Am I happy because my culture is?

Human faces are one of the most important channels of non-verbal communication. With roots leading back to Darwin’s (1872) research, initial theories favoured universality of emotions and suggested that emotions had evolved over time and therefore were biologically innate. Extreme positions such as these have slowly become less popular, leaving way for theoretical models that support both universality and cultural specificity for emotions. Recent research has found that emotions displayed on the face are used as social cues (Jack & Schyns, 2015) and therefore it is not an implausible assumption that facial expressions will vary culturally.

Decoding studies have found that primary emotions such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise are recognized universally (Ekman & Oster, 1979). However, further research suggests that this finding is not replicated in all cultures. It is suggested that specific primary emotions in these cultures have stopped being displayed due to the interference of socially learned display rules (Niit & Valsiner, 1977). On the other hand, it is argued that recognising facial expressions of emotion is reliant on the language and culture of all involved in a conversation. People who speak languages which do not have word labels for primary emotions fail to recognise the emotion if shown on someone whose language includes the emotion (Lindquist, MacCormack & Shablack, 2015). Laterality suggests that whilst facial expressions of emotion have universal elements, they are not global emotions. This asymmetry of emotion expression is suggested to be a result of both cultural and biological factors (Lindquist, MacCormack & Shablack, 2015). It is further argued that emotions vary within cultures. Whilst one sibling may be excellent at showing emotions, another may not. Therefore, I propose, based on the biological explanation, that individual factors are the largest contributor to differences in emotional expression. This explains the inconsistency in research as individual differences effect research findings more than cultural variations of facial expressions of emotion.

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References

Darwin, C. (1872). The expression of the emotions in man and animals (3rd ed.) (P. Ekman, Ed.). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press.

Ekman, P., & Oster, H. (1979). Facial expressions of emotion. Annual review of psychology, 30(1), 527-554

Jack, R. E., & Schyns, P. G. (2015). The human face as a dynamic tool for social communication. Current Biology, 25(14), R621-R634.

Lindquist, K. A., MacCormack, J. K., & Shablack, H. (2015). The role of language in emotion: Predictions from psychological constructionism. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.

Niit, T., & Valsiner, J. (1977). Recognition of facial expressions: An experimental investigation of Ekman's model. Tartu Riikliku Ülikooli Toimetised: Trudy po Psikhologii.