TED英語演講：你如何判斷什么是美
Anjan Chatterjee從進化心理學和認知神經(jīng)科學的角度研究了一個自然的最迷人的概念：美。為什么某些線、顏色和形狀的的構造組合，會帶給我們一種美的感受?他將深入我們的大腦，探尋這背后的科學原因。下面是小編為大家收集關于TED英語演講：你如何判斷什么是美，歡迎借鑒參考。
演說題目：How your brain decides what is beautiful
演說者：Anjan Chatterjee
It's 1878. Sir Francis Galton gives aremarkable talk. He's speaking to the anthropologic institute of Great Britainand Ireland. Known for his pioneering work in human intelligence, Galton is abrilliant polymath. He's an explorer, an anthropologist, a sociologist, apsychologist and a statistician. He's also a eugenist.
1878 年，弗朗西斯高爾頓爵士 做了一場非凡的演說。演說的對象是英國 與愛爾蘭的人類學機構。高爾頓以他在人類智慧領域的先驅工作聞名，他是個博學的人。他是個探險家、是個人類學家、是個社會學家、是個心理學家、也是個統(tǒng)計學家。他還是個優(yōu)生學家。
In this talk, hepresents a new technique by which he can combine photographs and producecomposite portraits. This technique could be used to characterize differenttypes of people. Galton thinks that if he combines photographs of violentcriminals, he will discover the face of criminality. But to his surprise, thecomposite portrait that he produces is beautiful.
在那場演說中，他展示了一項新技術，他可以把照片結合產(chǎn)生出復合的肖像。這項技術可以用來 描繪不同類型人的特色。高爾頓認為，如果他可以把 暴力罪犯的照片結合起來，他也許就能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)罪犯的面貌。但，出乎他意料，他制作出的復合肖像竟然很美。
Galton's surprising finding raises deep questions:What is beauty? Why do certain configurations of line and color and form exciteus so? For most of human history, these questions have been approached usinglogic and speculation. But in the last few decades, scientists have addressedthe question of beauty using ideas from evolutionary psychology and tools ofneuroscience. We're beginning to glimpse the why and the how of beauty, atleast in terms of what it means for the human face and form. And in theprocess, we're stumbling upon some surprises.
高爾頓的意外發(fā)現(xiàn)，帶出了更深的問題： 美，到底是什么? 為什么將線條、顏色、形式 做某些配置之后就能感動我們? 在大部份的人類史上，人們都用邏輯和推測來處理這些問題。但在最近幾十年，科學家在處理關于美的問題時，用的是來自演化心理學的想法 以及神經(jīng)科學的工具。我們開始研究美的定義與成因，至少對臉部及外型 已經(jīng)開始有了審美的概念。在過程中，我們偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些驚喜。
When it comes to seeing beauty in eachother, while this decision is certainly subjective for the individual, it'ssculpted by factors that contribute to the survival of the group. Manyexperiments have shown that a few basic parameters contribute to what makes aface attractive. These include averaging, symmetry and the effects of hormones.Let's take each one of these in turn.
談到互看順眼時，對個人而言，其審美標準 絕對是主觀的，原因是因為這樣對 團體的生存有所貢獻。許多實驗都顯示，有幾個基本參數(shù)與臉孔的吸引力有關。這些參數(shù)包括大眾臉、對稱性、以及荷爾蒙的影響。我們一項一項來討論。
Galton's finding that composite or averagefaces are typically more attractive than each individual face that contributes tothe average has been replicated many times. This laboratory finding fits withmany people's intuitions. Average faces represent the central tendencies of agroup. People with mixed features represent different populations, andpresumably harbor greater genetic diversity and adaptability to theenvironment. Many people find mixed-race individuals attractive and inbredfamilies less so.
高爾頓發(fā)現(xiàn)，混血兒或有大眾臉的人 通常比一般單一血種的后代 更具吸引力。這個實驗室的發(fā)現(xiàn)，與許多人的直覺不謀而合。一般人的面孔代表了一個團體的主要傾向。有混血特征的人，代表著不同的族群，也被認定有著更高的 基因多樣性、以及對環(huán)境的適應力。許多人覺得混血兒的臉孔 是較有吸引力的，而近親交配的家庭就比較沒吸引力。
The second factor that contributes tobeauty is symmetry. People generally find symmetric faces more attractive thanasymmetric ones. Developmental abnormalities are often associated withasymmetries. And in plants, animals and humans, asymmetries often arise fromparasitic infections. Symmetry, it turns out, is also an indicator of health.
