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This Business Insider Slideshow is an excellent example of how basic emotions are universally expressed across cultures. You don’t need words to tell how these people feel about the death of Osama Bin Laden.
Click “See how people around the world reacted” below to view the images.
If you think happy thoughts then you will eventually become happier. Is this true?
Much research has shown that what a person portrays as reality can become their reality. If you smile even when you’re sad you will become less sad. Does this always work?
According to a new study, posted on EurekAlert , performed by psychologists at the University of Washington, this might be true for many European Americans but is found lacking for the Asian American population.
This study published in the online journal Emotion , showed that for Asian Americans there was no correlation between positive emotions and less stress or depression as was shown for their European-American counter parts.
The study’s findings reveal that Asians interpret and react to positive emotions differently in regards to their mental health. This is significant considering that Asian make up 60% of the world population.
For example, upon winning an award the typical Asian response would be “I’m so happy I’m afraid.” Their achievement would trigger feelings of happiness for the achievement combined with concern that others would be jealous.
The researchers suggest that the blending of emotions is common among Asians and may be contributed to by Buddhist beliefs and yin-yang attitudes, that happiness either leads to suffering or is impossible to obtain and that life is a natural balance of good and bad.
Janxin Leu, UW assistant professor of psychology purports, mindfulness therapies that encourage patients to pay attention to the good and bad will likely work better and [patients should] “observe when they feel good and bad and notice that both will disappear. Everything passes.”
This analysis suggests that although humans share seven universal facial expressions of emotion (fear, sadness, anger, contempt, surprise, joy and disgust) across cultures our internalization of these emotions is divergent because of cultural differences and traditions.
An Australian National University School of Art student, Martyn Jolly, states that the advent of technology such as social networking sites and facial recognition software has meant that the face is now a major part of how we transact our lives.
It is no secret that image is everything and that the younger generations can easily recognize a picture of famous singers and actors opposed to famous senators or politicians.
Martyn Jolly purported that, “facial recognition is now enmeshed in all this technology of publication and reduplication, and when we’re queuing at the supermarket checkout, we instantly recognize Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt…in a micro-second because of that big fundamental human need to use that space to communicate.”
He went on to state in The Canberra Times, in reference to the face as a major part of how we transact, “There are psychological reasons, obviously, because it is the main communication interface between people, and facial expression is one of the few areas that actually is a universal language that is cross-cultural.”
An interesting tidbit about facial expressions is how many muscles contribute to human’s abilities to forge the seven universal facial expressions of emotion: fear, anger, contempt, happiness, surprise, sadness and disgust.
According to Curiosity from Discovery.com, there are 43 muscles in the human face, which are controlled by the seventh cranial nerve. This nerve starts in the cerebral cortex, goes through your skull and stops in front of your ears. The nerve then branches off in 5 separate sections creating the complex facial movements that humans are capable of making.
Here is a video of Dr. David Matsumoto discussing the origins of microexpressions.
Click here to view the embedded video.