2013.6 CET6 阅读：可爱引发的攻击性

Seeing something cute actually does bring out aggression in us, according to a paper presented at Society for Personality and Social Psychology's annual Orleans last Friday.
根据上周五在新奥尔良的“个性和社会心理学研究会”年会上的一份报告的说法，看见可爱的东西确实会让人变得更加有攻击性。

Researchers found 109 people to look at pictures of animals -- cute, funny and "neutral" photos of fluffy, fluffy puppies. The lucky participants then rated how they felt about the pictures: whether they agreed with the statement like "I just can't handle it!" , whether they made them want to squeeze something or whether they were suddenly seized with the impulse to "grr!" The cuter the animal, the more aggressive the response.
研究者给109个实验参加者分别看了不同的动物图片，其中有可爱的、有搞笑的，以及“一般”的毛茸茸的小狗。这些幸运的参与者们接着对照片给他们的感觉进行了评价，如“实在是可爱得受不了了！”这样的说法是否符合他们的感受；又如他们是否有想要捏东西的冲动、是否突然有喊“唔啊啊啊啊！”的冲动。结果显示：动物越可爱，人们的反应也越激烈。

The study's researchers, led by Rebecca Dyer, a graduate student in psychology at Yale University, dubs the phenomenon "cute aggression".
耶鲁大学心理学硕士Rebecca Dyer领导的研究团队把这种现象称为“可爱引发的攻击性”。

"We think it's about high positive-affect, an approach orientation and almost a sense of lost control," she said. It's so adorable, it drives you crazy.
“我们认为，这种现象表现为高度积向，的感觉，”她说道。它太可爱了，可爱到让你发疯。

But for the sake of thoroughness, researchers did a second experiment to test whether the aggression was simply verbal, or whether people really did want to act out in response to wide-eyed kittens and cherubic babies. Volunteers were given bubble wrap and told they could pop as much of it as they wanted.
不过为了确保实验的完整性，研究者又进行了第二个实验，测试人们看到大眼睛的猫咪和胖乎乎的宝宝时，他们表现出来攻击性是否会真的付诸行动，还是单单只是口头上的。研究者给了志愿者们一些外包装气泡膜，告诉他们随便挤破多少都可以。

When faced with a slideshow of cute animals, people popped 120 bubbles, whereas people watching the funny and neutral slideshows popped 80 and 100 bubbles respectively.
看了可爱动物幻灯片的志愿者挤破了120个泡泡，而看了搞笑的或者普通动物照片的人则分别平均挤破了80个和100个泡泡。

Dyer's suggests that one reason we -up aggression over cute pictures is that seeing something cute, like a baby, drives us to want to take care of it. But we can't reach through a photograph to cuddle it, so we get frustrated -- and then aggressive.
Dyer的团队提出，看到像小宝宝这样所以会产生攻击性行为，这是因为人有想要照顾它们的冲动。但是光看照片我们并不能真的抱到可爱的东西，所以人会变得失落，进而变得有攻击性。

Another possibility is that it's just too much of a good thing -- sometimes we portray an onslaught of positive emotion in a negative way, like when you're so happy you cry. Dyer speculates that giving positive emotions a negative spin might help us regulate that high energy.
另外一种可能性是：好事过头反成坏事——有的时候我们会用消极地表现积极的情绪，如喜极而泣。Dyer推测到，用消极的方法表现积极情绪也许能帮助人控制过剩的精力。

So the next time an aunt moves in to pinch your cheeks, just think -- you can't help being cute. And if there are any follow up studies, I'd happily volunteer to look at some puppies -- kittens and bunnies are within my expertise, too.
所以下次阿姨捏你脸的时候，你只要想：你实在是太可爱了，没办法。如果还有后续研究的话，我会很乐意去做志愿者，去看看小狗狗的照片，看猫咪和小兔的照片也是我的专长！