【原】悲伤的音乐，居然可以缓解你的抑郁情绪？英语读头条（第538期）

新用户02986T3F 2020-09-17

展开全文

Depressed? Sad Music Makes You Feel Better, According To Science

抑郁了么？听点悲伤的音乐就好了，科学如是说。

By Chris Matyszczyk︱May 4, 2019

This may seem counterintuitive, but these scientists suggest a fascinating reason why it might be true.

这似乎有违直觉，但这些科学家提出了一个令人着迷的理由，并且它很可能是真的。

Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

荒谬的驱动力用怀疑的、嘲讽的眼光看着眼前的商业世界。

Absurdly：荒谬地

skeptical：怀疑地

tongue in cheek：假心假意

The effects of music on the psyche tantalize many.

音乐对精神的影响令人多人着迷。

psyche：灵魂，心灵

tantalize：逗引，招惹

Why does a certain song make you feel good or not so good?

为什么某一首歌，会让你感觉好，或者感觉不那么好？

Not so long ago, I wrote about a study that attempted to define the 10 most uplifting songs in the world.

不久前，我写了一篇文章，讲的是试图定义世界上最令人振奋的10首歌曲的研究。

There were no Beatles songs. Queen's Don't Stop Me Now was the world's happy champion, however.

里面没有披头士的歌曲。歌手”Queens“的“别阻止我”（Don't Stop Me Now）是世界上最令人感到幸福的歌曲第一名。

Now, a University of South Florida study offers an astonishing insight into why depressed people gravitate toward sad music.

现在，南佛罗里达大学的一项研究提供了一个惊人的发现，就是为什么抑郁的人倾向于听悲伤的音乐。

gravitate：被吸引到

Sadness and depression are a very real part of life. They affect work performance, just as much as they affect your relationships.

悲伤和沮丧是生活中非常真实的存在，它们影响工作绩效，就像它们影响你的人际关系一样。

I suspect there are now more people who wear headphones at work than don't. They use those headphones not merely to shut out others, but to manipulate their own feelings.

我怀疑现在上班时戴耳机的人比不戴耳机的人要多，带上耳机不仅是为了让别人别打搅他们，也是为了掌控自己的情绪。

In 2015, scientists at Yale and the Hebrew University concluded that severely depressed people preferred to listen to music that was a downer. The researchers offered that this was an attempt, subconscious or not, to prolong their sad state.

2015年，耶鲁大学和希伯来大学的科学家得出结论，严重抑郁的人更喜欢听令人沮丧的音乐。研究人员认为这是一种尝试，不管是否在潜意识中，他们是要延长他们的悲伤状态。

downer：镇静药

subconscious：潜意识的

prolong：延长

The University of South Florida researchers weren't so sure. They asked 76 female participants (depression occurs twice as often in adult women than in men), half of whom had received a depression diagnosis, to perform two tasks.

南佛罗里达大学的研究人员不太确定。他们让76名女性接受一项测试（成年女性的抑郁症发生率是男性的两倍），其中一半是被诊断为抑郁症的，来完成两项任务。

In one, they were played happy, neutral and sad music and asked which was their preference.

其中一个是演奏快乐、中性和悲伤的音乐，并询问她们喜欢哪种音乐。

In the other, they were given a choice of music from the beginning.

另一组，他们从一开始就可以选择音乐。

The result? Depressed people did, indeed, prefer sad music. (Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings was one of the pieces played.)

结果如何？的确，抑郁的人更喜欢悲伤的音乐。（塞缪尔·巴伯的弦乐慢板就是其中一首。）

What's fascinating, however, was the reasoning.

然而，最吸引人的是推理过程。

It isn't because they wanted to feel more sad and wallow in their misery.

这并不是因为他们想感受到更多的悲伤和沉溺于痛苦之中。

wallow：沉溺

misery：痛苦

Instead, the researchers say, they felt better listening to the sad music. They appreciated its low energy levels.

相反，研究人员说，她们听悲伤的音乐会感觉更好，她们更能领略到音乐的那种低能量。

It made them feel more relaxed.

这让她们感觉更放松。

Jon Rottenberg, who directs the USF's Mood and Emotion Lab, explained to WUSF:

美国科学基金会情绪与情感实验室主任乔恩·罗德伯格（Jon Rottenberg）向美国科学基金会解释说：

It seemed unlikely to us that depressed people want to feel sad. I mean, depressed people are trapped in this kind of paralysis. Their mood state is extremely unpleasant. They go to therapy and they say, 'I want to snap out of this.'

抑郁的人还想感到悲伤难过，这在我们看来真的难以置信。我是说，抑郁的人被困在这种麻痹的感受中，他们的情绪极端的难过。他们去接受治疗，然后会说，‘我想振作起来。

’paralysis：麻痹;瘫痪;

snap out：快速脱离

He explained that depressed people's preference for sad music was pronounced.

他解释说，抑郁的人对悲伤音乐的偏好很明显。

pronounced：明显

Clearly, this was a relatively small-scale study whose conclusions would need further research.

很显然的，这是一个相对小众的研究，对其结论还需要进一步研究。

It does, though, point to two aspects of the human mind that should never be forgotten.

然而，它确实指出了人类思维中两个永远不应该被遗忘的方面。

One is that the upbeat and loud doesn't necessarily signify mood-enhancement and positivity.

一个是快乐的、高声的，并不一定就意味着能够提升情绪的积极性。