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In/ernattonal Journal of Inter(ul/urol Rela/ton.s. ~.o1. 12. pp. 139 - I 51, 1988 (I 147.1767.88 S3.00 - ,00 Printed it1 the USA All rights reserved. ('opt, right 1988 Pergamon Prcs', pl',: SENSITIVITY OF CANADIANS, LATIN AMERICANS, ETHIOPIANS, AND ISRAELIS TO INTERRACIAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS AARON WOLFGANG and MICHELLE COHEN Department of Applied Psychology The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and University of Toronto ABSTRACT. The overall purpose of the present study was to test the universality and the culture-racial specific hypotheses. Specifically, three experiments were conducted using the Wolf gang Interracial Facial Expression Test to determine how accurate individuals are in identifying facial expressions representing the funda- mental emotions of people of different cultural and racial backgrounds. Partici- pants in Experiment 1 were 96 Latin Americans, in Experiment 2, 79 white Canadian-born first and second year undergraduate students, and in Experiment 3, 53 lsraeli student teachers and 14 Ethiopian vocational students, who recently immigrated to Israel. The main results indicate theoretical support for both the universality and culture-racial specific hypotheses. In Experiments 1 and 2, the Latin Americans and university students made significantly more errors in identi- fying the facial expressions of black West Indians compared to white Anglo- Saxon faces. In addition, bilingual Latin Americans outperformed unilinguals in decoding facial expressions of emotions. In Experiment 3, there were no signifi- cant differences in errors between black and white facial expressions for the Israeli and Ethiopian students. The practical implications of the results are dis- cussed in terms of procedures for training people from the host culture to be better decoders and therefore to develop greater empathy for visible minority groups. INTRODUCTION The face, the oldest and most intensely studied channel of communica- tion in the field of nonverbal behavior (Harrison, 1984), has been shown to be one of the most important areas for signalling one's emotional state. Facial expressions, as well, have been used to reflect interpersonal atti- tudes (Argyle, 1975). Theoretically, there has been much discussion as to the universality of facial expressions, which stems all the way back to Darwin's (1872) trea- tise on the expression of emotions in man and animals. The main argu- ment proposed by Darwin and his present day supporters (Ekman, 1982; Requests for reprints should be addressed to Aaron Wolfgang, Department of Applied Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, (OISE), 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S IV6. 139

Sensitivity of Canadians, Latin Americans, Ethiopians, and Israelis to interracial facial expressions of emotions

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Page 1: Sensitivity of Canadians, Latin Americans, Ethiopians, and Israelis to interracial facial expressions of emotions

In/ernattonal Journal of Inter(ul/urol Rela/ton.s. ~.o1. 12. pp. 139 - I 51, 1988 (I 147.1767.88 S3.00 - ,00 Pr inted it1 the U S A All r ights reserved. ( 'opt, right 1988 Pe rgamon Prcs', pl',:

SENSITIVITY OF CANADIANS, LATIN AMERICANS, ETHIOPIANS, A N D ISRAELIS TO INTERRACIAL FACIAL

EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS

AARON WOLFGANG and MICHELLE COHEN

Department of Applied Psychology The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and

University of Toronto

ABSTRACT. The overall purpose o f the present study was to test the universality and the culture-racial specific hypotheses. Specifically, three experiments were conducted using the Wolf gang Interracial Facial Expression Test to determine how accurate individuals are in identifying facial expressions representing the funda- mental emotions o f people o f different cultural and racial backgrounds. Partici- pants in Experiment 1 were 96 Latin Americans, in Experiment 2, 79 white Canadian-born f irst and second year undergraduate students, and in Experiment 3, 53 lsraeli student teachers and 14 Ethiopian vocational students, who recently immigrated to Israel. The main results indicate theoretical support f o r both the universality and culture-racial specific hypotheses. In Experiments 1 and 2, the Latin Americans and university students made significantly more errors in identi- fy ing the facial expressions o f black West Indians compared to white Anglo- Saxon faces. In addition, bilingual Latin Americans outperformed unilinguals in decoding facial expressions o f emotions. In Experiment 3, there were no signifi- cant differences in errors between black and white facial expressions for the Israeli and Ethiopian students. The practical implications o f the results are dis- cussed in terms o f procedures for training people f rom the host culture to be better decoders and therefore to develop greater empathy for visible minority groups.

