In this post
There is still a growing interest in cultural differences in non-verbal communication, with research trying to identify how much non-verbal communication is international and how much varies between cultures. Some differences are well known, for example in most Western cultures, people are aware that it is acceptable to openly show your feelings, however, in Japanese culture it is important to subdue emotions as far as possible.
Aim
Yuki et al. were interested in finding out whether or not different cultures pay attention to different facial cues when they meet and interact with each other. Of particular interest was the idea that Japanese people pay more attention to eyes, whilst American people pay more attention to mouths.
Method
The method was cross-cultural, as the participants were 118 American volunteers and 95 Japanese volunteers.
Each participant completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate on a scale of 1, which indicated very sad, to 9, which indicated very happy, the emotional expressions of six different computer-generated faces or ‘emoticons’, each with combinations of happy and sad eyes and mouths.
At the end, participants were fully debriefed regarding the aims of the study.
Results
The alternative hypothesis, that there would be a difference in the way participants responded to the emoticons, was accepted. This is because the Japanese participants consistently gave higher ratings to faces with happy eyes, and American participants gave their highest ratings when the mouth was shown as happy.
Conclusions
The results support the findings but there are cultural differences in how emotions are expressed and interpreted in faces. There is a suggestion therefore that the way someone is brought up and how they experience the culture will affect their non-verbal communication. This also supports the social learning theory.
Strengths of the study
- The study has given good evidence that there are cultural differences in how individuals communicate in a non-verbal way
- The study was very controlled and therefore results are likely to be more reliable
Limitations of the study
- The study lacks ecological validity because there are few, if any, ethical issues with this study. Participants were only looking at emoticons, rather than real faces
- The sample used is not representative of an international population, because only two cultures were represented. Participants were also within a specific age group and it might be that younger or older people interpret the emotions differently
- It is questioned as to whether a rating scale of 1 to 9 is enough to cover the complexity of recognising emotions