與美有關的第二個因子是對稱性。一般來說，人們覺得對稱的面孔 比不對稱的更有吸引力。不正常的成長通常都與不對稱有關。植物、動物、及人類，造成不對稱的原因通常是受到寄生蟲的感染。因此，對稱性 也是健康的指標。
In the 1930s, a man named Maksymilian Faktorowicz recognized the importance ofsymmetry for beauty when he designed the beauty micrometer. With this device,he could measure minor asymmetric flaws which he could then make up for withproducts he sold from his company, named brilliantly after himself, Max Factor,which, as you know, is one of the world's most famous brands for "makeup."
在 1930 年代，有個叫蜜斯米蘭佛陀維茲的人，當時他在設計美容校準儀時，體認到對稱性對于美的重要性，有了這個儀器，他可以測量出微小的對稱瑕疵，接著他就可以用他公司所販賣的產(chǎn)品來補救，并很聰明地把他的名字取其諧音 作為公司的名稱，蜜絲佛陀，各位應該知道，它是世界知名的 化妝品公司之一。
The third factor that contributes to facialattractiveness is the effect of hormones. And here, I need to apologize forconfining my comments to heterosexual norms. But estrogen and testosterone playimportant roles in shaping features that we find attractive. Estrogen producesfeatures that signal fertility.
與臉部吸引力有關的第三個因子是 荷爾蒙的影響力。在此我得道個歉，因為我的意見 僅限于異性戀的標準上。但在形成被我們認為有吸引力的那些特征上，雌激素和睪丸素扮演了重要的角色。雌激素產(chǎn)生的特征會傳達出生育力。
Men typically find women attractive who haveelements of both youth and maturity. A face that's too baby-like might meanthat the girl is not yet fertile, so men find women attractive who have largeeyes, full lips and narrow chins as indicators of youth, and high cheekbones asan indicator of maturity.
男人通常會覺得，同時俱有 年輕和成熟元素的女人 很有吸引力。太幼齒的面孔可能代表著 這個女孩還沒有生育能力，所以能吸引男人的女人通常有大眼睛、豐唇、窄下巴，這些都是年輕的指標; 而高顴骨則是成熟的指標。
Testosterone produces features that weregard as typically masculine. These include heavier brows, thinner cheeks andbigger, squared-off jaws. But here's a fascinating irony. In many species, ifanything, testosterone suppresses the immune system. So the idea thattestosterone-infused features are a fitness indicator doesn't really make awhole lot of sense. Here, the logic is turned on its head. Instead of a fitnessindicator, scientists invoke a handicap principle.
睪丸素產(chǎn)生的特征，通常會被我們 認定為很有男子氣概。這些特征包括濃眉、瘦臉頰、較大且方形的下頜。但這里有個很迷人的諷刺。在許多物種中，睪丸素的增加反而會抑制免疫系統(tǒng)。所以認為睪丸素 所賦予的特征是強健的指針，其實不是很有道理。在這里，邏輯被顛覆了。科學家提出了一條 生理缺陷原則，指出睪丸素并非強健的指標。
The most commonly cited example of ahandicap is the peacock's tail. This beautiful but cumbersome tail doesn'texactly help the peacock avoid predators and approach peahens. Why should suchan extravagant appendage evolve? Even Charles Darwin, in an 1860 letter to AsaGray wrote that the sight of the peacock's tail made him physically ill. Hecouldn't explain it with his theory of natural selection, and out of thisfrustration, he developed the theory of sexual selection.
最常被引用的生理缺陷例子，就是孔雀的尾巴。這美麗但累贅的尾巴 并不能幫助雄孔雀 避開獵食者，也不方便接近雌孔雀。為什么這種奢華的附屬品會被演化出來? 即使達爾文，在 1860 年寫給 阿薩格雷的信上也提到，看見孔雀尾巴會讓他 感到身理上的不舒服。他無法用他的天擇說來解釋原因，出于這挫折，他發(fā)展出了性擇說。
On this account, the display of thepeacock's tail is about sexual enticement, and this enticement means it's morelikely the peacock will mate and have offspring. Now, the modern twist on thisdisplay argument is that the peacock is also advertising its health to thepeahen. Only especially fit organisms can afford to divert resources to maintainingsuch an extravagant appendage. Only especially fit men can afford the pricethat testosterone levies on their immune system. And by analogy, think of thefact that only very rich men can afford to pay more than $10,000 for a watch asa display of their financial fitness.
