研究發現:'拒絕臉'跨越語言 全球通用!

A furrowed brow, lifted chin and pressed-together lips are used to show negative judgment among speakers of English, Spanish, Mandarin and American Sign Language (ASL), according to a new study published in the May issue. In ASL, speakers sometimes use this "not face" alone, without any other negative sign, to indicate disagreement in a sentence.

根據五月刊的一項新研究指出，無論是說英語、西班牙語或者說普通話的人，還是美語手語者，“皺眉，擡下巴，咬嘴脣”都是用來表示一種負面色彩的判斷。在美語手語中，有時候說話者無需用其他手勢，而只用“拒絕臉”就可表達他們的不滿。

"Sometimes, the only way you can tell that the meaning of the sentence is negative is, that person made the 'not face' when they signed it," said Aleix Martinez, a cognitive scientist and professor of electrical and computer engineering at The Ohio State University.

俄亥俄州立大學的電氣和計算機工程教授、認知科學家阿萊克·馬丁內斯表示：“有時候，唯一可以告訴別人不滿的方法就是打出'拒絕臉'牌。”

Martinez and his colleagues previously identified 21 distinct facial emotions, including six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust).

馬丁內斯和他的同事們預先確定了21種不同的面部表情，包括六種基本情緒（快樂、悲傷、恐懼、憤怒、驚訝和厭惡）。

The researchers wondered if there might be a basic expression that indicates disapproval across cultures. Disapproval, disgust and disagreement should be foundational emotions to communicate, they reasoned, so a universal facial expression marking these emotions have evolved early in human history.

研究人員猜想，在跨文化領域中，會不會存在同一種表達反對的基本表情。他們解釋稱，“不贊成，厭惡和反對”應該是交流的基本情感，因此，一種表情的普遍性就標誌着這些表情在人類歷史早期就已經開始發展。

The researchers recruited 158 university students and filmed them in casual conversation in their first language. Some of these students spoke English as a native tongue, while others were native Spanish, Mandarin Chinese or ASL speakers. These languages have different roots and different grammatical structures. English is Germanic, Spanish is in the Latin family and Mandarin developed independently from both. ASL developed in the 1800s from a mix of French and local sign language systems, and has a grammatical structure distinct from English.

研究人員動員了158所大學的學生參與了該研究，並且拍攝了他們使用第一語言時的日常交流情況。有些學生的母語是英語，有些是西班牙語，還有些是普通話或者是美語手語。這些不同的語言都有不同的詞根和語法結構。英語來自日耳曼語系，西班牙語來自拉丁語系，而普通話在兩者的基礎上獨立發展。美語手語是在19世紀的法國和當地手語語言系統的混合中產生的，並且它也有不同於英語的自身語法結構。

But despite their differences, all of the groups used the "not face," the researchers found. The scientists elicited the expression by asking the students to read negative sentences or asking them to answer questions that they'd likely answer in the negative, such as, "A study shows that tuition should increase 30 percent. What do you think?"

研究人員們發現，不管語言有多大的差異，所有的被研究人員都使用了“拒絕臉”。科學家們讓學生閱讀一些負面色彩的句子，或是問他們一些回答可能呈消極的問題，以此引出他們的表情。比如說這個問題：“一研究報道稱，學費將上漲百分之三十，你有什麼想法？”

As the students responded with phrases like, "They should not do that," their facial expressions changed. A furrowed brow indicates anger, a raised chin shows disgust and tight lips denote contempt.

當學生回答“他們不能那樣做”的時候，他們的面部表情就隨之而變。皺起的眉毛表示憤怒，擡起的下巴表示厭惡，緊抿嘴脣表示蔑視。

By analyzing the video of the conversations and using an algorithm to track facial muscle movement, Martinez and his colleagues were able to show that a combination of anger, disgust and contempt danced across the speakers' faces, regardless of their native tongue.

通過分析對話視頻裏的面部表情並利用計算程序來跟蹤面部肌肉運動，馬丁內斯和同事們發現，無論是什麼語系，“憤怒，厭惡和輕蔑”的集合體都展現在了說話者的臉上。