Bubbles : examination of facial emotions and cultural differences in emotion recognition

• Main Author: Ong, Si Hui
• Other Authors: Xu Hong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60370
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study aims to examine the facial regions important for identification of six emotions (happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, surprise and fear) and to investigate if there exist cultural differences in how Asians and Westerners recognise facial emotions. The study hypothesised that the eyes and mouth regions are the most useful areas for emotion identification and that Asians are more likely than Westerners to place emphasis on the eyes. Ten participants were recruited for this study. Half of them are Singaporeans (Asian sample group) and the other half are North Americans and Europeans (Western sample group). This study used an adaption of the Bubbles technique developed by Gosselin and Schyns (2001). Participants used bubble-like focal points to reveal facial regions deemed useful in their emotion identification tasks. Their bubble placements and identification of the facial emotions were recorded as responses. These responses were collectively presented as colour-coded images that represent the results. Results showed that the eyes and mouth regions are the most significant areas in identification of happiness, sadness, surprise and fear. For disgust and anger, relatively less attention is placed on the eyes than nose, though mouth is still a prominent feature. Results for the cultural differences examination were mixed. Asians placed more attention on the eyes than Westerners for happiness and sadness, but the trend was reversed for anger and surprise. Both cultural groups paid little attention to the eyes for disgust, and fear was excluded from the cultural analysis due to poor recognition rates from Asians.