Language and Dialect

Emotion 2007, Vol. 7, No. 1, 131–146

Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association 1528-3542/07/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1528-3542.7.1.131

Toward a Dialect Theory: Cultural Differences in the Expression and Recognition of Posed Facial Expressions
Hillary Anger Elfenbein
University of California, Berkeley

Martin Beaupre ´
University of Quebec at Montreal

Manon Levesque ´
Omar Bongo University

Ursula Hess
University of Quebec at Montreal

Two studies provided direct support for a recently proposed dialect theory of communicating emotion, positing that expressive displays show cultural variations similar to linguistic dialects, thereby decreasing accurate recognition by out-group members. In Study 1, 60 participants from Quebec and Gabon posed facial expressions. Dialects, in the form of activating different muscles for the same expressions, emerged most clearly for serenity, shame, and contempt and also for anger, sadness, surprise, and happiness, but not for fear, disgust, or embarrassment. In Study 2, Quebecois and Gabonese participants judged these stimuli and stimuli standardized to erase cultural dialects. As predicted, an in-group advantage emerged for nonstandardized expressions only and most strongly for expressions with greater regional dialects, according to Study 1. Keywords: emotion, expression, recognition, dialects, in-group advantage

An enduring question in the study of emotional facial expressions is the extent to which these expressions are universal (e.g., Darwin, 1872/1965) versus culturally determined. A considerable body of research supports the conclusion that the expression of emotion is largely universal and biologically evolved, for example, through similarities between human and nonhuman emotional expressions (e.g., Chevalier-Skolnikoff, 1973; Darwin, 1872/1965; Redican, 1982) and the mutual recognition of emotional signals across species boundaries (e.g., Itakura, 1994; Linnankoski, Laasko, & Leinonen, 1994).

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