译者： yatou420我们总认为，男人因性而爱，女人因爱而性，男人更多地关注女人的身体，而女人更多看重男人的内在。这世界上只看到层出不穷的女人的选美大赛，何时看过男人的？但事实是这样的吗？ Not Just Another Pretty Face 不只是个漂亮脸蛋 A new study claims men focus on women’s bodies when they’re seeking a quick hookup, but look above the neckline for a long-term mate. It may ring true, but is it Stone Age psychology at work? 一项新研究表示当男人寻求短暂的性爱伴侣时，他们注重女人的身体。而当他们寻找的是长期伴侣，他们注重脖子以上的部位。这是石器时代的心理在作祟吗？ Women seeking a one-night stand might consider wearing a push-up bra and high heels to a bar, but those searching for a spouse might want to focus on applying eyeliner and lipstick. At least, that seems to be part of the takeaway from a new study that found that men look for good bodies in short-term mates but pretty faces in long-term partners. As for men, maybe weightlifting shouldn’t be a priority. According to the study, women care more about faces than bodies for both short- and long-term relationships. 寻求一夜情的女人通常会穿着高挺的胸罩和高跟鞋去酒吧，而寻求伴侣的女性则可能会只画画眼线，涂涂口红。新研究表明男人在寻找短期伴侣时看重的是好身材，而长期伴侣则看重漂亮脸蛋。在这研究中，至少关于女性的这个言论看起来像是不总要的一部分。可能对于男人来说，性爱中像进行举重不是那么有吸引力。据调查，女人不惯寻求长期还是短期伴侣都更注重脸部。 The fact that men (and, in this particular study, college men) were more interested in seeing a woman’s body for a one-time hookup isn’t too shocking. The question is whether natural selection really shaped that preference, as the study claims. According to the psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin who conducted the study, a woman’s body generally provides information about her current state of fertility. “There are some cues that can only be conveyed by a woman’s body, like her pregnancy status,” says Jaime Confer, who coauthored the study with graduate student Carin Perilloux and Prof. David Buss. “Men’s psychology is designed to attend to that.” In other words, men are wired to choose to view a woman’s body for a one-night stand because, back in the Stone Age, they needed to make sure that a potential sex partner didn’t already have a bump in her belly. 这项研究的对象是男性大学生，而实际上关于男人在寻找一夜情时更关注女人的身体这一说法，并不怎么奇怪。问题在于是否真的像这项研究所说的，是自然选择造成这一偏好。奥斯汀德克萨斯大学的心理学家进行了该研究，他们表示，女性的身体基本能提供目前生育能力的信息。杰米·康弗和研究生大卫以及大卫·巴斯教授合作完成该项研究，她说，“像是否怀孕这样的许多线索都只能从女人的身体上看出来。男人的心理则是天生关注这些的。”换句话说，男人在寻求一夜情时之所以会选择关注女人的身体，是因为在石器时代他们需要确定这个潜在的性伙伴不会已经是怀孕了的。 The study may provide new insight into people’s romantic preferences today, but critics say the findings may tell us more about Western values than about human biology—which may often be the case with research that attempts to assign evolutionary motives to modern behavior. Indeed, the study looked only at 375 college students on one campus, the University of Texas at Austin. Massimo Pigliucci, an evolutionary biologist and philosopher at Lehman College of the City University of New York, says that further research across cultures and time would be needed to make a compelling case for evolution’s role in the results. Moreover, Pigliucci suspects that some cultural forces are at work. “We live in a society where it’s OK for a man to look at a body, but for a woman it’s considered a little beneath her to be interested in physical appearance,” he says. “I would be surprised if that were true in a culture where there are no TV ads and where people go around naked on a regular basis.” 该研究可能对于现在人们恋爱的喜好提供了新颖的视角，但有批评家说这些发现更多地说明了西方的价值观而不是人类的生理。有许多研究都企图将人类演化的动力归因于现代行为习惯。确实，毕竟该研究仅仅针对奥斯汀的德克萨斯大学里的375个学生。马西莫是纽约市立大学莱曼学院的进化生物学家和哲学家，他说还需要进行临时更长的跨文化研究，才能够更有信服力地说明进化在这项结果中的作用。 Why might men be more interested in seeing a woman’s face when marriage is an option? While 49 percent of men chose to look at a woman’s face for a one-night stand, 75 percent opted to view her face for a long-term relationship. “One possibility is that we judge people’s characters from their faces—whether they are honest, kind, and smart,” says Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard. “These matter a lot more when you’re married to someone than if you’re just having a one-night stand.” 当选择结婚时，为何男人更关注女人的脸？49%的男人在选择一夜情对象时关注女人的脸，而在长期交往时有75%的男人关注。哈佛大学的认识科学家史蒂文·平克教授说，“一个可能性是我们通常以一个人的脸来判断他的性格，看看他们是否诚实，善良或者聪明。选择结婚对象时，性格因素就比在寻找一夜情是重要得多。” While participants in the study had the option of looking only at either head or body—but not both—the real world offers us a more complete picture of people, of course. The bottom line? “Don’t neglect your face or your body,” Confer says. “It all still matters.” Being nice probably won’t hurt either. |
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