You probably recognize the emotions expressed in many if not all of these images, no matter where in the world you’re from. Credit: Alan Cowen, UC Berkeley

We’re More Alike Than We Are Different, at Least in Facial Expressions

Emotions generate the same looks around the world—mostly

Humans around the globe use their 40-plus facial muscles to express common emotions with the same basic smiles, scowls and other familiar looks, according to new research published in the journal Nature. That doesn’t mean there are no differences, past studies indicate.

“This study reveals how remarkably similar people are in different corners of the world in how we express emotion in the face of the most meaningful contexts of our lives,” said study co-author Dacher Keltner, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The researchers used machine-learning to analyze millions of facial expressions in videos from 144 countries across the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

“We found that rich nuances in facial behavior — including subtle expressions we associate with awe, pain, triumph, and 13 other feelings — are used in similar social situations around the world,” said study leader Alan Cowen, a researcher at UC Berkeley and Google. “This is the first worldwide analysis of how facial expressions are used in everyday life, and it shows us that universal human emotional expressions are a lot richer and more complex…