Yes and no. During the late '90s and early '00s, TLC was losing money at an astonishing rate. During this time, there was also an overwhelming number of angry-face minifigs. When TLC went back to research what they could do to stay in the black, they discovered customers do not like mean, angry or cranky minifigs. Among other things, minifigs started getting happier again. (They also sold the themeparks and discontinued some themes, among other things.) If minifigs are getting angrier, it's because the market is driving them that way. That said, in recent years, TLC has acknowledged its AFoL and TFoL audience as never before. We are now having product marketed directly toward that audience, including the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit and to some extent, Star Wars. Conversely, Lego has also expanded its traditional staples with perrenial favorites. The Town line is geared towards younger audiences and there is no violence there. Even the robbers are smiling! (okay, they're cunningly grinning) Friends is also a very happy go lucky line. Sociologists have attempted gender neutral play experiments (wherein children of both sexes/genders are given equal opportunites to play with stereotyped toys) and they have found that even young children have their preferenes. Boys gravitate towards trucks, and girls to dollies. In short, boys will be boys, at least in western culture. I think that having different faces on minifigs is healthy for roleplaying. I always used the bearded head for my pirate captains, because, unbeknowst to me at the time, it represented wisdom and experience--that is what my culture taught. Likewise, children expect villians to look angry and mean. Culture has influenced sets in other subtle ways as well--bicycling minifigs now wear helmets (the ambulance set from 2012), and we have coloured minifigs. Finally, like many documentaries, this falls into the single-sided viewpoints trap. Research papers are meant to skew the audience one way or the other and are written to favour one side of an argument. Probably this is because money and notoriety are associated with said papers... And we still build houses in our lego family. Lots of houses and cars that are driven by both happy and angry minifigs. Hey, sometimes you just have a bad day on the road. -KhanArtist