Non Verbal Communication

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Non Verbal Communication
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What does the following sign mean to you?
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• In most of Europe and in the USA, the previous
  sign symbolises the word ok.
• However, in other cultures it means something
  different.
• For example, in Japan it can mean money.
• In countries such as Germany, it is used
  offensively (in the same way 2 fingers are in the
  UK).
• In Brazil the sign has a sexual meaning.

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Cross-Cultural Differences in Non Verbal
Communication

• In the same way that different cultures may
  interpret hand gestures differently, they may
  also interpret facial expressions differently.
• Not all psychologists agree with this. Some argue
  that facial expressions are universal. By this,
  they mean facial expressions are perceived in the
  same way by everybody around the world.

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Testing Universialities

• Look at the following faces.
• Can you decide what kind of emotion each one is
  expressing?

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Universialities in NVC

• You should find that you interpreted the emotions
  similarly to other people. Indeed, research
  suggests that you would interpret them similarly
  to people from other cultures too.
• However, there may be more differences when you
  have to decide on the degree of emotion.

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Testing Universialities

• Look at the following faces.
• Can you decide who is the angriest?

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Differences in NVC

• You may have just found some differences between
  how you interpreted the previous faces and how
  others did.
• Differences in interpretation can be even more
  marked between cultures. In other words,
  different cultures may be socialised to interpret
  faces differently.

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Differences in Emotional Expression

• - )
• Many people use the above symbols when signing of
  texts or e-mails because they represent a happy
  face.
• Interestingly, this symbol is not used worldwide.

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• For example, in Japan, the following symbols are
  used to denote a happy face
• (ˆ-ˆ)
• The point being, that in Japanese culture eyes
  are more important when expressing (and
  interpreting) emotions.

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Core StudyIn Non Verbal Communication

• Yuki, Maddux Masuda (2007)
• Are the windows to the soul the same in the East
  and West?
• Cultural differences in using eyes and mouth as
  cues to recognize emotions in Japan and the
  United States.

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Aim

• Yuki et al wanted to show that how we interpret
  facial expressions is a product of our culture
  and socialisation.

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Hypothesis

• They predicted that Japanese people would read
  the emotions of faces by using the eyes whereas
  American people would read the emotions of faces
  by using the mouth.

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Method

• A cross cultural study was conducted using
  students from Japan and comparing them with
  students from the USA.

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Method

• The participants were shown a set of six
  emoticons.
• Emoticons are simple computer generated faces.
• The emoticons used a different combination of
  happy/neutral/sad eyes and mouths.

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Method
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• Participants were given a questionnaire.
• They had to rate each of the six faces (between 1
  and 9) for how happy it was.
• The researchers then worked out the average
  rating for each face within each culture.

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Results
Japan
9
USA
average rating
0
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Results

• As the graph showed, Japanese participants gave
  higher ratings to faces with happy eyes than
  American participants did. This was especially
  true when the mouth was sad.
• American participants gave their highest ratings
  when the mouths were happy (even when the eyes
  were sad). This was not true of Japanese
  participants.
• Japanese participants gave their lowest ratings
  when eyes were sad (and the mouth neutral)
  whereas American participants gave their lowest
  ratings when mouths were sad (even though eyes
  were neutral or even happy).

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Conclusion

• Japanese and American people do interpret facial
  expressions differently. Japanese people pay more
  attention to the eyes and American people pay
  more attention to the mouth.
• Yuki et al suggested that this was a result of
  socialisation. They argued that Japanese people
  are brought up to hide their emotions more so
  have to use the eyes as an indicator of feelings.

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Evaluation

• Yuki et al used computer generated faces to test
  participantsthese are not realistic so findings
  may lack ecological validity.
• Participants knew they were being tested onso
  may have responded to demand characteristics and
  not given true responses.
• Emotional expression and interpretation are
  complex ideasand the researchers may have
  over-simplified them by just scoring them on a
  simple rating scale.
• In both countries, the sample was made up of
  studentswho may not have represented younger
  and older generations.
• The researchers only tested one dimension of
  emotion (happy/sad)so their findings may not
  generalise to other emotions e.g. anger,
  surprise, disgust.