悲觀性格色彩者 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.'

一天到晚垂頭喪氣的人估計誰看了都心煩，但是科學家發現，具有“悲觀性格色彩”的人相對那些天生樂天派來說竟然還是具有一點“得天獨厚”的優勢呢：那就是臉部識別能力。因爲來自 Anglia Ruskin大學的研究員Peter Hills稱：“我們研究發現對於改善那些輕度抑鬱患者狀況會有顯著療效，我對於實驗結果很是驚訝，我原先以爲悲觀的人因爲在生活中的表現太過悲觀，社交能力會很弱，不善於發現對方的特點。看來我錯了。”

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 88 volunteers - all students - were then asked to look at 32 faces with neutral r 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.

據悉，研究人員向88位志願者提供三種不同類型的曲子來影響他們的心情，分別是：A.爲悲觀者準備的---莫札特「安魂彌撒曲」B.爲樂天派準備的《天龍特攻隊》以及C.爲那些既不快樂也不悲傷的中立者準備的影片《獵殺紅色十月》。研究者驚奇發現，在分別提供給悲觀者、樂觀者以及中立者的“各式各樣的臉部圖片”中，悲觀者的辨識程度做得最好、質量最高，他們在爲他們準備的“臉部圖片”中能夠正確辨識各式人臉的能力更強！

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.

專家Dr Hills 說：“通常情況下，人們更喜歡把注意力放到開心的事物上，所以，一張開心、笑容滿面的臉自然而然就很容易博得大家的喜愛。然而我們卻忽略了悲觀者、悲傷的臉所能帶給我的影響。實驗發現，悲觀者更容易發現雙方在交談時的面部表情、和麪部的細微變化，換句話來說，他們也許在社交場合會更加遊刃有餘，更能把握社交的火候。”