Language and Perception of Six Basic Emotions: A Case Study of Javanese and Dutch Speakers

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2015-09-30

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en

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Ekman (1973) claims that the facial expressions of six universal basic emotions, i.e. ANGER, DISGUST, FEAR, HAPPINESS, SADNESS and SURPRISE, are labeled with the same terms by the speakers of languages of the world. Barrett et al. (2011) argue that context influences which emotion will be perceived by others. This research is done in Javanese and Dutch language groups. There are two stimuli used in this study, i.e. Ekman face images (1975) and Mind Reading Emotions Library clips (Baron-Cohen, 2003) using different types of measurements, i.e. questionnaires, reaction time and self-report tasks. The Javanese mask their emotions by smile (Heider, 2006), making them difficult to perceive emotional cues from the facial expressions, while the Dutch are better at it (Tanaka et al., 2010). All data elicited, both from qualitative and behavioral measurements, support those postulations and indicate that culture shapes the way we perceive and express our emotions.

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Faculteit der Letteren