The Influence of Culture on Sadness

6 Minute English: How people express sadness is influenced by their culture. Professor Thomas Dixon says that the Victorians who ran the British Empire had a stiff upper lip. When we cry, our top lip starts to wobble and so this gave to the idiom of 'stiff upper lip' Most Brits nowadays are less repressed but it's still hard for some people,. especially men, to express their feelings. Sometimes drinking alcohol gives people the courage to say what they're feeling - which can even increase feelings of depression.