由于這個原因，孔雀展示尾巴的目的是性誘惑，這種誘惑意味著這孔雀 很可能想交配、想生育后代。換個現(xiàn)代的角度想，雄孔雀是在向雌孔雀展現(xiàn)牠的健康。只有特別強健的有機體才有資格傳宗接代，并保有這奢華的附屬物。只有特別健康的人，才承擔得起睪丸素 抑制免疫系統(tǒng)的風險。舉個類似的現(xiàn)實例子，只有超級富翁才有能力買支 超過一萬美金的手表，來彰顯他們的經(jīng)濟實力。
Now, many people hear these kinds ofevolutionary claims and think they mean that we somehow are unconsciouslyseeking mates who are healthy. And I think this idea is probably not right.Teenagers and young adults are not exactly known for making decisions that arepredicated on health concerns. But they don't have to be, and let me explainwhy.
許多人聽到這類的演化主張，就會想，是不是這個原因，我們人類會下意識地 去尋找健康的配偶。我認為這個想法可能不太對。青少年和年輕人容易被看上的原因，并不完全是他們健康條件上的優(yōu)勢。他們也不想這樣，讓我來解釋原因。
Imagine a population in which people havethree different kinds of preferences: for green, for orange and for red. Fromtheir point of view, these preferences have nothing to do with health; theyjust like what they like.
想象有一個族群，族群中的人有三種偏好： 有人偏好綠色、有人偏好橘色、有人偏好紅色。從他們的觀點，這些偏好與健康無關; 他們就是喜歡這顏色。
But if it were also the case that these preferencesare associated with the different likelihood of producing offspring -- let'ssay in a ratio of 3:2:1 -- then in the first generation, there would be 3greens to 2 oranges to 1 red, and in each subsequent generation, the proportionof greens increase, so that in 10 generations, 98 percent of this populationhas a green preference.
但如果我們人類對這些顏色偏好的比率 也剛好與產(chǎn)生后代的有關…... 假設原來的比率是 3:2:1…...那么，在第一代中，會有三個綠色、兩個橘色、一個紅色。在后續(xù)的每個世代中，喜歡綠色的比例會增加，在十代之后，這個族群中就有 98% 的人都偏好綠色。
Now, a scientist coming in and sampling this populationdiscovers that green preferences are universal. So the point about this littleabstract example is that while preferences for specific physical features canbe arbitrary for the individual, if those features are heritable and they areassociated with a reproductive advantage, over time, they become universal forthe group.
現(xiàn)在來了一個科學家，對這個族群進行抽樣，發(fā)現(xiàn)對綠色的偏好是很普遍的。這個小小的純理論例子的重點是，雖然對于特定身體特征的偏好可能是因人而異的，但如果那些特征是有遺傳性的，而且與繁殖優(yōu)勢有關聯(lián)的話，隨時間過去，這些特征就會變成團體的普遍現(xiàn)象。
So what happens in the brain when we seebeautiful people? Attractive faces activate parts of our visual cortex in theback of the brain, an area called the fusiform gyrus, that is especially tunedto processing faces, and an adjacent area called the lateral occipital complex,that is especially attuned to processing objects.
所以，當我們看見美麗的人時，頭腦中會發(fā)生什么變化? 有吸引力的臉孔會觸發(fā) 我們的部份視覺皮層，它位在大腦的后方，這個區(qū)域叫做梭狀回，專門用來處理臉孔信息，還有一個相鄰的區(qū)域，叫側枕葉復合體，它是特別用來處理對象信息的。
In addition, attractive facesactivate parts of our reward and pleasure centers in the front and deep in thebrain, and these include areas that have complicated names, like the ventralstriatum, the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Ourvisual brain that is tuned to processing faces interacts with our pleasurecenters to underpin the experience of beauty.
此外，具吸引力的臉孔會觸發(fā)位在我們大腦前方深處的 獎賞與快感中樞，包括一些名稱復雜的區(qū)域，比如腹側紋狀體、眼眶額葉皮質、及腹內側額葉。我們用來處理臉孔的視覺大腦 會和我們的快感中樞互動，強化對美感的體驗。
Amazingly, while we all engage with beauty,without our knowledge, beauty also engages us. Our brains respond to attractivefaces even when we're not thinking about beauty. We conducted an experiment inwhich people saw a series of faces, and in one condition, they had to decide ifa pair of faces were the same or a different person.
但驚人的是，當我們「遇見」美麗時，卻不知道，美麗同時也「遇見」了我們。即使我們沒有想著美，我們的大腦卻會對 有吸引力的臉孔做出反應。我們做了一個實驗，讓人們看一系列的臉孔，在一個條件下，他們得要判定一對臉孔是否屬于同一個人。
Even in this condition,attractive faces drove neural activity robustly in their visual cortex, despitethe fact that they were thinking about a person's identity and not theirbeauty. Another group similarly found automatic responses to beauty within ourpleasure centers. Taken together, these studies suggest that our brainautomatically responds to beauty by linking vision and pleasure. These beauty detectors,it seems, ping every time we see beauty, regardless of whatever else we mightbe thinking.
