Why :-) is a lot of ^.^ to the Chinese

**Loki** · 08-14-2009, 09:06 AM

Why :-) is a lot of ^.^ to the Chinese

When we use emoticons such as ;-) people on the other side of the world shrug their shoulders.

That's because Westerners read faces differently to Eastern people, experts claim.

In tests, 13 Europeans and 13 people from China, Japan and Korea were asked to put a series of faces into categories such as sad and surprised.

While the Europeans scanned evenly across the face, those from the East focused on the eyes.

Europeans appear to use their whole faces in more expressive ways, said scientists at Glasgow University.

The difference is even reflected in text speak.

Whereas we tend to use the mouth to express emotions such as

for happy and

for sad, Eastern emoticons use the eyes ^.^ for happy and ;_; for sad.

The findings could mean concepts of 'universal expression' of emotions are wrong – and do not take into account cultural boundaries, the experts said.