CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 132Cultural Differences and ValuesFace Recognition and PerceptionCategorization, perception, and language

Emotion perception across cultures: the role of cognitive mechanisms

Open access
Engelmann, Jan B., Pogosyan, Marianna·2013·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00118PMC PMC3594765
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Despite consistently documented cultural differences in the perception of facial expressions of emotion, the role of culture in shaping cognitive mechanisms that are central to emotion perception has received relatively little attention in past research. We review recent developments in cross-cultural psychology that provide particular insights into the modulatory role of culture on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion through two distinct routes: display rules and cognitive styles. Investigations of emotion intensity perception have demonstrated that facial expressions with varying levels of intensity of positive affect are perceived and categorized differently across cultures. Specifically, recent findings indicating significant levels of differentiation between intensity levels of facial expressions among American participants, as well as deviations from clear categorization of high and low intensity expressions among Japanese and Russian participants, suggest that display rules shape mental representations of emotions, such as intensity levels of emotion prototypes. Furthermore, a series of recent studies using eye tracking as a proxy for overt attention during face perception have identified culture-specific cognitive styles, such as the propensity to attend to very specific features of the face. Together, these results suggest a cascade of cultural influences on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion, whereby cultures impart specific behavioral practices that shape the way individuals process information from the environment. These cultural influences lead to differences in cognitive styles due to culture-specific attentional biases and emotion prototypes, which partially account for the gradient of cultural agreements and disagreements obtained in past investigations of emotion perception.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00118

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • There is a lack of transcultural adaptation of most social cognition tests.

    “Another critical issue is the lack of transcultural adaptation of most of social cognition tests (Engelmann and Pogosyan, 2013).”

    From Recommendations to distinguish behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia from psychiatric disorders (2020) · cites this paper as Engelmann and Pogosyan, 2013

    The Introduction and the section ‘Perception of emotion intensity varies across culture’ discuss cultural differences in emotion perception and shortcomings of earlier research methods. They do not address whether most social cognition tests lack transcultural adaptation; searches for that phrase and for culture-specific validity of assessment instruments found no passage making the claim. The indexed passages provide no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.75)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet

