Face Recognition Can Vary From One Culture To Another
The way we recognize faces can say a lot about what culture we come from. This finding change the concept of the capability of face recognition is universal across the globe. According to this study, Westerners often concentrate on individual details of face, while East Asians focus on how details relate to each other.
When reading the expression Americans focus expression of a central figure and Japanese focus behind that central figure to gauge that person’s emotional state. Scientists used eye-tracking systems to monitor eye movements of participants. They have observed the difference in eye movements in Westerners and East Asian participants. They found that Westerners look at specific features on face such as the eyes and mouth and East Asian focus on the nose or the centre of the face. This allows them to get a general view of all the features.
Evolution Of Facial Expression
A research done by Joshua Susskind of University of Toronto, suggests that different changes on the face would lead to different amounts of sensory intake. When fearful objects were shown, subjects breathed in more air, saw a wider field of view, and could visually track targets more quickly.
On the other hand, expression of disgust seems to produce the opposite effect, that is reducing the sensory intake, which means when pinching noses and squinting eyes in disgust, subjects saw and smelled less. This finding supports Darwin’s idea of emotional facial expressions might have evolved for a reason.
