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Science 4 April 1969:
Vol. 164. no. 3875, pp. 86 - 88
DOI: 10.1126/science.164.3875.86
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Articles

Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Displays of Emotion

Paul Ekman 1, E. Richard Sorenson 2, and Wallace V. Friesen 3

1 Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San Francisco, California 94122
2 National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness, Bethesda, Maryland 20014
3 Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute

Observers in both literate and preliterate cultures chose the predicted emotion for photographs of the face, although agreement was higher in the literate samples. These findings suggest that the pan-cultural element in facial displays of emotion is the association between facial muscular movements and discrete primary emotions, although cultures may still differ in what evokes an emotion, in rules for controlling the display of emotion, and in behavioral consequences.


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