8/15/2013
The expressions of Lego figurines have increasingly grown angrier over the past 24 years, according to University of New Zealand researchers.
Researchers classified 628 Lego figurine heads into six definitions: disgust, sadness, happiness, fear, anger, and surprise. Happiness and anger are the most frequent emotional expressions appearing on these heads, but the number of the four negative expression emotions has increased significantly over the past few years.
However, researchers point out that “bad” characters are not necessarily associated with evil expressions. Villains often have smug (or happy) expressions.
Source: “Agents with Faces,” Christoph Bartneck, Study author, University of Canterbury, HIT Lab NZ, PO Box 4800, 8410 Christchurch, New Zealand, christoph.bartneck@canterbury.ac.nz; www.bartneck.de.
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