一些实验对象混淆了“恐惧”和“惊讶”的表情

A new study suggests that people from different cultures read facial EXPRESSIONS differently.

最新研究显示，不同文化背景的人们对脸部表情的理解存在不同。

East Asian participants in the study focused mostly on the eyes, but those from the West scanned the whole face.

参与调查的东亚人主要注意的是眼部表情，而西方人则会观察整个脸部。

In the research carried out by a team from Glasgow University, East Asian observers found it more difficult to distinguish some facial EXPRESSIONS.

这项由格拉斯哥大学科研小组进行的研究显示，来自东亚的观察者更难分辨某些脸部表情的不同。

The work published in Current Biology journal challenges the idea facial EXPRESSIONS are universally understood.

这项研究报告已经发表在《当代生物学》杂志上，并对面部表情乃世界共通这一想法提出了异议。

In the study, East Asians were more likely than Westerners to read the EXPRESSION for "fear" as "surprise", and "disgust" as "anger".

研究显示，与西方人相比，东亚人更容易把“恐惧”的表情错认为“惊讶”，把“厌恶”看成“愤怒”。

The researchers say the confusion arises because people from different cultural groups observe different parts of the face when interpreting EXPRESSION.

研究人员认为，产生这样的混淆是因为来自不同文化背景的人在理解表情时所观察的脸部部位不同。

East Asians participants tended to focus on the eyes of the other person, while Western subjects took in the whole face, including the eyes and the mouth.

东亚人特别注重眼部神情，而西方人则观察整个脸部，包括眼睛和嘴巴。

Co-author, Dr Rachael Jack, from the University of Glasgow, said: "Interestingly, although the eye region is ambiguous, subjects tended to bias their judgements towards less socially-threatening emotions--surprise rather than fear, for example.

格拉斯哥大学的雷切尔·杰克博士是这份研究报告的作者之一。她说：“有趣的是，尽管眼睛部位传达的信息比较暧昧，但是研究对象们在做出判断时往往倾向于那些对社会威胁性更小的情绪表达，比如说惊讶，而不是恐惧。”

"This perhaps highlights cultural differences when it comes to the social acceptability of emotions."

“在社会可接受的情绪方面，这可能突出了不同文化的差异。”

The team showed 13 Western Caucasians and 13 East Asians a set of standardised images depicting the seven main facial EXPRESSIONS: happy, sad, neutral, angry, disgusted, fearful and surprised.

研究小组向13名西方白种人和13名东亚人展示了七张脸部表情标准图：包括高兴、悲伤、无表情、愤怒、厌恶、恐惧和惊讶。

They used eye movement trackers to monitor where the participants were looking when interpreting the EXPRESSIONS.

研究人员使用了眼动跟踪来观察实验人员理解脸部表情时聚焦的部位。

A computer program given the same information from the eyes as the East Asian observers was similarly unable to distinguish between the emotions of disgust and anger, and fear and surprise.

东亚观察者的眼动跟踪信息在电脑程序中分析后，同样无法分辨“厌恶”和“愤怒”、“恐惧”和“惊讶”。

The paper states that the Eastern participants used a culturally specific decoding strategy that was inadequate to reliably distinguish the universal facial EXPRESSIONS of fear and disgust.

报告声称，因为东亚人会使用特定的文化“解码”来分析脸部表情，而这种技巧对于分辨“恐惧”和“厌恶”的表情不太适用。

It concluded that information from the eyes is often ambiguous and confusing in these EXPRESSIONS, with consequences for cross-cultural communication and globalisation.

报告总结，由于眼部表情通常模棱两可，因此会对上述这些表情产生混淆，以至于在不同文化交流以及全球化交流中产生影响。

The researchers also point out that this difference in perception is reflected in the differences between Eastern and Western emoticons--the typographical characters used to convey emotions in e-mails.

研究人员同时指出，这种知觉差异也反应在东西方人使用的符号表情中。符号表情通常在电子邮件中使用，以表达书写者的情绪。

The Eastern emoticons are not only the right way up but focus on the eyes, whilst in the West the mouth is important.

东方人的符号表情不仅表达更正确，而且集中在眼部神情，而西方人的表达方式则更注重嘴巴。