstandings or conflicts?