INTRODUCTION

The face, the oldest and most intensely studied channel of communica- tion in the field of nonverbal behavior (Harrison, 1984), has been shown to be one of the most important areas for signalling one's emotional state. Facial express ions , as well, have been used to reflect in te rpe rsona l atti- tudes (Argyle , 1975).

Theoret ical ly , there has been much discuss ion as to the universal i ty o f facial express ions , which stems all the way back to Darwin ' s (1872) trea- tise on the express ion o f e m o t i o n s in man and an imals . The ma in argu- ment p r o p o s e d by Darwin and his present day suppor te r s ( E k m a n , 1982;

Requests for reprints should be addressed to Aaron Wolfgang, Department of Applied Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, (OISE), 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S IV6.

139

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140 A. Wolfgang and M. Cohen

Ekman & Friesen, 1975; Izard, 1971, 1977) is that the basic emotions are innate or pancultural, although there is variability and modification due to different cultural display rules (Boucher, 1979; Ekman & Oster, 1979). Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1979), an ethologist, provides compelling evidence that inborn motor patterns of facial expressions occur universally by showing that the deaf and the blind smile, laugh, cry, and show expressions of anger and fear. Further support for the universality or pancultural theory is the discovery that the newborn infant is able to imitate both facial and manual gestures, such as opening and closing the mouth and sticking out the tongue, when he or she is less than three days old. In fact, an infant only 42 minutes old can clearly imitate gestures (Meltzoff & Moore, 1977; Trotter, 1987). Ducci, Arcuri, Georgis, and Sineshaw (1982) support the universal assumption by finding that six of the seven basic emotions are recognized. McAndrew (1986) also found that the cultural background of Malay, Chinese, and American college students had relatively little effect on how accurately the facial expressions were identified. Likewise, prior research (Bhardwaj, 1982; Wolfgang, 1980) offers additional support for the pancultural theory by showing that a large majority of emotions can be identified correctly by different racial and cultural groups. However, these investigators also found support for the culture-specific hypotheses by showing that performance was poorer in decoding racially different facial expressions of West Indians as opposed to Anglo, white Caucasian faces by white Canadians.

In direct contrast to the universality theory is the culture-specific or the culture-relative view, which has stated that there are no universals in the expressive behavior of humans (Birdwhistell, 1970). The research of Rosenthal, Hall, Archer, DiMatteo, and Rogers (1979), like Bhardwaj (1982), and Wolf gang (1980), lends some support for the culture-specific hypothesis. In sampling 58 cultures they found that in decoding the nonverbal behaviors, including the face, more errors were made the more culturally and linguistically distant the populations were from the white American encoder. Rosenthal et al. (1979) also found some support for the universality position, in that although variation did occur among the cross- cultural samples in their ability to decode the nonverbal, muitichannel test, even the worst performing groups did much better than chance on the test. This was also found to be true in the Wolfgang study (1980).

In short, the universality-culture-specific issue is far from being simple and clear-cut. Added to the complexity of this issue are other variables, such as race.

In the present study, the Wolfgang Interracial Facial Expression Test (WIFET) of the fundamental emotions (happiness, interest, sadness, an- ger, surprise, contempt, plus neutral) was developed to test the degree of robustness of the pancultural theory proposed by Darwin (1872), Ekman

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(1975), and lzard (1971, 1977). These investigators used white faces to portray the basic emotions. It was reasoned in the present study that in situations where there was evidence of racial tensions and prejudice to- ward a visible minority group, who the host Anglo-Saxon population had relatively little experience with, there may be less sensitivity toward the nonverbal behavior of black West Indians, than of white Anglo-Canadi- ans. It was further reasoned using a power relations hypothesis that there is less of a need for those in the dominant economic position to correctly read the faces of those from a visible minority. The jobs, careers, and academic advancement of the dominant group do not depend on under- standing how members of the racial minority, such as black West Indians, feel about them as reflected by their facial expressions.

