Recognition of Happy and Sad Facial Expressions among Baganda and U.S. Children

The recognition of happy and sad expressions by U.S. children and by Baganda children and adults was assessed using schematic drawings. Developmental and cultural differences and similarities in this ability were found. The happy expression was more easily identified by the young children than the sad expression. When stimuli potentially contradictory to the facial expression (e.g., red dress on a sad girl, tears on a happy face) were added to the drawings, many African and U.S. children changed their previous judgments. In several cases, only the Baganda children changed their judgments; the American children were unaffected. Socioeconomic factors and certain cultural values may have been responsible for yielding cross-cultural differences.