触觉可影响人类认知

What you are experiencing every day can influence your thoughts, like holding a hard or soft ball can influence your perception of how masculine or feminine others are, according to a recent study。

In the study, Michael Slepian at Tufts University and his colleagues had subjects clench either a hard ball or a squishy ball in their hands while looking at pictures of faces that had been altered to appear gender-neutral. They then were asked to categorize the faces as either male or female。

When touching the hard ball, volunteers were about 10 percent more likely to categorize a face as male; for those clutching the soft ball, the results were slanted toward females. The findings are likely the result of the gender stereotypes people hold, the researchers said: that guys are tough and gals are tender。

Recent studies by others have similarly found connections between our sense of touch and our perceptions of others, the researchers said. For instance, holding a warm cup of coffee makes you more likely to have "warm" feelings toward others. Hand-washing can make people feel cleansed of their sins. Holding something heavy can change our perception of the importance of a topic。

"Our knowledge isn't stored in our mind the way a computer stores knowledge," Slepian said. "To understand these concepts you need your body. Those sensations are actually part of your knowledge of abstract concepts like masculinity and femininity."美国“趣味科学”网站12日报道称，最新研究显示，一个人的思想会受触觉影响，比如手握硬球(或者软球)会影响到握球者对对方性别的看法。

研究中，塔夫斯大学的迈克尔•斯莱皮恩和他的同事们让受试者紧握硬球(或者软球)，并让他们观看经过处理呈中性化的面孔照片。随后受试者需依据性别对这些面孔进行分类。

研究人员发现，当手触硬球时，志愿者中认为照片中的面孔属于男性的可能性增大了10%；而对于那些手持软球的人来说，其判断结果则倾向于女性。研究人员称，这样的结果大概源于人们对性别特征的固有观念，即：男性是强硬的，而女性是柔弱的。

研究人员称，最近其他的一些研究也同样发现了触觉和认知之间的联系。比如，手捧一杯热咖啡有可能让你对别人更“热情”。洗洗手可以让人觉得清洗了自己的罪恶。而手持重物则会改变某话题在我们心中的重要程度。

“我们存储知识的模式和计算机存储信息的模式并不一样，”斯莱皮恩说道。“为了理解一些概念我们需要动用自己的身体。这些触觉实际上就是我们脑中抽象概念(比如男性化、女性化)知识的一部分。”