考研英語時文賞讀（53）：為什么看到可愛的寶寶或者動物我們會忍不住去揉捏？

　　摘要：考研英語作為一門考研公共課，雖然大家都學了英語十幾年，卻仍經常有總分過線掛在英語上的情況，因此英語復習不單單是單詞、做題。閱讀作為考研英語的大頭，僅僅做考研真題或許沒法滿足你的閱讀量，因此幫幫之后會不定時推出一篇英文美文，這些文章都與考研英語閱讀同源，多讀必有好處。

　　Scientists may have found a reason why you can’t stop pinching the cheeks of adorable babies.

　　科學家們可能已經找到原因，為啥你會忍不住捏可愛寶寶的臉頰。

　　Researchers at Yale University describe this phenomenon as “cute aggression.”

　　耶魯大學的研究人員將這種現(xiàn)象描述為“可愛侵略性”。

　　They studied the brains of 52 participants via electrophysiology and found that people have a strong reaction to pets and humans with more infantile features.

　　他們通過電生理學研究了52名參與者的大腦，發(fā)現(xiàn)人們對寵物和有更多嬰兒特征的人類反應強烈。

　　“The Yale researchers initially found that people reported feeling cute aggression more in response to baby animals versus adult animals,” Katherine Stavropoulos, a special education professor at the University of California, wrote in a press release. “But even beyond that, people reported feeling cute aggression more in response to picture of human babies that had been digitally enhanced to appear more infantile, and therefore ‘more cute,’ by enlarging features like their eyes, cheeks, and foreheads.”

　　加州大學特殊教育教授凱瑟琳·斯塔夫羅普洛斯在一篇新聞稿中寫道：“耶魯大學的研究人員最初發(fā)現(xiàn)，與成年動物相比，人們對幼小動物的可愛侵略性更強烈。但除此之外，當人們看到經過數(shù)碼強化處理，更嬰兒化的嬰兒照片時，他們的可愛侵略感也更強烈。這些照片通過放大他們的眼睛、臉頰和額頭等面部特征顯得更‘可愛’。”

　　The study also saw that respondents felt more overwhelmed and wanted to take care of cute baby animals over less cute adult animals.

　　研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，與不太可愛的成年動物相比，被調查者會不可抑制地更想照顧可愛的小動物。

　　Stavropoulos argues that our “cute aggression,” the feeling that something is so adorable you can’t take it, serves as an evolutionary function.

　　斯塔夫羅普洛斯認為，我們的“可愛侵略性”是一種感覺，即認為某樣東西太可愛了，你無法接受，這是一種進化功能。

　　“For example, if you find yourself incapacitated by how cute a baby is — so much so that you simply can’t take care of it — that baby is going to starve,” Stavropoulos said. “Cute aggression may serve as a tempering mechanism that allows us to function and actually take care of something we might first perceive as overwhelmingly cute.”

　　斯塔夫羅普洛斯說：“舉例來說，如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)自己無法忍受寶寶的可愛程度，以至于你根本無法照顧它，那么寶寶就會餓死?？蓯矍致孕钥梢宰鳛橐环N調節(jié)機制，讓我們能夠正常生活，并真正照顧那些我們一開始覺得超級可愛的東西。”

　　(全文共241個詞，每日郵報 )

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