There is a body of research which indicates that people recognize faces more accurately of their own race (Brigham & Barkowitz, 1978), with a particular bias of whites being more able to remember the faces of whites than of blacks (Brigham & Williamson, 1979; Malpass & Kravitz, 1969). In a study using the WIFET (Wolfgang, 1980), it was found that white Canadian born teachers when presented with facial expressions of black West Indians and white Anglo-Saxons at different exposure rates, 0.5 second, 0.25 second, 0.125 second, and 0.03 seconds, made increasingly less errors in decoding the Anglo-Saxon facial expressions from 73% correct at 0.5 second exposure to 88% correct at 0.03 second, over 40 trials. This indicated that learning took place over the four exposure levels. In contrast, the percentage of correct identifications of black West Indian facial expressions dropped from 68% accuracy at 0.5 second to 62% at 0.03 second, showing that performance deteriorated with less time to observe colored West Indian faces.

In the second part of the study, black West Indian immigrant students were compared with white Canadian born high school students. Again, it was found that the white Canadians performed more poorly in decoding the facial expressions of black West Indians, 61% correct, than in decod- ing white Anglo-Saxon facial expressions, 70% correct. Continuing in the same direction, the black West Indian students' accuracy rates were 64% in decoding white Anglo-Saxon faces compared to 57% for black West Indian faces. This finding offers support for the above hypothesis based on the premise that those in a dominant position in a culture would have less of a need to become sensitized to the facial expressions of those in a visible minority position, such as West Indians.

Thus, this research and that of others (e.g., Bhardwaj, 1982) has con- sistently shown that those born white in the host culture perform more poorly in decoding black facial expressions than white ones. These find- ings are not in complete agreement with the universality theory, which would seem to indicate that the colour of the faces or the coiour of the

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142 A. Wolfgang and M. Cohen

decoder would have no bearing on the accuracy in identifying the emotions.

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the universalist and the culture-racial specific hypotheses as well as the other hypotheses previously mentioned. Three separate experiments were conducted. In Experiment l, Latin American immigrants, who are one of the most recent minority groups to come to Canada and who came primarily as refugees, tested the racial and minority position. Specifically, those in the minority group in a culture would be more sensitive to the nonverbal cues, like facial expressions of those of the white Anglo-Saxon host cul- ture than those representing the visible minority culture, like the black West Indians. It was expected that the Latin Americans would decode the white facial expressions more accurately than the black ones.

In Experiment 2, white Canadian born university students were includ- ed. It was predicted that they would perform better on the white faces than on the black ones. One reason for choosing the student population was to assess the reliability of the manual WIFET over the automated slide test. The manual cards were used to carry out Experiment 3, which was conducted in Israel.

In study after study (Bhardwaj, 1982; Wolfgang, 1980), it was found that white Canadian born populations made significantly more errors in identifying the facial expressions of black West Indians than those of white Anglo-Saxon descent. The only population found to perform equally well on black facial expressions as white, were black West Indi- ans. In Experiment 3, it was proposed that lsraelis would not show partiality in decoding white faces more accurately than black. They should perform equally well because first, Israelis have no history of racial tension with blacks as North Americans do, and because of the Israeli political situation, harmony among its people is crucial for the country's survival. Second, the black Ethiopians were lifted from the Sudan by the Israeli government and welcomed to Israel as Jews, rather than being perceived as unwelcome immigrants. It was expected that the Ethiopians would perform similar to the Israelis by showing no signifi- cant deficit in decoding the West Indian facial expressions as opposed to the white.

METHOD

Part ic ipants

E x p e r i m e n t I. There was a total of 96 volunteer participants from South America with 54 from Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, and 42 from Central America (El Salvador and Guatemala). Out of the total of

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Sensitivity to Interracial Facial Expressions 143

96, there were 49 females and 47 males. The mean age of the participants was 28.60 with an average of 4.16 years in Canada. Overall, 43% were in Canada under two years, 22%, two to four years, and 35% five or more years. The main reason given for coming to Canada was because of the political situation in Latin America.

Experiment 2. There was a total of 79 volunteer first and second year undergraduate students at York University in Ontario, Canada. Of the total, 58 were female and 21 were male.

