Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32875109›Full record

ArticleScience advances2020

Universal facial expressions uncovered in art of the ancient Americas: A computational approach.

Alan S Cowen, Dacher Keltner

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The expression of awe: evolutionary origins and cultural elaborations of a basic emotion.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Universal interpretations of vocal music.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. From Text to Thought: How Analyzing Language Can Advance Psychological Science.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2022
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Are Emotions Natural Kinds After All? Rethinking the Issue of Response Coherence.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Alan S CowenDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-8381-5883
Dacher KeltnerDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

Funding

PREDOCTORAL TRAINING CONSORTIUM IN AFFECTIVE SCIENCET32MH020006 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · PI GROSS, JAMES J, JOHNSON, SHERI L · 1998 to 2018
$5.9M
NIMH NIH HHS T32 MH020006
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Central to the study of emotion is evidence concerning its universality, particularly the degree to which emotional expressions are similar across cultures. Here, we present an approach to studying the universality of emotional expression that rules out cultural contact and circumvents potential biases in survey-based methods: A computational analysis of apparent facial expressions portrayed in artwork created by members of cultures isolated from Western civilization. Using data-driven methods, we find that facial expressions depicted in 63 sculptures from the ancient Americas tend to accord with Western expectations for emotions that unfold in specific social contexts. Ancient American sculptures tend to portray at least five facial expressions in contexts predicted by Westerners, including "pain" in torture, "determination"/"strain" in heavy lifting, "anger" in combat, "elation" in social touch, and "sadness" in defeat-supporting the universality of these expressions.

Identifiers

PMID32875109
PMCPMC7438103

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.