如果你是善于察言觀色的人，當對方臉色一變時，你會馬上察覺到對方情緒的變化。英語里說blue in the face、green with envy，原來這些短語都是有科學依據的。快樂、悲傷、厭惡、驚訝等情緒會讓你的臉色發生哪些變化？美國科學家們已經率先研究出了一套和情緒對應的“臉色模式”，準確率可達90%。

截圖來自每日電訊報網站

Whether it is arguing until ‘blue in the face’ or feeling ‘green with envy’ the English language is well-stocked with idioms linking color to emotion.
無論是爭辯到“臉色發藍”還是感覺“嫉妒得發綠”，英語中還真不缺將顏色和情緒聯系在一起的習語。

Now for the first time, scientists have shown that people actually do change hue depending on their feelings.
不過這是科學家第一次表明，人類的臉色確實會隨著情緒的變化而改變。

Although it is a subtle alteration to skin tone and complexion around the nose, eyebrows, cheeks or chin, the effects are picked up subconsciously by observers, making it very hard to hide emotions.
盡管只是鼻子、眉毛周圍、雙頰和下巴的膚色稍微有些變化，但是對方卻能下意識地察覺到，因此要隱藏情緒真的很難。

It means that a sad person, attempting to put on a brave face will still flush the color of his or her unhappiness, inadvertently showing the turmoil behind their smile.
這意味著，當一個悲傷的人試著裝出一副高興的模樣時，仍然會把自己的憂郁通過臉色表現出來，在無意間流露出了笑容背后的心酸。

The scientists believe the changes of color are triggered by blood flow channelled from the central nervous system depending on our state of mind.
科學家認為，臉色的改變是受情緒狀態影響，由來自中樞神經系統的血流引發的。

"We identified patterns of facial coloring that are unique to every emotion we studied," said Dr Aleix Martinez, cognitive scientist and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State University.
俄亥俄州立大學電子與計算機工程學教授、認知科學家亞歷克斯·馬丁內斯博士說：“我們識別出了專屬于我們所研究的每一種情緒的臉色模式。”

"We believe these color patterns are due to subtle changes in blood flow or blood composition triggered by the central nervous system.
“我們認為這些臉色模式源于中樞神經系統引發的血流或血液成分的細微變化。”

“Not only do we perceive these changes in facial color, but we use them to correctly identify how other people are feeling, whether we do it consciously or not."
“我們不但察覺到了臉色的這些變化，還用它們準確識別出了其他人的情緒，無論是有意還是無意的。”

For the study, the researchers first took hundreds of pictures of facial expressions and separated the images into different color channels that correspond to how human eyes see color - either in a red/green channel or blue/yellow.
為了開展研究，研究人員首先拍攝了數百張臉部表情的照片，并將這些照片按照人眼感知顏色的方式相應歸入不同顏色通道——紅/綠通道或藍/黃通道。

They then ran the images through computer analysis and found that emotions such as ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘anger’ or ‘disgust’ all formed unique color patterns.
接著他們用電腦對照片進行分析，并發現“快樂”、“悲傷”、“生氣”或“厭惡”等情緒都能構成獨特的臉色模式。

‘Disgust’, for instance, creates a blue-yellow cast around the lips, but with a red-green cast around the nose and forehead.
舉例來說，“厭惡”會讓嘴唇四周泛出黃藍色調，而鼻子和前額周圍則會呈現紅綠色調。

Happiness is seen in red at the checks and temples and a little blue around the chin, but the same face with a slightly redder forehead and slightly less blue chin registers as ‘surprised.’
快樂的人臉頰和太陽穴發紅，下巴周圍則會有點發藍，但如果前額略微更紅些，下巴沒那么藍，那么這個人的情緒則是“驚訝”。

Although the team did not look at 'envy' they suggest that the green color linked to feelings of jealousy could stem from the nausea which often accompanies the emotion.
盡管該研究團隊沒有關注“嫉妒”，但他們指出，和嫉妒有關的綠色可能源于經常伴隨嫉妒的憎惡。

To test whether colors alone could convey emotions - without smiles or frowns to go along with them - the researchers then superimposed the different emotional color patterns on pictures of faces with neutral expressions.
為了測試在沒有伴隨笑容或皺眉等表情的情況下臉色本身能否傳達情緒，研究人員將和情緒相關的不同臉色模式加在面無表情的人臉照片上。

They found that volunteers were able to spot an emotion up to 75 percent of the time. The effect remained regardless of gender, ethnicity or overall skin tone.
他們發現，志愿者識別出情緒的準確率達75%。無論男女、種族或膚色，效果都一樣。

Next, researchers showed participants facial expressions of happiness, sadness and other emotions but mixed up the colors of the images, for example putting an angry hue on a happy face. Participants reported that something was ‘off’ but could not put their finger on what was wrong.
接下來，研究人員讓參與者看快樂、悲傷和其他各種面部表情的照片，但卻把臉色模式混搭了一下，比如將生氣的臉色放在快樂的臉上。參與者報告稱有點“不對勁”，但說不出是哪里出了問題。

"Participants could clearly identify which images had the congruent versus the incongruent colors," added Prof Martinez.
馬丁內斯教授補充道：“參與者可以清楚地識別出哪些照片的臉色很和諧，哪些照片臉色不和諧。”

"People have always said that we use makeup to look beautiful or younger, but I think that it is possible that we actually do it to appear happier or create a positive perception of emotion--or a negative perception, if you wanted to do that.”
“人們總是說我們用化妝品來使自己看起來更美麗或更年輕，但我認為我們實際上也可以通過化妝來讓自己看起來更快樂或營造出積極的面貌，或是消極的面貌，如果你愿意的話。”

It also enabled researchers to construct computer algorithms that correctly recognize human emotion via face color up to 90 percent of the time.
依據這一原理，科學家還構建出能夠通過臉色準確識別人類情緒的計算機算法，準確率達90%。

Happiness was the easiest emotion for the computer to recognize by color alone, and it detected the emotion with 90 percent accuracy. Anger was detectable by color alone 80 percent of the time, and sadness 75 percent of the time. Fear was recognizable 70 percent of the time.
快樂是單看臉色的情況下最容易能被計算機識別出的情緒，準確率高達90%。單看臉色識別生氣的準確率為80%，悲傷則是75%。單看臉色識別恐懼的準確率為70%。

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
該研究報告發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》上。

英文來源：每日電訊報
翻譯&編輯：丹妮