环球英语 — 746：The Human Face
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Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Liz Waid.
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And I’m Robin Basselin. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Two eyes. One nose. Lips surrounding a mouth. These simple parts help make up one of the most important part of people’s bodies - the face! You may think your face is just a simple part of your body. But have you ever thought of all the amazing things your face can do?
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Today’s Spotlight is on the human face. In this program we will look at how your face communicates. Do you know what messages your face is sending? Join us as we discover the wonders of your face!
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You are happy! Smile! Now you feel anger. Frown! Point the corners of your mouth down. Make a crease, or line, in the skin above your eyes. You do not even have to say a single word. By moving your face into these positions, people already know how you feel. In fact, some experts believe that your face can produce more than seven thousand different expressions!
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All these expressions are possible because of the muscles in your face. These muscles lie in thin layers under your skin. They form a kind of mask over your forehead, around your eyes, on your nose, through your cheeks, around your mouth, and down your chin. Your face is covered in muscles! To make an expression, you could move a few muscles at the same time. Or, you could move only one muscle. Each combination is a different facial expression.
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You probably already know that facial expressions are a form of non-verbal communication. That is, the expressions on your face send a message to the person who is looking at you, without using words. They tell people how you are really feeling. But did you know that your face may also be sending a message even if you do not want it to?
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The BBC produced a special series of programs about faces called “The Human Face.” In this program they followed the story of a married couple in England, Eden and Mandy. Eden and Mandy were having a difficult time in their relationship. They fought often. They thought their marriage was probably over! But they decided to try one more thing.
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Mandy and Eden flew to the United States to meet with Dr. John Gottman. Dr. Gottman is a psychologist, a scientist who studies people. The BBC’s “The Human Face” program described how Dr. Gottman attached machines to Eden and Mandy. He asked them to talk to each other. As they talked, Dr. Gottman and his team of scientists observed how Eden and Mandy’s bodies changed while they talked.
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Dr. Gottman found that arguing WAS hurting Eden and Mandy’s relationship. But he also believed there was more. Their facial expressions were making things worse! As they fought, Eden and Mandy began to exchange looks of disgust and contempt. These expressions communicate hate and a lack of respect. Eden and Mandy never SAID they hated each other. But their facial expressions were communicating the message.
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This might make you think about your own facial expressions. What are you communicating with your face? Can you see what other people are communicating with their faces? Experts say that facial expressions are not always the same across cultural lines. For example, people in one culture may use their eyes more to communicate a message. They will notice when the eyes are more open or closed. They will notice the lines around the other person’s eyes. We do not always notice what we are doing when we read the face of another person. But, by growing up in the culture we know, we have learned to read the faces of the people around us.
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But experts say there are at least six facial expressions that everyone on earth can recognize. These expressions are happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. You can probably easily imagine what each of these expressions look like. You do not need language to communicate these feelings - your face can communicate them for you - whether you want it to or not!
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So, how do we learn to do that? If you have ever been around a baby you know that making funny faces will usually make a baby react, and maybe even laugh. Babies love to see different faces. When does this ability to recognize different facial expressions appear? One study set out to answer these questions. ABC News in the United States reported on one experiment on babies and faces. The experiment was done by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston in the United States. They hoped to discover how babies learn to read facial expressions. They hoped to discover if babies could tell the difference between faces showing different emotions.
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Charles Nelson is the director of the laboratory at Boston Hospital. His researchers attached sensors to the babies in the study. The sensors were painless, and looked almost like a net hat. The sensors helped to study the changes in the baby’s brain. Babies in the study only had to look at pictures on a screen. Cameras inside the screen could closely follow how the babies’ eyes moved.
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Using the sensors and cameras Nelson gathered a lot of information. The babies looked at pictures of different faces. For example, they looked at a happy face or a face that showed fear. He compared how the babies’ eyes moved across the screen, and the measurement of their brain activity. Through these measurements, he could know if a child recognized a difference in the faces.
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Nelson’s results were very interesting! Remember how adults can usually correctly recognize six basic emotions - happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust? Nelson found that babies can also recognize most of these emotions! They can do this even before they can speak!
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So why do people have these special abilities - the abilities to understand what others are feeling? Why does our face need to tell others what we feel? Nelson told ABC News his thoughts. He said people who are good at reading faces have a better chance at building relationships, getting a job and working well with others. That is, our faces help us to be a part of a community. They connect us with others.
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