Do facial expressions transcend culture? Study supports similarities in how we show emotion. Credit: Chris Whitehead / Getty Images Humans are emotional beings, with feelings that show in our behaviours and facial expressions. But whether these mean the same thing in different cultures has been hotly debated. In what researchers say is the first worldwide analysis in naturalistic settings, a new study published in the journal Nature has found that different social contexts, such as weddings, funerals, humour, art and sports, do indeed elicit universal facial expressions. “We found that rich nuances in facial behaviour – including subtle expressions we associate with ‘awe’, ‘interest’, ‘triumph’ – are used in similar social situations around the world,” says lead author Alan Cowen from the University of California Berkeley, US.