Experiment 3. In the Israeli sample, there were 53 volunteer female students whose average age was 20.0 years and who were in teacher training institutions in the area of Tel-Aviv. The Ethiopian sample was comprised of 14 volunteer male students at the Netanya Vocational School in Israel. The mean age of the Ethiopian students was 22 years and on the average they were in Israel for one year.

Apparatus

The WIFET consists of forty 35 mm colored slides of facial expressions balanced for sex, race, and intensity of expressions. These expressions represent the basic fundamental emotions (anger, happiness, surprise, contempt, interest, sadness, plus neutral) described by Ekman and Friesen (1971), and lzard (1971). Of the 40 facial expressions, 20 were of white Anglo-Saxon males and females who were born in Canada and who had at least one parent born in the British Isles. The other 20 expressions were of black or mulatto male and female West Indians born in the West Indies. The selection criteria of the 40 facial expressions satisfy the em- pirical criterion of 70% agreement among 20 West Indians born in the West Indies who judged the West Indian faces and 18 white Canadian born judges who judged the white Anglo-Saxon faces. An automated slide projector apparatus with electronic timers to systematically control time of exposure and intertrial intervals was used in Experiment 1. The time of exposure of the faces was 2 s and the intertriai interval was up to 10 s. For Experiments 2 and 3, a manual version of the WIFET was used whereby 4J/2 x61/z inch (11 x 16mm) prints from 40 colored slides were mounted on a 6 x 8 inch (15 x 20mm) white card stock. To reduce the glare from the lights, the prints mounted on the cards were laminated. The manual version was developed for use in more naturalistic settings.

Procedure

In Experiment 1, the instructions and background information were

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144 A. Wolfgang and M. Cohen

translated from English to Spanish and then back to English by two natives from Chile who were doing interpreting work for the Latin Amer- ican community in Toronto. The testing with the WIFET had to be done in a variety of social situations because it was difficult for the partici- pants to come as a large group because of work and home commitments. As a result, some of the testing was done at the home of the participants. The tester was a Latin American graduate student who worked as a counsellor of Latin Americans in the community. Experiment 2 was car- ried out at York University in Canada in a large classroom. The WIFET was administered by a faculty member at the University.

In Israel where Experiment 3 was conducted, the manual version of the WIFET was used. Like Experiment 1, the faces were exposed for approxi- mately 2 s and there was a 10 s intertrial interval. The students in the two teacher training institutions were tested in a classroom setting by the senior author. The instructions and background information were translated by two native Israelis from English to Hebrew to English. The experimenter was assisted by the instructor who helped the senior author answer any questions the students might have had about the test.

When the Ethiopian students were given the instructions in Hebrew, it was discovered that some were not as fluent in Hebrew as was thought. As a result, the instructions were also given in Amharic by one of the stu- dents. To assist the senior author in the administration of the manual WIFET were the principal at the school, a social worker and the social director. It was impossible to adhere to the two second exposure level and the 10 s intertrial interval since these students were not accustomed to Western testing procedures. Consequently, the experimenter lifted the time pressure and let the students pace the test.

In all three experiments, the participants were given four practice trials to acquaint themselves with the testing procedure and the pacing of the test. Then the participants were given the following instructions:

A number of facial expressions will be presented in front of you. Please study the seven categories of facial expressions listed for a couple of minutes (interest, happy, surprise, sad, anger, contempt, and neutral) and categorize each facial expression into one of the seven categories listed below.

R E S U L T S

Overall, an analysis of variance was performed on the correct scores in all three experiments as well as a reliability test (Cronbach, Alpha Level) on the WIFET for all participants. The computer program used was the SPSS-X package. See Table 1 for the percent correct on the WIFET for the four populations as a function of race of face.

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Sensitivity to Interracial Facial Expressions

TABLE 1

Oistrlbullon of Percentages Correct on the WlFET for the Four Populatlons as a Function of Race of Face

145

Black Faces White Faces Overall

Latin Americans 61 68 65 Canadian University Students 70 79 75 Israelis 68 70 69 Ethiopians 46 50 48

Experiment 1

The reliability of the scores on the WIFET proved to be in the high range (o~=0.89) with the Latin American population.

