SIMILARITIES AND VARIATIONS IN FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS - CROSS-CULTURAL EVIDENCE

North American (Canadian) and Indian observers were shown photographs of six facial emotions; happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust, expressed by American Caucasian and Indian subjects. Observe rs were asked to judge each photograph, on a 7-point scale, for the de gree of (a) distinctiveness (free from blending with other emotion cat egories), (b) pleasantness-unpleasantness, and (C) arousal-nonarousal of expressed facial emotion. The results showed significant interactio n of Observer X Expressor X Emotion for the distinctiveness judgement. It was found that fearful and angry expressions in Indian faces, in c omparison to Caucasian faces, were judged as less distinctly identifia ble by observers of both cultural origins. Indian observers rated thes e two emotion expressions as being more distinctive than did North Ame ricans irrespective of the culture of the expressor. In addition, Indi an observers judged fearful and angry expressions as more unpleasant t han did North Americans. Caucasians, in comparison to Indians, were ju dged to have more arousal in most of the emotion expressions.