A Tale of Three Advantages: Cross-Cultural Recognition of Basic Emotions Through Virtual Stickers

Abstract

This study examined recognition of the six basic emotions communicated by 72 stickers provided on Chinese and American social media. Results demonstrate that sadness, happiness, and anger are recognized more accurately than disgust, fear, and surprise. An in-group advantage exists among Chinese instead of American participants, as the latter group recognizes emotions rendered by American and Chinese stickers with similar accuracy. Women outperform men in recognizing anger and fear expressed by stickers. A dynamic advantage manifests in recognizing anger, fear, and happiness rendered by animated stickers, in relation to static stickers. Three-way interaction effects show that emotions rendered by Chinese static stickers are more easily recognized compared to American static stickers. Moreover, women and Chinese participants recognize emotions rendered by Chinese and American animated stickers at similar accuracy levels. By contrast, men and American participants deliver better performances in recognizing emotions expressed by American animated stickers than Chinese animated stickers.

Keywords:

• Stickers
• emotion recognition
• cross-cultural comparisons

Acknowledgement

In memoriam: I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Ross Buck, who sadly passed away in 2022. Dr. Buck's guidance and mentorship were invaluable during the completion of this work; he will always be remembered.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dongdong Yang

Dongdong Yang is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. She is primarily interested in the use and effects of new communication technologies in cross-cultural contexts. Yang has received five top paper awards at the ICA and AEJMC annual conferences as lead author.

Yuemiao Liu

Yuemiao Liu is an associate professor in the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Linyi University. She is interested in media language, pragmatics, and intercultural communication.