A new study out of the University of Glasgow, UK suggests that “east Asian people struggle to recognise facial expressions that western Caucasians attribute to fear and disgust.” Apparently this is because Asians tend to take their cues soley from the eyes while caucasians look at all parts of the face, thereby giving them more information about the emotions being displayed. In discussing the study, NeuroLogica adds this interesting piece of information:
Here are the western emoticons for happy, sad, and surprise respectively:: ) : ( : othese are meant to be mentally rotated 90 degrees clockwise.Here are the Asian emoticons for happy, sad, and surprise:(^_^) (T_T) (*_*)The obvious difference is that the western emoticons vary the mouth while the Asian emoticons vary the eyes.
I think I just found another caucasian vs. Asian interpretation difference! To me those look like “little frog,” “goth,” and “stoned.”