Culture significantly affects emotion perception
Multiple studies demonstrate that cultural background influences how individuals perceive and interpret emotions in various modalities, including music, facial expressions, and technology.
The vast majority of retrieved papers investigating the intersection of culture and emotion perception demonstrate significant cultural differences or modulation in emotion recognition tasks, musical contexts, or technology adoption. Although one study (Paper 4) found no overall accuracy differences in certain groups, the weight of evidence across multiple cross-cultural studies strongly supports the claim that culture affects emotion perception.
Laura-Lee Balkwill, William Forde Thompson. A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Perception of Emotion in Music: Psychophysical and Cultural Cues. 1999. https://doi.org/10.2307/40285811
Demonstrates that listeners rely on cultural cues alongside universal features when perceiving emotion in unfamiliar music.
S. N. Mohan, Firdaus Mukhtar, L. Jobson. An Exploratory Study on Cross-Cultural Differences in Facial Emotion Recognition Between Adults From Malaysia and Australia. 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.622077
Found that cultural group did not significantly influence overall facial emotion recognition accuracy between Malaysian and Australian participants.
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David Matsumoto. Cultural Influences on the Perception of Emotion. 1989. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022189201006
Shows that meaningful dimensions of cultural variability are useful constructs in cross-cultural research on emotion.
J. Kim, J. Kim, Kyuhyeon Joo, Jinsoo Hwang. The antecedents and consequences of task–technology fit of facial recognition payment systems in the restaurant industry: cultural differences. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhtt-07-2023-0199
Finds that cultural differences moderate the effect of emotion on the task-technology fit of facial recognition systems.
Renelle Bourdage, S. Franzen, Juliette Palisson, D. Maillet, Catherine Belin, Charlotte Joly, J. Papma, B. Garcin, Pauline Narme. The TIE-93: a Facial Emotion Recognition Test Adapted for Culturally, Linguistically, and Educationally Diverse Alzheimer's Dementia Patients in France.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acaf012
Observes an ongoing effect of culture and education on emotion recognition test performance across diverse control populations.
Fatima Z. Nayani, Masaki Yuki, William W Maddux, Joanna Schug. Lay theories about emotion recognition explain cultural differences in willingness to wear facial masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100089
Indicates that cultural background shapes expectations about how facial coverings impact emotion recognition.
Syed Ali Mughees Mehdi. Cross-Cultural Emotion Recognition through Facial Expressions. 2025. https://doi.org/10.36227/techrxiv.174439533.38508136/v1
Highlights the influence of cultural nuances on emotion recognition and the limitations of models lacking cultural diversity.
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