山羊更喜欢快乐的人而不是愤怒的人

山羊更喜欢快乐的人而不是愤怒的人

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?

人脸就像一本打开的书。当然，我们可以假装我们的面部表情，但一般来说:微笑=高兴，做鬼脸=生气。甚至我们的伴侣动物也有我们的数字——例如，狗，对我们给出的情感暗示非常敏感。但是其他动物呢?

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.

根据伦敦玛丽皇后大学科学家2018年的一项研究，显然至少对于山羊来说，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.

发表在《皇家学会开放科学》杂志上的研究人员解释了20只山羊对人类快乐和愤怒的面部表情图像的反应，并得出结论，山羊更喜欢看积极的面孔并与之互动。

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.

这项研究是在肯特郡的Buttercups山羊保护区进行的，研究小组向山羊展示了同一个人的不同面孔，其中既有高兴的表情，也有生气的表情。

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.

山羊更喜欢快乐的脸，这能引起山羊更多的互动，它们会主动靠近，并用鼻子去探索。当快乐的脸放在右边时，这种效果会被放大，这表明山羊用左脑来处理积极的情绪。

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·纳罗斯博士(见上图)在大学的一份声明中说:“我们已经知道山羊非常适应人类的肢体语言，但我们不知道它们是如何对人类不同的情感表达做出反应的，比如愤怒和快乐。”在这里，我们第一次证明了山羊不仅会区分这些表情，而且它们更喜欢与快乐的表情互动。”

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.

研究人员指出，这项研究首次证明了山羊是如何解读人类情感表达的，这意味着动物感知人类面部线索的能力并不局限于那些长期被驯化为伙伴的动物，比如狗和马。

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.”

研究负责人艾伦·麦克艾力哥特博士(见上图)说:“这项研究对于我们如何与牲畜和其他物种互动具有重要意义，因为动物感知人类情感的能力可能广泛存在，而不仅仅局限于宠物。”

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?

这并不是我们报道的这些研究人员对山羊内心生活的第一次观察(见:山羊是新的狗!)在之前的研究中，该团队发现山羊有与人交流的能力，就像其他驯养动物，如狗和马一样。所以，它们能读懂我们的情绪并做出相应的反应，这有什么好惊讶的吗?

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.

正如麦克艾力哥特在提到早期的研究时说的，“如果我们能证明它们更聪明，那么我们就有希望为它们的护理带来更好的指导方针。研究表明，山羊比大多数人意识到的更有洞察力，希望我们离这个目标更近一步。”