[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Categorical perception of facial expressions of anger and disgust across cultures

Fang et al., 2024, Cognition and Emotion — Psychology

Patterns: [Distinctions](https://dsrpevidence.org/pattern/distinctions)

## In short

The mind imposes a categorical boundary on a continuous anger-to-disgust face morph (this vs. not-this).

## What they found (results)

In a registered report with Canadian and Chinese participants, both cultures showed categorical perception along an anger–disgust continuum (better cross-category than within-category discrimination), indicating a universal boundary-drawing mechanism.

## What they set out to do (purpose)

To test whether categorical perception of emotional facial expressions generalizes across Western and East Asian cultures.

## In more detail

The mind imposes a categorical boundary on a continuous anger-to-disgust morph, making cross-boundary pairs 'this not that' while within-category pairs look the same. Purpose: To test whether categorical perception of emotional facial expressions generalizes across Western and East Asian cultures. Finding: In a registered report with Canadian and Chinese participants, both cultures showed categorical perception along an anger–disgust continuum (better cross-category than within-category discrimination), indicating a universal boundary-drawing mechanism. [Added 2026-07-30 as new evidence beyond the original 109. DSRP structural basis: D (Mutual Negation): a discrete identity/other boundary carved onto a smooth stimulus continuum.]

## Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals from Western cultures exhibit categorical perception (CP) in their judgments of emotional faces. However, the extent to which this phenomenon characterises the judgments of facial expressions among East Asians remains relatively unexplored. Building upon recent findings showing that East Asians are more likely than Westerners to see a mixture of emotions in facial expressions of anger and disgust, the present research aimed to investigate whether East Asians also display CP for angry and disgusted faces. To address this question, participants from Canada and China were recruited to discriminate pairs of faces along the anger-disgust continuum. The results revealed the presence of CP in both cultural groups, as participants consistently exhibited higher accuracy and faster response latencies when discriminating between-category pairs of expressions compared to within-category pairs. Moreover, the magnitude of CP did not vary significantly across cultures. These findings provide novel evidence supporting the existence of CP for facial expressions in both East Asian and Western cultures, suggesting that CP is a perceptual phenomenon that transcends cultural boundaries. This research contributes to the growing literature on cross-cultural perceptions of facial expressions by deepening our understanding of how facial expressions are perceived categorically across cultures.

These researchers were not testing DSRP. The finding is theirs; the correspondence to DSRP is drawn by this site.

[Source](https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2024.2370667)