The analysis of variance on the correct responses, as predicted, indicat- ed that Latin Americans made significantly more errors in attempting to accurately identify the facial expressions representing the fundamental emotions in the black West Indian faces, as compared to the white Anglo- Saxon faces, F(1, 71)=24.03, p<.001. This finding was consistent with other studies looking at emotion recognition (e.g., Bhardwaj, 1982; Wolfgang, 1980) and face recognition studies of own-race bias (e.g., Barkowitz & Brigham, 1982; Malpass & Kravitz, 1969).

Another finding of interest was that the bilingual Latins performed significantly, t(70)=2.17, p<.05, better on the WIFET, 70% correct, than those who speak only Spanish, 59% correct. This was consistent with the results of Cummins (1975) but inconsistent with the results of Bhardwaj (1982).

In terms of education levels, it was found that those who were of a higher education level (e.g., university graduates, 81% correct, university and high school graduates, 66% correct, and only 43% correct for pri- mary school students) performed significantly better on the WIFET, F(4, 69)=6.30, p<.001. Similar findings were obtained for occupation level F(3, 56)=3.47, p < .02, with those in high occupational levels performing better (e.g., professional 81% correct, white collar 65% correct, and un- skilled workers 43 % correct). This was consistent with the findings in a previous study by Wolfgang (1980).

Experiment 2

An analysis of the reliability of scores on the manual version of the WIFET slide format showed that the manual version had a relatively high degree of reliability ((x=0.74). Overall, the students correctly identified

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146 A. Wolfgang and M. Cohen

75 % of the facial expressions which is similar to the results of Bhardwaj (1982) who used the automat ion slide format. University students in that study correctly identified 74% of the facial expressions. Also, the Canadi- an born students, as in the Bhardwaj study (1982), made significantly more errors, F(I , 77)=23.39, p < .001, in attempting to decode the facial expressions of the black than the white faces. Thus, the performance was similar on the WIFET on both the slide and manual version. This led the senior author to have some degree of confidence in using the manual versions in Israel in carrying out Experiment 3.

E x p e r i m e n t 3

A reliability test was done for the overall test scores for the Israelis and Ethiopians. The Cronbach, Alpha Level was found to be in the accepta- ble range for both the Israelis (0.70) and the Ethiopians (0.68).

The analysis of variance of the scores on the WlFET showed that, as predicted, there were no significant differences in errors between black facial expressions and white for the Israelis. This was inconsistent with past research (e.g., Bhardwaj, 1982; Wolfgang, 1980) and the findings with the Latin Americans and the white Canadian university students in the previous experiments. Similarly, as predicted, the Ethiopians per- formed as well on the WlFET in identifying black or white facial expres- sions accurately. This was consistent with the results of the black West Indians (Wolfgang, 1980).

The Israelis outperformed the Ethiopians on the WlFET, which was similar to previous findings (Wolfgang, 1980) where white Canadians outperformed the West Indians. Also, lzard (1971) reported that the black African performance on emotion recognition was lower than that of other cultural groups.

D I S C U S S I O N

This research lends some support for both the universality and culture- racial specific hypotheses. In Experiment 1, the Latin American popula- tion, as predicted, supported the racial and minority position. The Latin Americans performed better on those faces that more closely represent their own race, rather than those of the black West Indians. Considering the bias for decoding white faces over black ones, this position does not give unqualified theoretical support for only the universality hypothesis. The Latin American deficit in decoding black facial expressions could also be due to the fact that there are not many blacks living in South and Central America and, therefore, they lack experience in decoding black West Indian faces.

Thus, familiarity may make a difference in emotion recognition. This

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was supported in a study by Ducci et al. (1982), who showed that West- ernized Ethiopians were more accurate in recognizing facial expressions of white faces than the non-Westernized Ethiopians, who had little con- tact with Caucasians,. Furthermore, Chance, Turner, and Goldstein (1982) tested the relevance of a familiar-face schema which facilitates recognition of familiar faces with increasing age and experience. Al- though the youngest children, in grades one and two, recognized white and oriental faces equally well, recognition accuracy for white faces was superior to that for oriental faces among the older students, in grades five to eight and college.

