Cultural facial expressions dynamically convey emotion category and intensity information

Chaona Chen; Daniel S Messinger; Cheng Chen; Hongmei Yan; Yaocong Duan; Robin A A Ince; Oliver G B Garrod; Philippe G Schyns; Rachael E Jack

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.001

Cultural facial expressions dynamically convey emotion category and intensity information

Curr Biol. 2024 Jan 8;34(1):213-223.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.001. Epub 2023 Dec 22.

Authors

Chaona Chen¹, Daniel S Messinger², Cheng Chen³, Hongmei Yan⁴, Yaocong Duan⁵, Robin A A Ince⁵, Oliver G B Garrod⁵, Philippe G Schyns⁵, Rachael E Jack⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, 62 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, UK. Electronic address: chaona.chen@glasgow.ac.uk.
² Departments of Psychology, Pediatrics, and Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce De Leon Blvd, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA.
³ Foreign Language Department, Teaching Centre for General Courses, Chengdu Medical College, 601 Tianhui Street, Chengdu 610083, China.
⁴ The MOE Key Lab for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, North Jianshe Road, Chengdu 611731, China.
⁵ School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Glasgow, 62 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, UK.

PMID: 38141619
PMCID: PMC10831323 (available on 2025-01-08)
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.001

Abstract

Communicating emotional intensity plays a vital ecological role because it provides valuable information about the nature and likelihood of the sender's behavior.¹^,²^,³ For example, attack often follows signals of intense aggression if receivers fail to retreat.⁴^,⁵ Humans regularly use facial expressions to communicate such information.⁶^,⁷^,⁸^,⁹^,¹⁰^,¹¹ Yet how this complex signaling task is achieved remains unknown. We addressed this question using a perception-based, data-driven method to mathematically model the specific facial movements that receivers use to classify the six basic emotions-"happy," "surprise," "fear," "disgust," "anger," and "sad"-and judge their intensity in two distinct cultures (East Asian, Western European; total n = 120). In both cultures, receivers expected facial expressions to dynamically represent emotion category and intensity information over time, using a multi-component compositional signaling structure. Specifically, emotion intensifiers peaked earlier or later than emotion classifiers and represented intensity using amplitude variations. Emotion intensifiers are also more similar across emotions than classifiers are, suggesting a latent broad-plus-specific signaling structure. Cross-cultural analysis further revealed similarities and differences in expectations that could impact cross-cultural communication. Specifically, East Asian and Western European receivers have similar expectations about which facial movements represent high intensity for threat-related emotions, such as "anger," "disgust," and "fear," but differ on those that represent low threat emotions, such as happiness and sadness. Together, our results provide new insights into the intricate processes by which facial expressions can achieve complex dynamic signaling tasks by revealing the rich information embedded in facial expressions.

Keywords: culture; data-driven approach; dynamic facial expression; emotion perception; intensity; reverse correlation; within-participant analysis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anger
Emotions*
Facial Expression*
Fear
Happiness
Humans

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding