时尚双语:恋爱中的人更专情
If your loved one claims to “only have eyes for you” this Valentine’s Day, it might be truer than you think. Research shows that people in a committed relationship who have been thinking about their partner actually avert their eyes from attractive members of the opposite sex without even being aware they are doing it.
Psychologist Jon Maner of Florida State University and his colleagues flashed pictures of faces on a computer screen for half a second, following it immediately with a square or circle, which participants had to identify by pushing the correct button. Earlier research using this method has found that it takes longer for viewers to shift their attention away from attractive faces of the opposite sex.
Maner, however, took subjects who were married or living together monogamously and asked half of them to write about feelings of love for their partner and the other half to write about a happy experience. Those who wrote about love actually turned their attention away from attractive members of the opposite sex even more quickly than they looked away from average-looking people. Subjects who wrote about being happy, however, remained as distracted by a pretty face as ever.
This unconscious attentional bias probably evolved to help men and women stay in monogamous relationships, which in humans tend to have a reproductive advantage, Maner explains: “This whole research area is guided largely by an evolutionary perspective. These biases have been built into our psychology to enhance people’s reproductive success.”
一种内在的对美丽异性的嫌恶情绪可能有助于加强一夫一妻制
如果你的爱人在这个情人节对你说“我的眼里只有你”，这句话可能比你想象的更真诚。研究表明，那些处在一段稳定感情中，一直想念他们伴侣的人，会下意识地把眼球从引人注意的异性身上移开。
佛罗里达州立大学的心理学家Jon Maner和他的同事曾经在电脑屏幕上连续每半秒播放一张脸部照片，紧接着一个方框或圆。实验对象必须按正确的按钮来鉴别他们。早先采用这种方法的研究发现，观众把注意力从那些长得好看的异性上移开要花更长的时间。
然而，Maner对已婚人士或只有一个伴侣的同居人群做了研究。他让一半人写下对伴侣的爱情的体验，让另一半写下快乐的经历。那些写爱情的会把注意力从漂亮异性身上移开，甚至比从相貌平平的人身上移开更快。而那些写快乐经历的人，和往常一样会被美女（帅哥）分神。
这种无意识的注意力偏移很可能在进化过程中帮助人们保持一夫一妻关系，在这种关系中人类更有生殖优势。Maner解释道：“这整个研究领域都很大程度上受进化论观点的影响。这些倾向已经深入我们的心理，以促进人类的繁殖成功。