An additional finding in the present study is that the Latin Americans who were bilingual were superior in their performance to those who were unilingual. It could be speculated that the reason for the better facial recognition by the bilinguals is because when learning a second language, individuals need to rely more on the nonverbal cues, and since the face is the primary cite for communication, they would be more sensitive to facial cues. This view is supported by Macnamara's theory (1972) and by Cummins (1975). Macnamara proposes that sensitivity to nonlinguistic cues is an important factor in learning a second language. Cummins argues that because most communication, if not all, is being conducted through the language of which the second language learner has no prior knowledge, the individual will have to search for the meaning of the verbal language in the nonlinguistic domains, like facial expressions.

In Experiment 2, the universality position is not fully supported, since the Canadian born students made significantly more errors in attempting to accurately identify the facial expressions of black West Indians than of white Anglo-Saxons. In a somewhat similar study, Kilbride and Yarczo- wer (1983) found overall accuracy in recognizing facial expressions portrayed by blacks less than those portrayed by whites. These studies suggest that the students are less sensitive to the nonverbal cues given off by the black facial expressions than by white ones.

Finally, Experiment 3 offers support for the pancultural theory. The relative absence of racial tension with a black population affected both the Israeli and Ethiopian performance. The two groups made no signifi- cant differences in errors between black facial expressions and white ones. The fact that Israel needs people and views immigrants in a relative- ly more positive light helps to explain the lack of bias in test performance. Some of the main reasons for poorer Ethiopian performance in compari- son to the Israelis could be because of the lower educational level of the Ethiopians, their lack of test-taking experience, not being accustomed to the demands of timed tests, and the lower occupational level of the participants' parents. Trimble, Lonner, and Boucher (1983) discuss the issue of task demands in cross-cultural research in some detail. Education and occupation were also found in Experiment l with the Latin Ameri-

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148 A. Wolf gang and M. Cohen

cans and in a previous study (Wolfgang, 1980) to affect overall perfor- mance in decoding facial expressions. The higher the education and occu- pational level, the better the performance in decoding.

It should be apparent that, as Eiland and Richardson (1976) state, "we do not interpret 'messages' sent by black faces (whether young, old, male or female) the same as 'messages' sent by white faces" (pp. 174-175). The practical implications of the present results in terms of training, improv- ing social interactions, and educating people to be more sensitive and accurate on an important channel of communication, namely, the face, needs to be addressed.

Training in decoding black or oriental faces more accurately could result in less misunderstanding and confusion as to the intention of the visible minorities' emotional messages. There has been some evidence in emotion recognition studies that performance can be enhanced through rehearsal. Read (1979), for instance, demonstrated in two experiments with undergraduate psychology students that rehearsal increased both recognition accuracy, confidence, and decreased response latency. Read's results, however, hold true only for white faces by a white population.

Nevertheless, in face recognition studies there is proof that visual train- ing on recognition of black faces can improve performance. Malpass, Lavigueur, and Weldon (1973) tested black and white subjects who were given recognition training for black and white faces. In the first experi- ment, where subjects received three levels of training, the verbal descrip- tion training on verbal usage for faces, especially on communication accuracy yielded strong positive results. The second experiment trained only white subjects with three feedback trials. Malpass et al. (1973) report improved visual recognition of faces after a training task of less than one hour. They conclude that recognition for other-race faces can be im- proved by a simple visual training procedure.

One question that might be asked is: Would training in improving the performance of those in the white host culture in reading black or orien- tal facial expressions result in increased empathy for those visible minor- ities? This could be accomplished by having individuals from the host culture mimic, mirror, or portray the emotions displayed by the blacks, enabling the white population to internalize or reconstruct these emo- tions. As discussed by Bavelas, Black, Lemery, Maclnnis, and Mullett (1986), this can be a first step toward developing empathy. Bavelas et al. (1986) present many different theories and a systematic methodology to explain and test motor mimicry. These researchers hypothesize that mo- tor mimicry is nonverbal communication and may imply an underlying process of empathy or role taking.

In short, sheer practice, exposure, and feedback in decoding could further assist in developing a keener sensitivity and familiarity in reading visible minority faces. Unfortunately, there has been little or no systemat-

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ic research to directly check out the effects o f the procedures o f facial expressions o f emot ions on improvement in per formance in relation to atti tudes, empathy, and improved social interactions with visible minori ty groups. Such research could be explored in the future.

