Culture Determines Which Emoticon You Use

Ant writes "A LiveScience story discusses the cultural differences in interpreting facial expressions. The article notes that where you come from plays a large role in what part of the human face you use to determine another person's mood. That also includes communicating online with the usages of smiley faces. 'For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan ... In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). "After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles," he said.'"

Comments

I think I know why

[Anonymous Coward]

Asian faces all mostly look the same so they have to really learn the minute details of eyes to tell each other apart. This isn't a problem with normal white people.

Re:That's interesting.

[ricotest]

Indeed. GP should be rated -1 Who Gives a Shit.

Re:But..

[Anonymous Coward]

The word you're looking for is "Muslim".