Non Verbal Communication
What does the following sign mean
to you?
• In most of Europe and in the USA, the previous sign
symbolises the word ‘ok’.
• However, in other cultures it means something different.
• For example, in Japan it can mean ‘money’.
• In countries such as Germany, it is used offensively (in the
same way 2 fingers are in the UK).
• In Brazil the sign has a sexual meaning.
Cross-Cultural Differences in
Non Verbal Communication
• In the same way that different cultures may interpret hand
gestures differently, they may also interpret facial
expressions differently.
• Not all psychologists agree with this. Some argue that
facial expressions are universal. By this, they mean facial
expressions are perceived in the same way by everybody
around the world.
Testing Universialities
• Look at the following faces.
• Can you decide what kind of emotion each one is
expressing?
Universialities in NVC
• You should find that you interpreted the emotions similarly
to other people. Indeed, research suggests that you would
interpret them similarly to people from other cultures too.
• However, there may be more differences when you have
to decide on the degree of emotion.
Testing Universialities
• Look at the following faces.
• Can you decide who is the angriest?
Differences in NVC
• You may have just found some differences between how
you interpreted the previous faces and how others did.
• Differences in interpretation can be even more marked
between cultures. In other words, different cultures may be
socialised to interpret faces differently.
Differences in Emotional
Expression
:-)
• Many people use the above symbols when signing of texts
or e-mails because they represent a ‘happy’ face.
• Interestingly, this symbol is not used worldwide….
• For example, in Japan, the following symbols are used to
denote a ‘happy’ face…
(ˆ-ˆ)
• The point being, that in Japanese culture eyes are more
important when expressing (and interpreting) emotions.
Core Study
In Non Verbal Communication
Yuki, Maddux & Masuda (2007)
“Are the windows to the soul the same in the East and
West?
Cultural differences in using eyes and mouth as cues to
recognize emotions in Japan and the United States.”
Aim
Yuki et al wanted to show that how we interpret facial
expressions is a product of our culture and socialisation.
Hypothesis
They predicted that Japanese people would read the
emotions of faces by using the eyes whereas American
people would read the emotions of faces by using the
mouth.
Method
A cross cultural study was
conducted using students from
Japan and comparing them with
students from the USA.
Method
how happy
is the face?
JAPAN
USA
• The participants were shown a set of six emoticons.
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
• Emoticons are simple computer generated faces.
• The emoticons used a different combination of
happy/neutral/sad eyes and mouths.
^^
EYES
happy
MOUTH neutral
^^
neutral
sad
happy
sad
neutral
happy
EMOTICONS
sad
neutral
sad
happy
Method
9
• Participants were given a
questionnaire.
• They had to rate each of the
six faces (between 1 and 9)
for how happy it was.
• The researchers then worked
out the average rating for each
face within each culture.
1
Results
9
average
rating
0
Japan
how happy
is the face?
JAPAN
USA
USA
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
^^
EYES happy
MOUTH neutral
^^
neutral
sad
happy
sad
neutral
happy
EMOTICONS
sad
neutral
sad
happy
Results
• As the graph showed, Japanese participants gave higher ratings to
faces with happy eyes than American participants did. This was
especially true when the mouth was sad.
• American participants gave their highest ratings when the mouths
were happy (even when the eyes were sad). This was not true of
Japanese participants.
• Japanese participants gave their lowest ratings when eyes were sad
(and the mouth neutral) whereas American participants gave their
lowest ratings when mouths were sad (even though eyes were neutral
or even happy).
Conclusion
• Japanese and American people do interpret facial
expressions differently. Japanese people pay more
attention to the eyes and American people pay more
attention to the mouth.
• Yuki et al suggested that this was a result of socialisation.
They argued that Japanese people are brought up to hide
their emotions more so have to use the eyes as an
indicator of feelings.
Evaluation
• Yuki et al used computer generated faces to test participants…
these are not realistic so findings may lack ecological validity.
• Participants knew they were being tested on…
so may have responded to demand characteristics and not given true
responses.
• Emotional expression and interpretation are complex ideas…
and the researchers may have over-simplified them by just scoring them on a
simple rating scale.
• In both countries, the sample was made up of students…
who may not have represented younger and older generations.
• The researchers only tested one dimension of emotion (happy/sad)…
so their findings may not generalise to other emotions e.g. anger, surprise,
disgust.