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ABSTRACT TRANSLATIONS

Le but de cette ~t~8 ~tait ~ v~rifler I' hypoth~e de l'universalit4 et l'bypoth~se culturo-raciale. Trois ex~riences

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Sensitivity to Interracial Facial Fx-pressions 151

ont 4t~ acos, plies utilisant le "Wolfgang Interracial Expression Test', pour examiner la pr~zisicn avec laquelle certains indlvidus identifient les exressions faciales caract6risant les (notions p~ofondes de gens de divers milieux culturels et raciaux. 96 personnes d'origine latino-am~ricalre ont ~mrticip~

l'emp~rience I, 79 ~tudiants de premiere et deuxi~me annie de premier cyc/e, de race blanche et n~s au Canada ont ~articip6 l'experien~ 2, alors qu~ 53 ~l~ves-enseignants israeliens et 14 ~tudiants ~thloplens r~emment immigr4s en Israel, ont particip~

l'exp4rin~ 3. Les r~sultats prlnci~aux soutiennent aussi bien l'bypoth~se de l'universalit~ que la culturo-raciale. Les Latlno-~ricains et les ~tudlants d' unlverslt~ qul ont particip~

la premiere et ~ la deuxi~ne experience, ont ~u,m,ls nettement ~llus d' erreurs en identifian£ les expressions des Antillois noirs, que c~lles des Anglo-Sau~ns blancs. De plus, les Lat/no- ~n~ricains bilingues ont mieux d~cod~ les expressions d' ~motions que les Lat/no-Am~ric~ins unilingues. Les r~sultats de l'exp~rien(~ 3 r~velent, qu'il n'y a [as eu de difference significative dans i' exactitude d' identification des expressions faciales des Noirs et des Blancs par les ~tudiants ~thio[~ens et isr a~l lens.

Les im~licat/ons Ixactiques des r~sultats obtenus sont ~tudi~es pour permettre d' entra[ner les gens de la culture hSte ~ mieux c~coder les expressions faciales et les amener ainsi ~ une meilleuze entente avec les gens de minorit~s vis/bles. (author- supplied abstract)

E1 presente estudlo ttwo como pcop6sito general el de ~obar la universalidad y las hlp6tesls de especificidad cultural y racial. Especificamerte, tres experlmentos fueron hechos haciendo uso del Test de Expresiones Faciales Interraciales Wolfgang para determinar con cuanta [zecisi6n las personas pueden i(]mntificar las expreslores faciales que rep~esentan las expreslones fundsmentales de la genre de distlnto origen cultural y racial. Nuventa y seis (96) latinoamericanos participaron en el pcimer experimento; en el segundo, participarcn 79 estudlantes universltarios de primero y segundo aSo, nacidos en el Canad~ y de raza blanca; en el tercer experimento ~articiparon 53 est~diantes docentes de Israel y 14 estudlantes vo~clonales de Et/op~a quienes hab~an imigrado recient~nente a Israel. Los resultados principales dan apoyo te6rico tanto a la hip6tesis de universalldad como a la de especiflcidad cult~al y racial. En el pcimero y segundo experimento, los lat/noamericanos y los estudiantes unlversitarlos cumet/eron signlflcat/vamente m~S errores al identifi(~r las expresiones faciales de los negros de las Antillas en comparaci6n con las expreslones de las cmras anglosajonas. Tamhi4n, los latlnoamericanos biling~es sobce~asaron a los unillngSes al interpretar expresiones faciales de emoc16n. En el tercer experimento, no hubo difexencias signiflcatlvas en errores entre las expreslones faclales negras y blancas en las in~erp~etaciones dadas [Dr los estudiantes de Israel y de Etio~a. [ms impllcaciones pra'cticas de los resultados se dlscuten en cuanto al [~ocedimiento para entrenar genre de la cultura aunfitriona de manera que puedan ser mejores interpretes de expresiones faciales y asi puedan a~sarrollar mejor ~pat~a [:Dr los grupos de minor{a vislbles. (author- sup[t1 led abstract)