悲观性格色彩者 更具社交天分

Being in a sad mood has long been linked with performing poorly in everyday tasks. But now scientists have discovered that sad people have one advantage over their happier counterparts - they are better at facial recognition. Researcher Peter Hills, from Anglia Ruskin University, said his findings could lead to better treatments for depression. He said: 'I was surprised. Sad mood is usually associated with poorer performance in cognitive tasks.'

一天到晚垂头丧气的人估计谁看了都心烦，但是科学家发现，具有“悲观性格色彩”的人相对那些天生乐天派来说竟然还是具有一点“得天独厚”的优势呢：那就是脸部识别能力。因为来自 Anglia Ruskin大学的研究员Peter Hills称：“我们研究发现对于改善那些轻度抑郁患者状况会有显著疗效，我对于实验结果很是惊讶，我原先以为悲观的人因为在生活中的表现太过悲观，社交能力会很弱，不善于发现对方的特点。看来我错了。”

Dr Hills and his team at the university which is based in Cambridge and Chelmsford played three pieces of music to get volunteers in one of three moods - sad, happy or neutral. Mozart's Requiem was played for sadness; the jaunty theme from 1980s TV show The A-Team for happiness; and the theme from the 1990 film The Hunt For Red October for a neutral mood. Depending on which group they were in, the volunteers were then asked to think of either the saddest or happiest moments in their lives, or their journey home if they were neutral.The 88 volunteers - all students - were then asked to look at 32 faces with neutral expressions.After completing a brief questionnaire as a distraction, they were then shown 64 faces and asked to pick out the original 32. The sad volunteers gave the most accurate response, while the happy students were the least accurate.

据悉，研究人员向88位志愿者提供三种不同类型的曲子来影响他们的心情，分别是：A.为悲观者准备的---莫札特「安魂弥撒曲」B.为乐天派准备的《天龙特攻队》以及C.为那些既不快乐也不悲伤的中立者准备的影片《猎杀红色十月》。研究者惊奇发现，在分别提供给悲观者、乐观者以及中立者的“各式各样的脸部图片”中，悲观者的辨识程度做得最好、质量最高，他们在为他们准备的“脸部图片”中能够正确辨识各式人脸的能力更强！

Dr Hills told the LiveScience website: 'People prefer looking at happy faces. Isn't a smiling face always more appealing than a sad one? 'It may simply be that because we prefer looking at happy faces, we may pay more attention.' The final experiment followed the same pattern as the second, except the volunteers were asked to recall the faces they'd seen. All three groups answered with the same success rate.'It is possible that sad people may be more susceptible to social cues,' Dr Hills told LiveScience.

专家Dr Hills 说：“通常情况下，人们更喜欢把注意力放到开心的事物上，所以，一张开心、笑容满面的脸自然而然就很容易博得大家的喜爱。然而我们却忽略了悲观者、悲伤的脸所能带给我的影响。实验发现，悲观者更容易发现双方在交谈时的面部表情、和面部的细微变化，换句话来说，他们也许在社交场合会更加游刃有余，更能把握社交的火候。”