This Negative Facial Expression Is ’Universal’

全世界通用的负面表情

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.

五月新品最新报道称，无论是说英语、西班牙语或者普通话的人，还是美语手语者，“皱眉，抬下巴，咬嘴唇”都用来表示一种负面色彩的判断。在美语手语中，有时候说话者无需用其他手势，而只用“愤怒脸”就可表达他们的不满。

"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.

俄亥俄州立大学的电气和计算机工程教授，认知科学家阿莱克-马丁内斯说：“有时候，唯一可以告诉别人不满的方法就是出‘愤怒脸’牌。”

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

马丁内斯和他的同事们预先确定了21种不同的面部表情，包括六种基本情绪(快乐、悲伤、恐惧、愤怒、惊讶和厌恶)。

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.

研究人员猜想，在跨文化领域中，会不会存在同一种表达反对的基本表情。他们解释，“不赞成，厌恶和反对”应该是交流的基本情感，因此，一种表情的普遍性就标志着这些表情在人类历史早期就已经开始发展。

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.

研究人员们动员了158所大学的学生参与研究，并且拍摄了他们使用第一语言时的日常交流情况。有些学生的母语是英语，有些是西班牙语，普通话或者是美语手语。这些不同的语言都有不同的词根和语法结构。英语来自日耳曼语系，西班牙语来自拉丁语系，而普通话在两者的基础上独立发展。美语手语是在19世纪的法国和当地手语语言系统的混合中产生的，并且它也有自身不同于英语的语法结构。

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?"

研究人员们发现，不管语言有多大的差异，所有的被研究人员都使用了“不字脸”。科学家们让学生阅读一些负面色彩的句子或者问他们一些回答可能呈消极的问题，以此引出他们的表情。例如，“一研究报道称学费将上涨百分之三十，你有什么想法?”

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.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.

当学生回答“他们不能那样做”的时候，他们的面部表情就随之而变。皱起的眉毛表示愤怒，抬起的下巴表示厌恶，紧抿嘴唇表示蔑视。在分析过对话视频里的表情后，他们利用计算程序来跟踪面部肌肉运动，马丁内斯和同事们发现，无论是什么语系，“愤怒，厌恶和轻蔑”的集合体都展现在说话者脸上。