Humintell’s director Dr. David Matsumoto not only did the original research (along with other researchers including Dr. Ekman) for microexpression recognition training tools, but he continues his research into emotions and culture today.

Below is an interview with Dr. Matsumoto about his current research on Triumph vs. Pride by science reporter Anna Meldolesi for her Italian Newspaper, Il Corriere della sera.

So, what does Dr. Matsumoto have to say about Emotions, Triumph and Pride?

Q1: From media articles announcing the paper in press in Evolution and Human Behavior, I understand that triumph comes first, pride second. Triumph is an instant reaction to winning.  By making the winner appear larger and more fearsome, triumph cements social dominance and advertises victory.  Is it correct? 

Can you please describe some situation where a chimp would exhibit the same behavior? Do non-human primates sometimes exhibit also pride?

Dr. Matsumoto:  Yes that is correct in terms of what we believe and state in the paper.  I do believe the literature has examples of the same kind of behavior in chimps, and in fact “triumph behaviors” are noted throughout the animal kingdom, although in different ways.   I do believe there is some evidence for nonhuman primates to exhibit pride, but I am not familiar with that literature. But some of that literature conflates what we know about pride with our findings on triumph.

For example see the video below:  

Click here to view the embedded video.

  What do you think about Dr. Matsumoto’s comment?
What about the video?  Share your comments with the Humintell Community!

Marco Gillies of GoldSmith college was spurred into launching a new computer gaming project that works with actors because he thinks that “games shouldn’t be designed by programming experts, but by experts in movement.”

Programming companies have already successfully aimed at creating gaming characters with realistic-looking movements.  However, Gillies and his colleagues are developing characters that can recognize subtle movements and express them in a very natural way.

This system will hopefully be the first truly interactive gaming system of its kind with the algorithm’s ability to react to social behaviors and subtle body movements.

 ”Writing software to recognise complex and subtle movements like human body language is notoriously difficult.  We are taking a different approach, which allows people to design movement interfaces directly by moving,” Gillies told Wired.co.uk.

The project works with actors attached to motion sensors that are tracked by Kinect cameras to create natural movements via a machine learning algorithm program that tracks their movements.

Gillies goes on to comment that, “Actors understand movement implicitly in their bodies, they understand movement by moving.  It would be almost impossible to turn that kind of implicit understanding into rules that we can explicitly program into some software.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

After testing their system using non-thespian gamers, they found that within three hours the subjects had begun designing simple games based on their body movements.

What do you think about being the designer of your own game ?  
What are other applications of such technology? 

 Psychology Today reports on the variance of emotional landscapes in divergent countries.

The article is taken from a first hand experience and focuses on the difference in “anger” between varying cultures.

The writer was trying to answer for himself the question, “Is anger an innate human emotion, an evolutionarily hardwired part of our behavioral repertoire? Or is anger a subroutine of our cultural programming, acquired without awareness?”

So what were his findings?

Initially he found, The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals,  written by Charles Darwin in 1872.  From that book he learned that anger is universal among humans and has its precursors in the expressions of primates.

“Under moderate anger the action of the heart is a little increased, the colour heightened, and the eyes become bright,” he wrote. “The respiration is likewise a little hurried; and as all muscles for this function act in association, the wings of the nostrils are somewhat raised to allow of a free indraught of air.”

The physiological responses of anger are increased heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and blood flow to the limbs.  Angry people, whether in Canada or Tokyo, lower their brows, glare intensely with their eyes, and tighten their lips.

So, we now know that the physical experience of anger is the same across cultures but that leaves the more pertinent question, “why different cultures have different cultural triggers when expressing  anger?”  Well, the answer lies in the divergent values between cultures. 

It was this question that led him to Dr. David Matsumoto and his 2008 study, which examined the relationship between emotional expression and cultural values.  More than 5,000 people in 32 countries were surveyed in this study.

Anger is biologically hardwired yet culturally variable.  It is a vestige of our evolutionary past, yet also part of our cultural present.  This is why understanding divergent cultures is so important in our global society.

Matsumoto and his colleagues found that, in individualistic societies such as the United States personal goals and self-sufficiency are highly valued; therefore, making new acquaintances is seen as a good thing.  Individualists tend to control their anger when interacting with people outside their immediate circle but express anger fully toward close friends and relatives.

In collectivistic cultures such as Japan relationships and group goals are highly valued.  Harmonious relationships with the in-group are far more important than networking with strangers, so people strive to exercise emotional control within their close social circle.