感情的世界臉重要么

　　導讀：感情的世界里，臉真的重要么?

　　The dating world is cruel. No matter how much we stress theimportance of "inner beauty" and kindness and a sense ofhumor, looks are undeniably a big asset in the dating game. It’sthe dream of every average-looking guy that, having beenrejected by a handsome beau, the beautiful woman he admires from afar will realize her error injudgment and take notice of him.

　　感情的世界一直很殘酷。不管我們怎樣強調(diào)“內(nèi)在美”、以及善良和幽默感有多么重要，外貌卻無疑是這場游戲中的巨大優(yōu)勢。每一個相貌平平的男子都夢想著有一天，自己仰視的女神在被高富帥拒絕后，能夠幡然領(lǐng)悟，然后對自己青眼有加。

　　Well, dream on, because this scenario is highly unlikely, according to newly published research.

　　然而最新發(fā)表的一項研究結(jié)果告訴我們：夢終究是夢，幾乎不可能成為現(xiàn)實。。

　　The study, which focused on the responses 126 female undergraduates had after romanticrejection, was led by University of Toronto (Canada) psychologist Geoff MacDonald. Researchersfound that “rejection by an attractive man also led to derogation of, and distancing from, anunattractive man – even when that unattractive man offered acceptance.” In other words, afterbeing rejected by a hunk, women were found to be more inclined to reject a less attractive man.

　　這項由加拿大多倫多大學心理學家杰夫•麥克唐納領(lǐng)導的研究調(diào)查了126名被男生拒絕的女大學生。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，“在被男神拒絕之后，女生同樣也會輕視或是疏遠長相平平的男生，即使這些男生向她們拋去橄欖枝也是如此”。換言之，被男神拒絕后，女生更容易拒絕其他“路人甲”式的男士。

　　The likely reason, the researchers write in the journal “Social Psychological and PersonalityScience”, is that accepting the affection of a “low-status” person “may imply one is of similarly lowstatus,” thus making the pain caused by the initial rejection even worse.

　　The implication here is obvious: Looks are closely associated with status, at least in the datingworld.

　　研究者們發(fā)表在《社會心理學和社會科學》雜志上的文章也指出了可能的原因，即接受“劣勢”一方會的情感“可能意味著承認自己也是劣勢一方”，從而加劇了上次被拒的痛苦。

　　而這一切背后的含義不言而喻：外表與地位息息相關(guān)，至少在感情的世界里是這樣。

　　Research methodology

　　研究方法

　　Pacific Standard magazine writes the 126 test subjects were asked to look at two made-up profiles,one of a good-looking guy, the other of an unattractive one. They were told that they couldpotentially meet these two men at the end of the experiment.

　　據(jù)《太平洋標準》雜志所寫，126名實驗對象將會看到兩份編造的人員檔案，一份是帥哥，而另一份則長相一般。她們還被告知有可能在實驗最后與兩位男子見面。

　　The women then received feedback from each of the men indicating whether they wanted tomeet. The women were then asked to indicate whether they were interested in meeting each man,and rated both in terms of physical attractiveness and romantic appeal.

　　參與實驗的女性一方面會得到兩名男子是否愿意與她們見面的反饋，也會被問及更喜歡與誰見面，并且對兩人的外表魅力和感情吸引力進行評價。

　　Not surprisingly, the women who were rejected by one of the men gave him lower ratings. Theresearchers think that their reasoning probably went like this: If he doesn’t want me, he can’t bethat great anyway.

　　毫無意外，女生對拒絕自己的男生評價更低。研究人員認為女生們的邏輯是這樣的：如果他看不上我，那他一定不夠好。

　　Saving face

　　挽回面子

　　But surprisingly, “participants who were rejected by the attractive man were also relativelyuninterested in meeting the unattractive man,” write the researchers. What’s more, they were alsomore inclined to evaluate the unattractive man harshly.

　　但是，研究人員同時也指出另一個出人意料的發(fā)現(xiàn)，即“被帥哥拒絕之后，參與實驗的女生會對另一個男生也失去興趣。”而且她會在評價這個相貌平平的男生時更加苛刻。

　　What is the reason for this? MacDonald told academic publishing company Sage Publications: “What people want is not immediate acceptance itself, but a sense of assurance that the person isacceptable to the sorts of people they want to be connected to.”

　　為何如此呢?麥克唐納對學術(shù)出版公司世哲出版社說：“人們想要的并不是一見鐘情，而是“這個人適合繼續(xù)發(fā)展聯(lián)系”這種確定的感覺。”

　　Isn’t that a bit shallow? As if romance is all about face and what other people think. But of course,the researchers based their conclusion on perceptions of college students.

　　是不是有點兒膚淺?就像所有的浪漫感情都是看臉或視他人的評價而生一樣，研究人員所有的結(jié)論也都是基于大學生的視角產(chǎn)生的。

　　We can console ourselves that, as we grow more mature, we may realize status can be conveyedby means other than physical appearance. Or maybe we will grow more confident and begin torealize true love is more important than the opinions of our peers.

　　我們也許可以寬慰自己，隨著一個人逐漸成熟，我們也許會意識到，除了外貌之外，還有更多的方式可以展示自己在感情中的地位。亦或者，隨著我們的成長，我們會變得更加自信，相信真愛比別人的看法更重要。

　　重點解析 Key Phrases/Words

　　1. derogation n. 毀損，墮落，減損

　　2. shallow adj. 淺的，膚淺的，表面的，皮毛的， 淺的

　　3. console v. 安慰，慰問