A recent study finds that young people are more sensitive to negative cues than senior people. CFP
We tend to believe that older people are more positive and younger people are more sensitive to social cues.
我们都会认为，面对社会外部信息，年长者会更积极，而年轻人则会更加敏感。
Recently scientists investigated this idea by testing 10,000 men and women. They wanted to see if age affected a person’s ability to identify subtle facial emotions, such as fear and anger.
科学家们近期调查了这一观点，对1万名名男性和女性进行了测试。他们想要验证年龄是否会影响人们辨别细微面部情绪（如恐惧、愤怒等）的能力。
The researchers from McLean Hospital in the US used a Web-based platform to collect happiness data. It showed the participants two headshots of random people. They were then asked to identify which subject was angrier, happier, or more fearful.
来自美国麦克莱恩医院的研究人员使用了一个线上平台来收集幸福感的数据。该平台先向实验参与者们展示了两张随机的人物头部特写，并要求参与者们指出哪个人物更生气，更高兴，或者更恐惧。
The research found that younger people were able to better identify angry and fearful facial cues than older people.
研究发现，和年长者相比，年轻人能更好地分辨出愤怒和恐惧的面部表情。
“From studies and anecdotal evidence, we know that the everyday experiences of an adolescent are different from an older person, but we wanted to understand how these experiences might be linked with differences in basic emotion understanding,” wrote Laura Germine, the study’s senior author.
“从研究到传闻获得的证据，让我们知道青少年每一天的经历都与年长者不同，但我们想要弄清楚这些（不同的）经历如何导致他们对基本情绪可能有不同的理解”该研究的高级作者劳拉·格曼写道。
But what is it that makes young people more sensitive?
然而，是什么让年轻人变得更加敏感呢？
“This is the exact age when young people are most sensitive to forms of negative social cues, such as bullying,” Lauren Rutter, the study’s lead author, told Science Daily. “The normal development of anger sensitivity can contribute to some of the challenges that arise during this phase of development.”
“这正是年轻人对霸凌等消极的外部信息最为敏感的年纪，”该研究的主要作者劳伦·鲁特在接受《每日科学》采访时如此表示。“愤怒感知能力的正常发展，能够帮助他们应对在此期间产生的一些挑战。”
On the contrary, across the whole 10,000-person survey, researchers found no decline in the perception of happiness among older participants.
与之相反的是，在这份万人调查中，研究人员发现年长的参与者们感知快乐的能力并没有下降。
“What’s remarkable is that we see declines in many visual perceptual abilities as we get older, but here we did not see such declines in the perception of happiness,” Germine told Neuro Science News.
“值得注意的一点是，我们发现随着年纪增长，人们许多视觉感知的能力都有所下降，但在研究中，我们并没有发现感知快乐的能力有所下降，”格曼在接受《神经科学新闻》采访时如此表示。
She added that these findings fit well with other research, showing that older adults tend to have more positive emotions and a positive outlook.
她还补充道，这些发现与其他研究结果相符，表明年长者大多拥有积极的心态，对未来的展望也更加积极。
Following the paper’s release, Rutter told Neuro Science News that gathering their primary research online allowed the team to tap into a “much larger and more diverse sample set” than previous studies.
研究论文发表后，鲁特在接受《神经科学新闻》采访时表示，在网上进行初步研究能令研究团队们挖掘到和先前的研究相比“更大、更多样化的样本人群”。
Now, the team is working toward a new study that examines how emotional sensitivity is related to different aspects of mental health, such as anxiety and depression.
如今，该研究团队正在进行一项新研究：调查情绪敏感度与焦虑、抑郁等心理健康的不同层面的关系。