即使在這個情況中，有吸引力的臉孔會明顯地驅動 受測者視覺皮層的神經(jīng)活動，盡管當時他們在想的是人的身份，而不是他們美不美。另一群人也有類似發(fā)現(xiàn)，在我們的快感中樞里，我們對美會有自動的反應。整體來看，這些研究指出，我們的大腦會藉由視覺和快感的鏈接對美會自動的反應，似乎，每回當我們看到美時，這些對美有反應的偵測器就會響起，不論我們當時在想什么其它的事。
We also have a "beauty is good"stereotype embedded in the brain. Within the orbitofrontal cortex, there'soverlapping neural activity in response to beauty and to goodness, and thishappens even when people aren't explicitly thinking about beauty or goodness.Our brains seem to reflexively associate beauty and good. And this reflexiveassociation may be the biologic trigger for the many social effects of beauty.Attractive people receive all kinds of advantages in life. They're regarded asmore intelligent, more trustworthy, they're given higher pay and lesserpunishments, even when such judgments are not warranted.
我們腦中也內建了一個 「美等于好」的刻板印象。在眼眶額葉皮質中，對于「美」及「好」 所造成的神經(jīng)活動反應 是有重迭性的，即使人們沒有特別去想著美或好，也會發(fā)生。我們的大腦似乎會反射性地把美與好連結在一起。社會上因「美」而產(chǎn)生的回饋，其背后的關聯(lián)性可能就是 這些生物觸發(fā)器在驅動。有吸引力的人，在人生中有各種優(yōu)勢。他們會被視為比較聰明，比較值得信賴，他們會比較高薪、比較少受懲罰，即使這類的判斷是沒根據(jù)的。
These kinds of observations reveal beauty'sugly side. In my lab, we recently found that people with minor facial anomaliesand disfigurements are regarded as less good, less kind, less intelligent, lesscompetent and less hardworking. Unfortunately, we also have a "disfiguredis bad" stereotype. This stereotype is probably exploited and magnified byimages in popular media, in which facial disfigurement is often used as ashorthand to depict someone of villainous character. We need to understandthese kinds of implicit biases if we are to overcome them and aim for a societyin which we treat people fairly, based on their behavior and not on thehappenstance of their looks.
觀察到這種現(xiàn)象 也揭露出美的丑陋面。在我的實驗室中，我們最近發(fā)現(xiàn) 有輕微面部異常及缺損的人，會被認為比較不好、比較不仁慈、比較不聰明、比較沒能力、且比較不努力。不幸的是，我們也有「缺損等于不好」的刻板印象。大眾媒體的影像可能會利用和放大 這種刻板印象，他們常用「面部缺損」 這種簡單的描繪方式 來形容反派人物。我們需要了解這類的暗示性偏見，才有可能克服它們，并朝向一個能平等待人的社會邁進，不要只是看一個人的外表就斷定人的好壞。
Let me leave you with one final thought.Beauty is a work in progress. The so-called universal attributes of beauty wereselected for during the almost two million years of the Pleistocene. Life wasnasty, brutish and a very long time ago. The selection criteria forreproductive success from that time doesn't really apply today.
讓我留給各位一個最后的思考。美的定義還在改變。所謂放諸四海皆準的美的特征 是從幾乎兩百萬年的 「更新世」所挑選出來的。那時生命很糟糕、很粗野、很古早。當時能繁衍成功的選擇標準在現(xiàn)今并不適用。
For example, death by parasite is not oneof the top ways that people die, at least not in the technologically developedworld. From antibiotics to surgery, birth control to in vitro fertilization,the filters for reproductive success are being relaxed. And under these relaxedconditions, preference and trait combinations are free to drift and become morevariable. Even as we are profoundly affecting our environment, modern medicineand technological innovation is profoundly affecting the very essence of whatit means to look beautiful. The universal nature of beauty is changing even aswe're changing the universe.
比如，因寄生蟲而造成死亡 并不是人類前幾名的死因，至少在技術發(fā)達的世界中不是。從抗生素到手術，從生育控制到試管授精，繁殖成功的過濾器已經(jīng)被放寬了。在這些放寬的條件下，偏好與特性的組合可以自由搭配，也變得更多樣性。即使我們會深深影響我們的環(huán)境，現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學及技術創(chuàng)新會深深影響著 我們對美的定義。即使我們正在改變全世界，普世價值對美的定義也在改變。
Thank you.(Applause)
謝謝大家。(掌聲)
相關文章：