Ekman, P., & Friesen, W.V. (1971). Constants across Cultures in the Face and Emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 17(2), pp. 124-129.
Arhe Vaninetti
Research Methods and Statistics, PSY301, Pacific University, Oregon
March 20, 2023
In Ekman & Friesen’s (1971) study on the universality of facial expressions and emotionality, they aimed to build off of pre-existing research on facial emotions with the additional aim of establishing universality. Within the introduction, the researchers claim that literate subjects in prior studies may have benefitted from media knowledge of facial expressions. Additionally, the researchers stated that other literature argued that universality in facial expressions was either impossible, or established due to specific cultural needs in certain areas (but not others). Ekman & Friesen chose to refute these claims in their 1971 study based on preliterate subjects’ knowledge of associated facial expressions in reaction to a story.
The researchers chose members of the “Fore linguistic-cultural group” of the South East Highlands of New Guinea, which was a relatively isolated group that had little influence from Western culture. In total, the researchers had 189 preliterate adults and 130 preliterate children (of either gender), as well as 23 male adults who had had Western contact, spoke English, and had seen movies. To measure facial emotional reactions, the researchers utilized a simple methodology, where in the translator showed the subject three pictures of faces expressing emotion, read a story involving an associated emotion, and told the subject to point to the picture in which the person’s face showed the emotion described in the story. This was preferred over other methods due to the connotations in the stories not requiring perfect translation, and the subjects only had to point instead of describe, list, or remember emotion words.
Ekman & Friesen (1971) decided to study six emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust, as they all have distinct facial expressions associated with them. They chose 24 pictures of faces, sized 3 x 5 inches, which had been checked for validity in previous studies. The adult participants were given two incorrect photos along with the correct one, while children were given only one incorrect picture choice. Each participant was shown between 6 to 12 photograph sets each. Each set of pictures was designed to reduce repetition, so that the participants did not see the same correct image twice.
A member of the South Fore tribe recruited subjects, explained the task, and read the translated stories, while a researcher recorded the responses. The translator was instructed to limit prompting, and the response recorder was instructed to avert their face from the participant to reduce experimenter bias.
In the results of the study, Ekman & Friesen (1971) found that there were no differences in correct emotional reaction selection between men and women in the sample, and additionally, they found that the sample did not differ significantly from other literate samples. The t tests performed indicated that the women were better than men at selecting the correct facial emotion—and this was important because the women had had less contact than the men with Western culture. When subjects did choose an incorrect image, the emotion was often similar to the correct response (i.e., in a story about fear, they would choose the face that displayed anger).
In the results section, Ekman & Friesen (1971) state that the display of universal facial emotions was validated by the research, and mention another study where the facial expressions of the New Guineans were photographed and shown to U.S. college students, which was also supportive of the hypothesis. The researchers did concede that the participants did struggle with the difference between the surprise and fear facial expressions, but that many individuals, outside of New Guinea, also do the same.
This research could be improved with the inclusion of people from different cultures as the subjects for the photographs, as this may create a stronger case with more conditions for the subjects. Furthermore, including some form of consent from the participants would enable replication in this study in the contemporary age.