MTI外刊阅读精选藏在人类表情背后复杂信号Why our facial expressions don't reflect our feelingsWhile conducting research on emotions and facial expressions in Papua New Guinea in 2015, psychologist Carlos Crivelli discovered something startling.心理学家克里韦利(Carlos Crivelli)2015 年在巴布亚新几内亚做情绪和面部表情的研究时，得出令人吃惊的结果。He showed Trobriand Islanders photographs of the standard Western face of fear wide-eyed, mouth agape and asked them to identify what they saw. The Trobrianders didnt see a frightened face. Instead, they saw an indication of threat and aggression.他给特罗布里恩岛的居民看西方人睁大眼睛、张大嘴巴的照片，也就是标准的恐惧表情，然后问他们的看法。岛民们并不认为那是害怕的表情。相反，他们看到了威胁和攻击的迹象。In other words, what we think of as a universal expression of fear isnt universal at all. But if Trobrianders have a different interpretation of facial expressions, what does that mean?换句话说，我们认为恐惧的普遍表情，其实并不具有普遍性。但如果特罗布里恩岛的岛民对面部表情有着不同的解读，那又说明什么呢?One emerging and increasingly supported theory is that facial expressions dont reflect our feelings. Instead of reliable readouts of our emotional states, they show our intentions and social goals.一个越来越受到支持的新理论是，面部表情并不能反映我们的情绪。它们不能准确表达我们的情绪状态，而显示的是我们的意图和社交目的。The face acts “like a road sign to affect the traffic thats going past it,” says Alan Fridlund, a psychology professor at University of California Santa Barbara who co-authored a recent study with De Montfort University's Crivelli arguing for a more utilitarian view of facial expressions. “Our faces are ways we direct the trajectory of a social interaction.”加州大学圣巴巴拉分校(University of California Santa Barbara)的心理学教授弗里德隆德(Alan Fridlund)说，面部“就像一个路标，影响着通过这个路标的交通状况”。他与克里韦利最近共同撰写了一篇研究报告，力主面部表情更具实用性的观点。“面部是我们指导社交互动轨迹的方式。”Thats not to say that we actively try to manipulate others with our facial expressions (though every once in a while, we might). Our smiles and frowns may well be instinctive.这并不是说，我们积极地利用面部表情来操纵他人(尽管我们偶尔的确会这么做)。我们的微笑和皱眉也可能是本能。But our expressions are less a mirror of whats going on inside than a signal were sending about what we want to happen next. Your best disgusted face, for example, might show that youre not happy with the way the conversation is going and that you want it to take a different tack.但表情并非内心活动的镜子，而是我们发出的信号，表明我们希望接下来发生的事情。比如，你展示出最“厌恶”的表情可能显示你对正在进行的谈话不满意，并希望能做出调整。“Its the only reason that makes sense for facial expression to have evolved,” says Bridget Waller, an evolutionary psychology professor at the University of Portsmouth. Faces, she says, are always “giving some sort of important and useful information both to the sender and to the receiver.”朴茨茅斯大学(University of Portsmouth)进化心理学教授沃勒(Bridget Waller)说：“这是面部表情之所以进化唯一合乎情理的原因。”她说，面孔总是“向发送者和接收者提供某种重要的和有用的信息”。While it may seem sensible, this theory has been a long time coming.这个理论或许听来合乎情理，但建立这个理论却用了很长时间。The idea that emotions are fundamental, instinctive and expressed in our faces is deeply ingrained in Western culture. Ancient Greeks placed the passions in opposition to reason; in the 17th Century, philosopher René Descartes laid out six basic passions which could interfere with rational thought. Artist Charles Le Brun then connected them to the face, laying out “the anatomically correct and appropriately nuanced facial configuration for each Cartesian passion”, write Crivelli and Fridlund.在西方文化中，情感代表基本和本能的情绪而反应在脸上，这种观念根深蒂固。古希腊人将“激情”与理性对立;在 17世纪，哲学家笛卡尔提出了六种可能干扰理性思考的强烈情感。艺术家勒·布朗(Charles Le Brun)后来把这些情感跟脸部联系到一起，“对每一种笛卡尔激情”做出了“解剖学上正确而适宜的，且细致入微的面部配置”，克里韦利和弗里德隆德写道。In the 1960s and 70s, scientific research also began to back up the idea that a few basic emotions could be universally understood through facial expressions.20世纪六、七十年代，科学研究也开始支持一些基本情绪可以通过面部表情而得以普遍理解的观点。In different countries around the world, researcher Paul Ekman asked subjects to match photos of facial expressions with emotions or emotional scenarios. His studies seemed to indicate that some expressions, and their corresponding feelings, were recognised by people of all cultures. (These “basic emotions” were happiness, surprise, disgust, fear, sadness, and anger.) Today, the legacy of Ekmans theories is everywhere: from the “Feelings” posters you see in preschools with their cartoons of smiles and frowns to a US government programme designed to identify potential terrorists.在世界各地的不同国家，研究人员埃克曼(Paul Ekman)要求受试者将面部表情的照片与情绪或情绪场景相匹配。他的研究似乎表明，有一些表情和它们对应的情绪在所有文化中都是一样的(这些“基本情绪”是高兴、惊讶、厌恶、恐惧、悲伤和愤怒)。今天，埃克曼理论的研究遗产无所不在：从你在幼儿园看到的卡通角色或笑或皱眉的“情绪”海报，到美国政府为识别潜在恐怖分子而制定的一个计划。But this viewpoint has always had detractors. Margaret Mead, who believed that our expressions were learned behaviours, was among them. So was Fridlund, who early in his career collaborated on two articles with Ekman before becoming disillusioned with Ekmans ideas.但这个观点一直不乏批评者。其中就包括美国人类学家米德(Margaret Mead)，她认为我们的表情是后天习得的行为。弗里德隆德也这样认为。在他的职业生涯早期，曾与埃克曼合作过两篇文章，后来才与埃克曼的观点分道扬镳。