Quick, what’s the expression of the guy in this picture?

Your response–and whether or not you took into account the feelings of the people behind him–may be a reflection of your culture. I wrote earlier about the neurological test that has recently been conducted, testing East Asian and American patients and their ability to make relative and absolute judgments. Here’s another test, utilizing the picture above.

When asked how the foregrounded person — their face manipulated to look happy, angry or sad — appeared to feel, nearly three-quarters of 36 Japanese test subjects said their perception was influenced by the emotions of the background figures.
By contrast, nearly three-quarters of 39 North American participants said the people in the background didn’t affect them at all.
When the researchers tracked the viewers’ eye movements, they found that Japanese gazes flitted quickly to the background, while North Americans fixated on the central subject.

My first reaction was that the guy looked determined, and appeared to have a group of friendly followers. Only later did I think of the picture in terms of happy or sad.

What about you?