Which statement best summarizes Ekman's basic emotions theory and its cross-cultural challenges?

• A. It claims all emotions have unique universal facial expressions.
• B. It proposes universal facial expressions for basic emotions; cross-cultural challenges include variability in recognition and display rule influence.
• C. It argues that facial expressions are entirely culture-specific and lack universals.
• D. It denies any cross-cultural differences in emotion recognition.

Answer: (B)

Ekman’s idea is that there are facial expressions for basic emotions that are recognized across different cultures, suggesting these expressions are largely universal and may have innate, evolutionary roots. This universality explains why people from very different backgrounds can identify basic emotions like happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust from facial cues. At the same time, cross-cultural research shows challenges to this universality. Recognition accuracy isn’t perfect everywhere, and how reliably expressions are read can vary by culture, partly because different societies teach different display rules about when and how to show emotions. These display rules influence not just how expressions are produced but how they’re interpreted, which can lead to context- or culture-related differences in understanding the emotion. In short, there are universal facial expressions for basic emotions, but cross-cultural variability in recognition and the influence of display rules complicate the picture.