Controlling facial emotions
June 6th, 2007 by Olga VictorovnaPsyBlog recently published the results of the research “Which culture most controls their facial emotions? According to some research it’s Russians! And the least control over facial emotions? Americans.” He-he:) Now I know who made this research;)
Sure the research is done by professional people but the picture of that article itself makes me smile! Most common myth – a Russian man in a fur cap with ear-flaps. They are not very popular today in Russia and you can probably find more people in such hats in America than in Russia. But the myth is still alive.
Now about hiding the emotions. Russian people are in no way taught to control facial emotions. The best thing that we have the same myth about Englishmen – in every book about England for children you will find a note that Englishmen are very reserved and never show facial emotions.
Naturally Russian people are taught to smile when greeting foreigners – when you do not know a person suspect the best. That can be taken for controlling emotions. But the situations of fear or anger are quite different. People are encouraged to show the emotions they feel and this is not considered to be bad in Russia. Myths are still very strong:)