The development of a series of photographs of Chinese facial expressions of emotion

To create a set of Chinese faces expressing emotions. Chinese adults in Beijing were asked to think about a situation and then to pose the facial expression appropriate to that emotional state. The emotions posed were happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear, and anger. The expressions were photographed and a number of the best examples of each expression were selected. In Experiment 1, raters were given six labels and were required to select the one that best fit each emotional expression. In Experiment 2, another group of raters assessed the photographs on the six labels, using a 7-point scale. Sixty-two photographs fulfilled the criteria of 70% agreement in ratings in Experiment 1 and a rank rating of at least 4 in Experiment 2. This resulted in 9 to 12 reliable examples of each emotional expression, a good set of photographs of expressions, useful to those wishing to study emotion in China and cross-cultural settings.