References 86 · Cited by 132

Research works printed but not linked: 52

  1. Adolphs R. (2001). The neurobiology of social cognition. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 11, 231– 239 10.1016/S0959-4388(00)00202-6 11301245 · DOI · Paper page
  2. Barrett L. F. Lindquist K. A. Gendron M. (2007). Language as context for the perception of emotion. Trends Cogn. Sci. 11, 327– 332 10.1016/j.tics.2007.06.003 17625952 PMC2225544 · DOI
  3. Blais C. Jack R. E. Scheepers C. Fiset D. Caldara R. (2008). Culture shapes how we look at faces. PLoS ONE 3: e3022 10.1371/journal.pone.0003022 18714387 PMC2515341 · DOI
  4. Boyke J. Driemeyer J. Gaser C. Büchel C. May A. (2008). Training-induced brain structure changes in the elderly. J. Neurosci. 28, 7031– 7035 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0742-08.2008 18614670 PMC6670504 · DOI · Paper page
  5. Chiao J. Y. Iidaka T. Gordon H. L. Nogawa J. Bar M. Aminoff E. (2008). Cultural specificity in amygdala response to fear faces. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 20, 2167– 2174 10.1162/jocn.2008.20151 18457504 · DOI · Paper page
  6. Chua H. F. (2005). From the cover: cultural variation in eye movements during scene perception. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102, 12629– 12633 10.1073/pnas.0506162102 16116075 PMC1194960 · DOI
  7. Dailey M. N. Joyce C. Lyons M. J. Kamachi M. Ishi H. Gyoba J. (2010). Evidence and a computational explanation of cultural differences in facial expression recognition. Emotion 10, 874– 893 10.1037/a0020019 21171759 PMC7360061 · DOI
  8. Darwin C. (1872). The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. Derntl B. Habel U. Robinson S. Windischberger C. Kryspin-Exner I. Gur R. (2009). Amygdala activation during recognition of emotions in a foreign ethnic group is associated with duration of stay. Soc. Neurosci. 4, 294– 307 10.1080/17470910802571633 19479638 · DOI
  10. Derntl B. Habel U. Robinson S. Windischberger C. Kryspin-Exner I. Gur R. C. (2012). Culture but not gender modulates amygdala activation during explicit emotion recognition. BMC Neurosci. 13: 54 10.1186/1471-2202-13-54 22642400 PMC3404024 · DOI
  11. Draganski B. Gaser C. Busch V. Schuierer G. Bogdahn U. May A. (2004). Neuroplasticity: changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 427, 311– 312 10.1038/427311a 14737157 · DOI · Paper page
  12. Ekman P. (1971). Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion, in Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, Vol. 19, ed Cole J. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press), 207– 282
  13. Ekman P. Friesen W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 17, 124– 129 5542557
  14. Ekman P. Friesen W. V. O'Sullivan M. Chan A. Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis I. Heider K. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 53, 712– 717 3681648
  15. Ekman P. Sorenson E. R. Friesen W. V. (1969). Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotion. Science 164, 86– 88 10.1126/science.164.3875.86 5773719 · DOI · Paper page
  16. Elfenbein H. A. Beaupré M. Lévesque M. Hess U. (2007). Toward a dialect theory: cultural differences in the expression and recognition of posed facial expressions. Emotion 7, 131– 146 10.1037/1528-3542.7.1.131 17352569 · DOI
  17. Engelmann J. B. Hein G. (2013). Contextual and social influences on valuation and choice. Prog. Brain Res. 202, 215– 237 10.1016/B978-0-444-62604-2.00013-7 23317835 · DOI
  18. Gaser C. Schlaug G. (2003). Gray matter differences between musicians and nonmusicians. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 999, 514– 517 10.1196/annals.1284.062 14681175 · DOI
  19. Han S. Northoff G. Vogeley K. Wexler B. E. Kitayama S. Varnum M. E. W. (2013). A cultural neuroscience approach to the biosocial nature of the human brain. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 64, 335– 359 10.1146/annurev-psych-071112-054629 22994921 · DOI
  20. Haxby J. V. Hoffman E. A. Gobbini M. I. (2000). The distributed human neural system for face perception. Trends Cogn. Sci. 4, 223– 233 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01482-0 10827445 · DOI · Paper page
  21. Haxby J. V. Hoffman E. A. Gobbini M. I. (2002). Human neural systems for face recognition and social communication. Biol. Psychiatry 51, 59– 67 11801231
  22. Ishai A. (2008). Let's face it: it's a cortical network. Neuroimage 40, 415– 419 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.10.040 18063389 · DOI
  23. Jack R. E. Blais C. Scheepers C. Schyns P. G. Caldara R. (2009). Cultural confusions show that facial expressions are not universal. Curr. Biol. 19, 1543– 1548 10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.051 19682907 · DOI · Paper page
  24. Jack R. E. Caldara R. Schyns P. G. (2012a). Internal representations reveal cultural diversity in expectations of facial expressions of emotion. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 141, 19– 25 10.1037/a0023463 21517206 · DOI
  25. Jack R. E. Garrod O. G. Yu H. Caldara R. Schyns P. G. (2012b). Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 109, 7241– 7244 22509011 PMC3358835
  26. Johnson M. H. Dziurawiec S. Ellis H. Morton J. (1991). Newborns' preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline. Cognition 40, 1– 19 10.1016/0010-0277(91)90045-6 1786670 · DOI
  27. Kanwisher N. (2000). Domain specificity in face perception. Nat. Neurosci. 3, 759– 763 10.1038/77664 10903567 · DOI · Paper page
  28. Kelly D. J. Quinn P. C. Slater A. M. Lee K. Ge L. Pascalis O. (2007). The other-race effect develops during infancy: evidence of perceptual narrowing. Psychol. Sci. 18, 1084– 1089 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02029.x 18031416 PMC2566514 · DOI
