Cultural influences on facial expressions of emotion

Research demonstrates that facial expressions of emotion are both universal and culturally‐specific, but our theoretical understanding of how cultures influence emotions has not advanced since Friesen's (1972) conception of cultural display rules. This article offers a theoretical framework by which to understand and predict how and why cultures influence the emotions. The model combines the cultural dimensions known as individualism and power distance with the social distinctions of ingroup‐out‐group and status. Major issues in future theoretical and empirical work are also discussed.