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Is there universal recognition of emotion from facial expression? A review of the cross-cultural studies.
Abstract
Emotions are universally recognized from facial expressions--or so it has been claimed. To support that claim, research has been carried out in various modern cultures and in cultures relatively isolated from Western influence. A review of the methods used in that research raises questions of its ecological, convergent, and internal validity. Forced-choice response format, within-subject design, preselected photographs of posed facial expressions, and other features of method are each problematic. When they are altered, less supportive or nonsupportive results occur. When they are combined, these method factors may help to shape the results. Facial expressions and emotion labels are probably associated, but the association may vary with culture and is loose enough to be consistent with various alternative accounts, 8 of which are discussed.
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“Even critics of strong evolutionary accounts [31], [32] find that recognition of FEs of emotion are universally above chance and in many cases quite higher.”
From Survey on RGB, 3D, Thermal, and Multimodal Approaches for Facial Expression Recognition: History, Trends, and Affect-Related Applications (2016) · cites this paper as [31]
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“Recently, the problem of automatic face detection in an arbitrary scene has drawn great attention (e.g., see [74], [83], [85]).”
From Automatic analysis of facial expressions: the state of the art (2000) · cites this paper as [83]
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Ohgami, Y., Kotani, Y., Arai, J., Kiryu, S., & Inoue, Y. (2014) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/psyp.12234 · Cited by 17
Biologically Inspired Emotional Expressions for Artificial Agents
Korcsok, B., Konok, V., Persa, G., Faragó, T., Niitsuma, M., Miklósi, Á., Köröndi, P., Bárányi, P., & Gácsi, M. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01191 · Cited by 17
“The recognition of anger from human facial expressions is around 92% in adults in forced choice tests and 78% in a free-label test (Russell, 1994) and 88% in 5–7 years old children (Durand et al., 2007).”
BackgroundAnchoring-and-Adjustment During Affect Inferences
Yik, M., Wong, K. F. E., & Zeng, K. J. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02567 · Cited by 17
“Reviewing cross-cultural studies on emotion recognition among literate and illiterate perceivers, Russell (1994) and Nelson and Russell (2013) concluded that the associations between facial expressions and emotion labels varied across contexts including cultural background, response format,…”
BackgroundNegative Emotion Responses to Heavy-Metal and Hip-Hop Music with Positive Lyrics
Susino, M., & Schubert, E. (2019) · Empirical Musicology Review · doi:10.18061/emr.v14i1-2.6376 · Cited by 20
“In addition to these six emotion options, we added two further possible responses, “none” and “other”, to increase the likelihood that participants were able to report an emotion spontaneously, without necessarily being restricted to the emotions listed (for a discussion, see Russell, 1994).”
BackgroundEmotional Worlds: Beyond an Anthropology of Emotion
Beatty, A. (2019) · Cited by 16
The Influence of a Working Memory Task on Affective Perception of Facial Expressions
Lim, S.-L., Bruce, A. S., & Aupperle, R. L. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111074 · Cited by 19
“Facial expression perception is known to be universal across different cultures to a certain extent [1,2], but not entirely [3].”
BackgroundExpression, emotion, neither, or both?
Frijda, N. H. (1995) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699939508408986 · Cited by 16
Emotion Regulation Strategies as a Predictor of Life Satisfaction in University Students
Yiğit, A., Özpolat, A. R., & Kandemir, M. (2014) · Psychology · doi:10.4236/psych.2014.56062 · Cited by 19
“On the other hand, there are many studies on the issue of the relation between emotions and facial expressions (Ekman, 1984; Ekman, 1992; Ekman, 1993; Russell, 1994; Kring & Gordon, 1998).”
BackgroundFrench-speaking children’s freely produced labels for facial expressions
Maassarani, R., Gosselin, P., Montembeault, P., & Gagnon, M. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00555 · Cited by 16
“Surprise and fear are added at the age of 56 months, on average, with some children adding fear to happy, angry, and sad while others add surprise to these three words. At the next level (at 62 months on average), children use five labels: happy, sad, angry, scary, and surprise. At the last level, children add disgust…”
InfluentialUpdating schematic emotional facial expressions in working memory: Response bias and sensitivity.
Tamm, G., Kreegipuu, K., Harro, J., & Cowan, N. (2017) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.11.002 · Cited by 14
The part-whole perception of emotion
Glazer, T. (2017) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2017.10.008 · Cited by 18
“In 1994, James Russell published a scathing critique of BET, arguing that the evidence commonly marshalled in favor of BET comes up short (Russell 1994).”
Place the good after the bad: effects of emotional shifts on consumer memory
Guido, G., Pichierri, M., & Pino, G. (2017) · Marketing Letters · doi:10.1007/s11002-017-9439-0 · Cited by 19
Encyclopedia of Multimedia Technology and Networking, Second Edition
Pagani, M. (2009) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-014-1 · Cited by 16
Leys, R. (2020) · Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science · doi:10.1017/9781108920308 · Cited by 2
Maternal postnatal depression: causes and consequences
Hiltunen, P. (2003) · International Journal of Circumpolar Health · doi:10.3402/ijch.v62i3.17567 · Cited by 16
Some Thoughts on Empathy and Countertransference
Zepf, S., & Hartmann, S. (2008) · Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association · doi:10.1177/0003065108322460 · Cited by 16
“However, on closer examination it is found that the individual attributions always depend additionally on the facial expressions shown in the presentation before the expression currently to be interpreted (see, e.g., Russell 1991).”
BackgroundAlternative Trajectories in the Development of Anger-Related Appraisals
Mascolo, M. F., & Griffin, S. (1998) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-1939-7_9 · Cited by 16
Metadata
- Authors
- Russell, J. A.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Russell, James A.
- ORCID
- Russell, James A.
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1994
- Volume
- 115
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 102-141
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W1975238145
- Cited by
- 1,640
- References
- 168
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 73 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 65 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 80 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 82 · 2015: 72 · 2014: 67 · 2013: 77 · 2012: 66
- FWCI
- 12.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Emotion and Mood Recognition
- Keywords
- facial expressions, emotion recognition, universal emotions, cross-cultural comparison, within-subjects design, ecological validity, convergent validity, internal validity, emotion labels, cultural variation in emotion
- MeSH terms
- Cross-Cultural Comparison, Discrimination, Psychological, Emotions, Facial Expression, Humans, Judgment, Research Design, Visual Perception
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