Internal Representations Reveal Cultural Diversity in Expectations of Facial Expressions of Emotion
Internal Representations Reveal Cultural Diversity in Expectations of Facial Expressions of Emotion
复制标题
DOI：
10.1037/a0023463
复制
发表时间：
2012-02-01
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Schyns, Philippe G.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jack, Rachael E.;Caldara, Roberto;Schyns, Philippe G.
面部表情长期以来被认为是“情感的通用语言”。然而，面部表情识别中一致的文化差异与这些概念相矛盾（例如，R. E. Jack、C. Blais、C. Scheepers、P. G. Schyns 和 R. Caldara，2009）。相反，文化作为社会概念和信仰的复杂系统，可能会产生对面部表情信号的不同期望（即内部表征）。为了进行调查，他们使用了强大的心理物理学技术（反向相关）来估计两个文化不同群体（即西方白种人 [WC] 和东亚人 [EA]）中 6 种基本面部情感表达（即快乐、惊讶、恐惧、厌恶、愤怒和悲伤）的观察者特定的内部表征。使用互补的统计图像分析，文化特异性在这些表征中被直接揭示。具体来说，WC 的内部表现主要是眉毛和嘴巴。 EA 内部表征显示出对眼睛区域表达信息的偏好。对 EA 观察者偏好的仔细检查揭示了一个令人惊讶的特征：注视方向的变化，主要表现在 EA 组中。第一次直接揭示了文化可以精细地塑造常见情感面部表情的内部表征，挑战了生物上固有的“通用情感语言”的概念。
Facial expressions have long been considered the "universal language of emotion." Yet consistent cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions contradict such notions (e.g., R. E. Jack, C. Blais, C. Scheepers, P. G. Schyns, & R. Caldara, 2009). Rather, culture-as an intricate system of social concepts and beliefs-could generate different expectations (i.e., internal representations) of facial expression signals. To investigate, they used a powerful psychophysical technique (reverse correlation) to estimate the observer-specific internal representations of the 6 basic facial expressions of emotion (i.e., happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) in two culturally distinct groups (i.e., Western Caucasian [WC] and East Asian [EA]). Using complementary statistical image analyses, cultural specificity was directly revealed in these representations. Specifically, whereas WC internal representations predominantly featured the eyebrows and mouth. EA internal representations showed a preference for expressive information in the eye region. Closer inspection of the EA observer preference revealed a surprising feature: changes of gaze direction, shown primarily among the EA group. For the first time, it is revealed directly that culture can finely shape the internal representations of common facial expressions of emotion, challenging notions of a biologically hardwired "universal language of emotion."