山羊更喜歡快樂的人而不是憤怒的人

山羊更喜歡快樂的人而不是憤怒的人

The human face can be a bit of an open book. Sure we can fake our facial expressions, but in general: Smile = happy, grimace = angry. Even our companion animals have our number – dogs, for example, are very sensitive to the emotional cues we give. But what about other animals?

人臉就像一本打開的書。當然，我們可以假裝我們的面部表情，但一般來說:微笑=高興，做鬼臉=生氣。甚至我們的伴侶動物也有我們的數(shù)字——例如，狗，對我們給出的情感暗示非常敏感。但是其他動物呢?

According to a 2018 study led by scientists at Queen Mary University of London, it appears evident that when it comes to goats at least, the answer is yes.

根據(jù)倫敦瑪麗皇后大學科學家2018年的一項研究，顯然至少對于山羊來說，答案是肯定的。

CC BY 2.0. Martin Cathrae / Flickr

Published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the researchers explained how 20 goats reacted to images of happy and angry human facial expressions, concluding that the goats preferred to look at and interact with the positive faces.

發(fā)表在《皇家學會開放科學》雜志上的研究人員解釋了20只山羊?qū)θ祟惪鞓泛蛻嵟拿娌勘砬閳D像的反應，并得出結(jié)論，山羊更喜歡看積極的面孔并與之互動。

The research was conducted at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Kent, where the team showed the goats pairs of unfamiliar faces of the same person showing happy and angry expressions.

這項研究是在肯特郡的Buttercups山羊保護區(qū)進行的，研究小組向山羊展示了同一個人的不同面孔，其中既有高興的表情，也有生氣的表情。

The goats preferred the happy faces, which elicited greater interaction with the goats approaching them and exploring them with their snouts. The effect was amplified when the happy faces were on the right side, suggesting that goats use the left hemisphere of their brains to process positive emotion.

山羊更喜歡快樂的臉，這能引起山羊更多的互動，它們會主動靠近，并用鼻子去探索。當快樂的臉放在右邊時，這種效果會被放大，這表明山羊用左腦來處理積極的情緒。

Taken at the Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats. ChristianNawroth / Wikimedia Commons

First author Dr. Christian Nawroth, pictured above, said in a statement from the University, “We already knew that goats are very attuned to human body language, but we did not know how they react to different human emotional expressions, such as anger and happiness. Here, we show for the first time that goats do not only distinguish between these expressions, but they also prefer to interact with happy ones.”

第一作者克里斯蒂安·納羅斯博士(見上圖)在大學的一份聲明中說:“我們已經(jīng)知道山羊非常適應人類的肢體語言，但我們不知道它們是如何對人類不同的情感表達做出反應的，比如憤怒和快樂。”在這里，我們第一次證明了山羊不僅會區(qū)分這些表情，而且它們更喜歡與快樂的表情互動。”

The study, which provides the first evidence of how goats read human emotional expressions, implies that the ability of animals to perceive human facial cues is not limited to those with a long history of domestication as companions, such as dogs and horses, notes the researchers.

研究人員指出，這項研究首次證明了山羊是如何解讀人類情感表達的，這意味著動物感知人類面部線索的能力并不局限于那些長期被馴化為伙伴的動物，比如狗和馬。

Dr. with a goat. Alan Mcelligott

Study leader Dr. Alan McElligott, pictured above, said “The study has important implications for how we interact with livestock and other species, because the abilities of animals to perceive human emotions might be widespread and not just limited to pets.”

研究負責人艾倫·麥克艾力哥特博士(見上圖)說:“這項研究對于我們?nèi)绾闻c牲畜和其他物種互動具有重要意義，因為動物感知人類情感的能力可能廣泛存在，而不僅僅局限于寵物。”

This isn't the first look by these researchers into the inner lives of goats that we've reported on here (see: Goats are the new dogs!). In the previous study, the team found that goats have the capacity to communicate with people, just like other domesticated animals such as dogs and horses do. So is it any surprise that they can read our emotions and respond accordingly?

這并不是我們報道的這些研究人員對山羊內(nèi)心生活的第一次觀察(見:山羊是新的狗!)在之前的研究中，該團隊發(fā)現(xiàn)山羊有與人交流的能力，就像其他馴養(yǎng)動物，如狗和馬一樣。所以，它們能讀懂我們的情緒并做出相應的反應，這有什么好驚訝的嗎?

As McElligott said in reference to the earlier study, “If we can show that they are more intelligent, then hopefully we can bring in better guidelines for their care.” With the research showing that goats are more perceptive than most people realize, hopefully, we're one step closer to achieving that goal.

正如麥克艾力哥特在提到早期的研究時說的，“如果我們能證明它們更聰明，那么我們就有希望為它們的護理帶來更好的指導方針。研究表明，山羊比大多數(shù)人意識到的更有洞察力，希望我們離這個目標更近一步。”