Despite consistently documented cultural differences in the perception of facial expressions of emotion, the role of culture in shaping cognitive mechanisms that are central to emotion perception has received relatively little attention in past research. We review recent developments in cross-cultural psychology that provide particular insights into the modulatory role of culture on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion through two distinct routes: display rules and cognitive styles. Investigations of emotion intensity perception have demonstrated that facial expressions with varying levels of intensity of positive affect are perceived and categorized differently across cultures. Specifically, recent findings indicating significant levels of differentiation between intensity levels of facial expressions among American participants, as well as deviations from clear categorization of high and low intensity expressions among Japanese and Russian participants, suggest that display rules shape mental representations of emotions, such as intensity levels of emotion prototypes.

When we do not know how to correctly behave in a new context, the emotions that people familiar with the context show in response to the behaviors of others, can help us understand what to do or not to do. The present study examined cross-cultural differences in how group emotional expressions anger, sadness, neutral can be used to deduce a norm violation in four cultures Germany, Israel, Greece, and the US , which differ in terms of decoding rules for negative emotions. As expected, in all four countries, anger was a stronger norm violation signal than sadness or neutral expressions. However, angry and sad expressions were perceived as more intense and the relevant norm was learned better in Germany and Israel than in Greece and the US. Participants in Greece were relatively better at using sadness as a sign of a likely norm violation.

Research by scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow has challenged the traditional view that there are six basic emotions expressed and recognised across different cultures — happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. Their work which has received much media attention, not only suggests there are four basic emotions, but that the way these facial signals are interpreted differs across cultures. This study by the Glasgow team, and the resulting Generative Facial Grammar, offers possibilities for tools to be developed to aid cross-cultural empathy and understanding. The doctoral work of lead researcher Dr. Posed facial expressions may not be an accurate expression of their use in social interaction and spontaneous facial expressions rarely have an exact measure of the emotion a person is feeling.