Want to know what expressions people in Papua New Guinea or Siberia use most? Look in the mirror.
A study making waves this week in Nature finds that people around the world show emotion on their faces with the same expressions, in a wide variety of contexts.
The researchers did not have to step foot on a plane. Academics at the University of California at Berkeley partnered with Google for a machine learning analysis of facial expressions in 6 million YouTube clips from 144 countries.
Here are the 16 expressions they found for common emotions. Can you identify all 16?
Human faces typically have 43 muscles that create thousands of different expressions. The study found that different cultures share about 70% of facial expressions, with common contexts including gazing in awe at fireworks, grimacing in pain while lifting something heavy, and flashing a triumphant face at a sports game.
The study was submitted to Nature pre-pandemic and does not address that all these expressions are now hidden behind masks.
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