  29. Kelly D. J. Quinn P. C. Slater A. M. Lee K. Gibson A. Smith M. (2005). Three-month-olds, but not newborns, prefer own-race faces. Dev. Sci. 8, F31– F36 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.0434a.x 16246233 PMC2566511 · DOI
  30. Lindquist K. A. Barrett L. F. Bliss-Moreau E. Russell J. A. (2006). Language and the perception of emotion. Emotion 6, 125– 138 10.1037/1528-3542.6.1.125 16637756 · DOI
  31. Marsh A. A. Elfenbein H. A. Ambady N. (2003). Nonverbal “accents”: cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. Psychol. Sci. 14, 373– 376 12807413
  32. Masuda T. Ellsworth P. C. Mesquita B. Leu J. Tanida S. Van de Veerdonk E. (2008). Placing the face in context: cultural differences in the perception of facial emotion. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 94, 365– 381 10.1037/0022-3514.94.3.365 18284287 · DOI
  33. Masuda T. Nisbett R. E. (2006). Culture and change blindness. Cogn. Sci. 30, 381– 399 10.1207/s15516709cog0000_63 21702819 · DOI
  34. Matsumoto D. Yoo S. H. Hirayama S. Petrova G. (2005). Development and validation of a measure of display rule knowledge: the display rule assessment inventory. Emotion 5, 23– 40 10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.23 15755217 · DOI
  35. McCrae R. R. Costa P. T. Jr. Ostendorf F. Angleitner A. Hřebíčková M. Avia M. D. (2000). Nature over nurture: temperament, personality, and life span development. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 78, 173 10653513
  36. Meltzoff A. N. Decety J. (2003). What imitation tells us about social cognition: a rapprochement between developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 358, 491– 500 10.1098/rstb.2002.1261 12689375 PMC1351349 · DOI
  37. Meltzoff A. N. Moore M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science 198, 75– 78 10.1126/science.198.4312.75 17741897 · DOI
  38. Moriguchi Y. Ohnishi T. Kawachi T. Mori T. Hirakata M. Yamada M. (2005). Specific brain activation in Japanese and Caucasian people to fearful faces. Neuroreport 16, 133– 136 15671862
  39. Nan Y. Knösche T. R. Friederici A. D. (2006). The perception of musical phrase structure: a cross-cultural ERP study. Brain Res. 1094, 179– 191 10.1016/j.brainres.2006.03.115 16712816 · DOI
  40. Nan Y. Knösche T. R. Friederici A. D. (2009). Non-musicians' perception of phrase boundaries in music: a cross-cultural ERP study. Biol. Psychol. 82, 70– 81 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2009.06.002 19540302 · DOI
  41. Nisbett R. E. Masuda T. (2003). Culture and point of view. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100, 11163– 11170 10.1073/pnas.1934527100 12960375 PMC196945 · DOI
  42. Nisbett R. E. Peng K. Choi I. Norenzayan A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychol. Rev. 108, 291– 310 11381831
  43. Park D. C. Huang C. M. (2010). Culture wires the brain: a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 5, 391– 400 10.1177/1745691610374591 22866061 PMC3409833 · DOI
  44. Pessoa L. (2010). Emotion and cognition and the amygdala: from “what is it?” to “what's to be done?”. Neuropsychologia 48, 3416– 3429 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.06.038 20619280 PMC2949460 · DOI · Paper page
  45. Pogosyan M. Engelmann J. B. (2011). Cultural differences in affect intensity perception in the context of advertising. Front. Psychol. 2: 313 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00313 22084635 PMC3211040 · DOI
  46. Polk T. A. Farah M. J. (1998). The neural development and organization of letter recognition: evidence from functional neuroimaging, computational modeling, and behavioral studies. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 95, 847– 852 9448250 PMC33807
  47. Russell J. A. Bachorowski J.-A. Fernández-Dols J.-M. (2003). Facial and vocal expressions of emotion. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 54, 329– 349 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145102 12415074 · DOI · Paper page
  48. Scherer K. R. Clark-Polner E. Mortillaro M. (2011). In the eye of the beholder? Universality and cultural specificity in the expression and perception of emotion. Int. J. Psychol. 46, 401– 435 10.1080/00207594.2011.626049 22126090 · DOI
  49. Susskind J. M. Lee D. H. Cusi A. Feiman R. Grabski W. Anderson A. K. (2008). Expressing fear enhances sensory acquisition. Nat. Neurosci. 11, 843– 850 10.1038/nn.2138 18552843 · DOI · Paper page
  50. Tomkins S. S. (1962). Affect Imagery Consciousness: Volume I: The Positive Affects. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, Inc
  51. Yrizarry N. Matsumoto D. Wilson-Cohn C. (1998). American-Japanese differences in multiscalar intensity ratings of universal facial expressions of emotion. Motiv. Emotion 22, 315– 327 10.1046/j.1440-1819.1999.00617.x 10687742 · DOI
  52. Zhu Y. Zhang L. Fan J. Han S. (2007). Neural basis of cultural influence on self-representation. Neuroimage 34, 1310– 1316 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.08.047 17134915 · DOI · Paper page

Authors
Engelmann, J. B., & Pogosyan, M.
Affiliations
  • University of Zurich (CH)
  • International Christian University (JP)
Corresponding author
Engelmann, Jan B.
ORCID
Engelmann, Jan B.
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2013
Volume
4
Pages
118-118
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00118
PMC
PMC3594765
OpenAlex
W2164030365
Cited by
132
References
86
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3
FWCI
5.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Cultural Differences and Values
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
Keywords
emotion perception, emotional facial expressions, cross-cultural comparison, display rules, cognitive style, attentional bias, face perception, eye tracking, cultural influences on cognition

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review