Cultural Differences in Using Facial Parts as Cues to Recognize Emotions in Avatars

Introduction

Avatars are frequently used in virtual worlds and online games to convey emotions across cultures. However, our previous study suggested there are cultural differences in recognizing avatar’s facial expressions [1]. Yuki et al.’s study using emoticons and photorealistic human face images suggests Americans tend to interpret emotions based on the mouth, while Japanese tend to focus on the eyes [2]. Inspired by Yuki’s study, this study uses cartoonish avatar faces to find cultural differences in using facial parts as cues to recognize avatar emotions. This paper reports the preliminary result of an experiment conducted between Japanese and European subjects.