ABSTRACT
In 1872 Charles Darwin published his work on "The expression of the emotions in men and animals" claiming that emotional reactions, particularly facial and vocal expression, are innate and thus universal as well as specific for at least some basic, discrete emotions like joy, sadness, fear, and anger. His work, now considered as a milestone in the psychology of emotion (Ekman, 1973), gave rise to a long debate between "universalists" and proponents of the "culture specific view" of emotional expression. Whereas universalists like Tomkins (Tomkins & McCarter, 1964), Izard (1977), or Ekman (1972) argued for innate "emotional programs" (as illustrated by discrete facial expression patterns) that are universal and differentiate emotions, a number of cultural relativists such as Landis (1924), Klineberg (1938), or Birdwhistell (1970) shared the view that emotional experiences and reactions differ depending on cultural factors. Although there is increasing evidence that at least the recognition of facial expressions of emotion is universal (Ekman, 1972; Ekman & Friesen, 1982; Izard, 1977, 1980), there has been little cross-cultural research on other modalities of emotion responses.
