title: Recognizing spontaneous facial expressions of emotion in a small-scale society of Papua New Guinea.
abstract: We report 2 studies on how residents of Papua New Guinea interpret facial expressions produced spontaneously by other residents of Papua New Guinea. Members of a small-scale indigenous society, Trobrianders (Milne Bay Province; N = 32, 14 to 17 years) were shown 5 facial expressions spontaneously produced by members of another small-scale indigenous society, Fore (Eastern Highlands Province) that Ekman had photographed, labeled, and published in The Face of Man (1980), each as an expression of a basic emotion: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, and disgust. Trobrianders were asked to use any word they wanted to describe how each person shown felt and to provide valence and arousal ratings. Other Trobrianders (N = 24, 12 to 14 years) were shown the same photographs but asked to choose their response from a short list. In both studies, agreement with Ekman's predicted labels was low: 0% to 16% and 13% to 38% of observers, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6413-2905
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crivelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Boston College.
authors.forename: James A
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1041-3717
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: Anthropology Division, American Museum of Natural History.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6533-5694
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jarillo
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
authors.forename: José-Miguel
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9755-4338
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fernández-Dols
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010219:Papua New Guinea