A new study has discovered that human faces only show four basic emotions. It also shows that how we understand these emotions depends on our ‘cultural background’–where we come from.

Until now， scientists have believed that there are six basic emotions that people from all cultures recognise. These are happiness， sadness， fear， anger， surprise and disgust. Now， however， scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience and Technology and Psychology at the University of Glasgow have challenged this view. Their work suggests that there are actually only four basic emotions. How people understand these depends on where they grow up. The study has been in the news a lot， because the team has created a new computer programme. This programme can be used to increase empathy and improve communication between different cultures.

The main researcher， Dr Rachael Jack， studied how people from different cultures decode facial expressions， like a smile or a sad face. She wanted to know if facial expressions were the same everywhere. But she was surprised to find that they were not always the same. Some of the facial expressions were the same， but not all six of the basic emotions were recognised by everyone.

‘People from different countries understood the emotion from the face differently，’ explains Dr Jack， so she decided to find out more about the reasons for this.

Cultural differences

The team used a method from the 1970s called ‘Reverse Correlation’. The scientists began with Chinese people. They didn’t show one picture of someone showing ‘disgust’ and then ask the Chinese people what the emotion was. Instead， they used their computer programme to show lots of