A new study suggests that people from different cultures read facial expressions differently. East Asian participants in the study focused mostly on the eyes, but those from the West scanned the whole face. In the research carried out by a team from Glasgow University, East Asian observers found it more difficult to distinguish some facial expressions. The work published in Current Biology journal challenges the idea facial expressions are universally understood. In the study, East Asians were more likely than Westerners to read the expression for ‘fear’ as ‘surprise’, and ‘disgust’ as ‘anger’. The researchers say the confusion arises because people from different cultural groups observe different parts of the face when interpreting expression. East Asians participants tended to focus on the eyes of the other person, while Western subjects took in the whole face, including the eyes and the mouth. Co-author, Dr Rachael Jack, from the University of Glasgow, said: ‘Interestingly, although the eye region is ambiguous, subjects tended to bias their judgements towards less socially-threatening emotions – surprise rather than fear, for example. ‘This perhaps highlights cultural differences when it comes to the social acceptability of emotions.’ The team […]