Date: 25/11/2022 Shift: 2:30 PM – 5:30 PM Q. No: 226

Emotions go beyond geographies and cultures. In the widest study of facial expressions, going over six million videos from 144 countries, Google researchers have found that sixteen facial expressions occur universally in similar contexts across the world. “This is the first worldwide analysis of how facial expressions are used in everyday life,” the lead author of the study said.
The research team used machine learning to classify facial expressions and contexts in the videos, and then analysed how associations are preserved across cultures. The study published in Nature found that 70% of these associations were similar across twelve world regions they divided the countries into. For example, around the world, people tend to laugh at jokes, show the ‘awe’ expression at fireworks, the ‘concentration’ expression with martial arts, ‘doubt’ with protests, ‘pain’ with weightlifting, and ‘triumph’ in rock concerts and sporting events.
Equally important are the connections or relationships between geographical regions. For instance, the Indian subcontinent has the greatest overlap with the Middle East (85%). According to the study, one of the things that these similarities between countries suggest is that facial expressions have been spread far and wide through cultural transmission. This has important implications. For example, facial expressions in Indian films can largely be understood in the United States. Technologies trained to recognize facial expressions will be applicable across many cultures to a significant extent.