Facial Expressions

One of the most universal nonverbal modes seems to be the facial expression of emotions. A classical study by Ekman and Friesen (1971) showed that people from New Guinea who never were in touch with American culture were able to assign photos with emotional face expressions to stories that addressed the respective emotions.

Learn more about the research on facial expressions in the video below.

Exploring Facial Expressions

Even though many aspects of facial expressions of basic emotions seem to be universal there are still cultural influences. For example in Japan it is absolutely not well regarded to show negative emotions.

An experiment by Friesen (1972) showed that Japanese control their facial expression when they are not alone: Japanese and American students had to watch a film of  a surgery. When they watched the film on their own, all students showed facial expressions of disgust and distaste, whereas in presence of others the Japanese students showed no negative reaction. Most of them smiled. The facial expressions of the American students, however, stayed the same.

The experiment indicates that even basic emotional expressions can be influenced and controlled by cultural standards.

Learn more about basic emotions and their expression from an article in Psychology Today.

Self reflection

Which emotions do you usually show in public? Which emotions do you just show in very private situations? And which emotions do you avoid to show anywhere?