An Examination of the In-Group Hypothesis in Facial Expression Inferences Using American and Indian Samples

The relationship between culture and evaluations of facial expressions were assessed using American and Indian participants. Based on Ekman (1972) and others’ (cf. Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002) research that supports general cross-cultural agreement of facial expression evaluation, it was hypothesized that participants will be able to accurately evaluate a smiling face as happy and a scowling face as angry and that American participants would be more accurate overall due to the In-Group Hypothesis (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002). Results showed that both cultures were able to accurately assess both facial expressions, although American participants had stronger evaluations across personality traits.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Experimental Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2018

Author dc:creator

• Lehrman, Scott

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anthony Stahelski
• Mary Radeke
• Stephen Schepman

• Psychology
• Facial expression
• Personality and Social Contexts
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1054

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-2063