ABSTRACT
The ranges and details of facial expressions that people use do differ between human cultures but not by so much as to make us mutually incomprehensible. Chinese and African Americans living embedded in a predominantly white Caucasian culture could read Caucasian facial expressions more accurately than their mono-cultural peers. Humans seem to have a basic, perhaps biologically determined, common language of expression that is overlaid by local dialects of the face. An interesting idea is that we recognise facial expressions partly by internal mimicry. Particular clusters of neurones in our brains are triggered by particular movements, actions and facial expressions. The same neurones become active whether we make these ourselves or just see others do so. For this reason these have been termed "mirror neurones". We also remember faces with positive or neutral expressions better than faces with negative expressions. A possible reason for this "positivity effect" is that most old people report feeling pretty happy most of the time.
