A new research has uncovered that culture is a determining factor when interpreting facial emotions (情感).The study reveals that in cultures where emotional control is the standard, such as Japan, focus is placed on the eyes to interpret emotions.Whereas in cultures where emotion is openly expressed, such as the United States, the focus is on the mouth to interpret emotion.
"These findings go against the popular theory that the facial expressions of basic emotions can be universally recognized," said University of Alberta researcher Dr.Takahiko Masuda."A person's culture plays a very strong role in determining how they will read emotions and needs to be considered when interpreting facial expression."
These cultural differences are even noticeable in computer emoticons (情感符号), which are used to convey a writer's emotions over email and text messaging.The Japanese emoticons for happiness and sadness vary in terms of how the eyes are drawn, while American emoticons vary with the direction of the mouth.In the United States the emoticons :) and :-) show a happy face, whereas the emoticons : ( or : -( show a sad face.However, Japanese tend to use the symbol ( ' ' ) to indicate a happy face, and ( ;_; )to indicate a sad face.
"We think it is quite interesting and appropriate that a culture tends to mask its emotions.The Japanese would focus on a person's eyes when determining emotion, as eyes tend to be quite subtle (微妙的)," said Masuda."In the United States, where open emotion is quite common, it makes sense to focus on the mouth, which is the most expressive feature on a person's face."
The text mainly tells us that __________.
A.cultural differences are expressed in emotions |
B.culture is the key to interpreting facial emotions |
C.different emoticons are preferred in different cultures |
D.people from different cultures express emotions differently |
Which emoticon is used by Americans to show a happy face?
A.(;_;) | B.:-) | C.:-( | D.: ( |
If a Japanese wants to detect whether a smile is true or false, he will probably_______.
A.read the whole face | B.focus on the mouth |
C.look into the eyes | D.judge by the voice |
People used to believe that _______.
A.some facial expressions of emotions were too complex to be recognized |
B.people in the world interpreted basic emotions in different ways |
C.people could only recognize the facial expressions of basic emotions |
D.people all over the world understood basic emotions in the same way |