臉孔特徵對漫畫人物身分辨識與個性塑造之影響－以日式少年漫畫為例

Abstract

本研究以人臉材料為主題，探討漫畫這種「圖像表徵」（pictorial representation）相較於「真實物件」（real object）對於觀者之心理效果差異，亦即了解人們在閱讀過程中究竟是如何透過漫畫人物的臉孔特徵來認識角色，以及臉孔特徵可承載多少角色的個性訊息。這類資訊對於創作者在進行角色相貌與性格的設定時，可提供非常具體且實用的參考依據。研究共分為兩部分：「角色身分識別研究」，探討臉孔特徵對漫畫人物身分辨識之影響；以及「角色性格印象研究」，探討臉孔特徵對於角色個性之暗示效果。 在「角色身分識別研究」中，我們試圖了解人們對於漫畫角色臉孔辨識之情形，並與真實人臉辨識的文獻進行比較。我們發現當角色身分辨識困難時，對於參與者理解劇情、沉浸於漫畫作品之程度的影響極大，參與者會抱怨閱讀的負擔加重，甚至有時乾脆拒絕閱讀該作品。而在辨識漫畫人物身分時，參與者主要考量「不同角色間」臉孔特徵的差異程度，而非「同一角色」顯現於不同畫格時，臉孔特徵的一致性程度。此外，無論是真人或漫畫人物，當僅以臉孔內部特徵來辨識角色身分時，眼睛與嘴巴是重要的辨識線索。若人物間眼睛與嘴巴造型的差異愈大，就愈有助於身分的識別。至於眉毛扮演的角色則非常特殊，從參與者主觀報告中得知眉毛是僅次於眼睛的重要特徵，但實驗結果卻顯示眉毛並不影響角色身分的辨識。最後，鼻子也具有相當特別的地位，從過去真人臉孔辨識的研究中可知，鼻子是眼睛與嘴巴之後的第三重要特徵，但在漫畫人物中，它卻是參與者主觀認為辨識角色身分時較不具影響力的要素，透過實驗也發現鼻子對於辨識角色身分的正確與否並不造成影響，不過去除鼻子的情況卻會大幅減少辨識身分所需的反應時間。此外令人大感意外是：參與者憑第一印象推估角色性格的重要指標中，包含了相當多與鼻子相關的參數。 關於「角色性格印象研究」，參與者普遍在閱讀漫畫前十分仰賴臉孔特徵來猜測角色個性，並且主觀認為自己能夠看懂漫畫角色的「面相」，這表示大部分的讀者在閱讀一部新漫畫初期即在其認知系統中建立了各個角色的「性格模型」，並依據心中的性格模型來理解各角色在劇情中之行動與思維的意義。此外，我們也發現參與者對人物性格的第一印象相當集中在16種MBTI人格類型裡的ISTJ與ENFP這兩類。此種以貌取人的作法，主要是透過眼睛與鼻子的相關參數來決定。眼高、單眼面積、單眼瞳仁面積、眼內側至鼻下緣的垂直距離、鼻長、鼻面積，皆是參與者憑第一印象推估角色性格時的重要參數，與MBTI四個維度的評分都具有顯著相關。當角色眼睛的高度距離愈短，或是單眼面積愈小，抑或單眼瞳仁面積範圍愈小，以及眼內側至鼻下緣的垂直距離愈長，或者鼻子愈長，甚至是鼻子面積愈大，就愈容易被參與者猜測是ISTJ的性格；反之則愈容易被推測為ENFP的人格。另外，我們發現這兩種角色性格的鮮明度相當高，無論參與者或專家在評估人物性格時都有很高的一致性。

This study explored how readers are psychologically affected by the pictorial representation of human faces in comic books, as compared to the real faces. We studied how readers form impressions of comics characters and to what extent personality data can be conveyed through facial features. Our findings provide comics creators with specific, practical reference data in developing the appearances and personalities of their characters. The study is divided into two parts: We first discuss how readers identify characters based on their facial features and then explore the personality implications of these features. We researched how readers identify the faces of comics characters and compared our findings with previous studies on human facial recognition. We found that difficulty in identifying character roles has an enormous impact on the ability of participants to understand the plot and become absorbed in the story. Participants experiencing such difficulties complained that the book was tedious and in some cases even refused to read it. When attempting to identify characters, participants compared differences in facial features among different comics characters, rather than seeking consistency of facial features in the same character appearing in different frames. The eyes and mouth were key indicators when participants used only internal facial features to identify the characters. The greater the differences between the eyes and mouth, the more easily participants were able to make an accurate identification. Eyebrows played a particularly unique role. According to subjective reports from participants, eyebrows are the second-most important facial feature, surpassed only by the eyes. However, experimental findings showed that eyebrows did not affect role identification. Previous studies on human facial recognition have found that the nose is the third-most important physical feature, outranked by the eyes and mouth. When identifying comics characters however, participants did not consider the nose to be a significant feature. This was echoed by experimental findings which showed that the nose did not affect the accuracy of role identification. When the nose was eliminated from illustrations, however, the reaction time required to identify characters was significantly reduced. Even more surprisingly, participants referred to several nose-related parameters when making judgments of personality based on first impressions. Before reading the story, participants often made judgments about the personalities of characters based on their facial features, and considered themselves capable of physiognomic interpretation. This indicates that at the start of reading a new comic book, most readers mentally build personality models for characters and interpret their dialogue and actions based on these models. We also found that, based on their first impressions, participants tended to classify characters as either type ISTJ or type ENFP (two of the 16 MBTI types). These appearance-based judgments were generally determined by eye and nose parameters: the height of the eyes, iris area, the distance from the nasal corner of the eye to the lower edge of the nose (N-L distance), and the length and area of the nose were all important elements in the judgment of personality based on first impressions. These features were all significantly correlated with the four MBTI dimensions. Characters with smaller height of the eyes, smaller eye and iris areas, greater N-L distance, longer noses and larger nose areas tended to be classified as ISTJ personality types. Characters with features on the opposite end of the scale, however, were more commonly classed as ENFP types. These two personality types were also shown to be highly differentiable, as both participants and experts produced highly consistent results when evaluating these personalities.