字幕列表 影片播放
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Hey, Vsauce. Michael here.
嘿!歡迎來到 Vsauce,我是 Michael
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And The Pet Collective offers 24-hour coverage of puppies and kittens.
Pet Collective 24 小時不間斷地提供有關毛小孩和小貓咪的影片
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It's really cute.
真的非常可愛!
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But what is cute, scientifically?
但是,以科學的角度來思索,到底什麼是可愛?
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I mean, why do we like soft, cuddly things
我的意思是,為什麼我們喜歡柔軟的、惹人愛撫的東西?
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and why do cute things have a unique effect on us?
為什麼可愛的東西對我們而言會有特別的影響?
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Well, the word cute is a shortening of acute,
其實,可愛這個字是 acute 的簡寫
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which originally meant "keen," "shrewd," "perceptive."
原本意思是「渴望的」、「機靈的」以及「感知的」
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About 180 years ago, the word cute began to be used as slang for a girl, who was pretty.
約在 180 年前,可愛這個字已經開始被用來形容漂亮的女生
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And after that, it accrued a new meaning
在之後呢,這個字則又有了新的意思
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and was used to describe cuddly, delicate, quaint, precious, youthful traits.
被用來形容惹人憐愛的、精巧的、有趣的、珍貴的以及年幼的特質
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Konrad Lorenz studied cuteness in living things
Konrad Lorenz 研究生物的可愛性
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and put together a great specific list of what we consider cute.
並具體列表出會讓我們認為可愛的東西
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Small body size with a disproportionately large head,
嬌小的身體尺寸有著不合比率的大頭
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large eyes, and round and soft body features.
大眼睛、以及又圓又軟的身體特徵
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But why exactly did these characteristics elicit an "ooooohhh" response from us humans?
但是,到底為什麼這些特質會引起人們發出「哦~」的感嘆呢?
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Well, Lorenz pointed that you could find all of those characteristics in the human baby,
Lorenz 指出,這些特質全部都可以在人類寶寶身上看到
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which makes sense.
而這說得通
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If merely looking at our offspring makes us instinctively feel protective and nurturing, well, that's great for all of us.
如果只要看著我們的子孫會使得我們本能上地產生安全及呵護感;那麼,這對所有人都是非常好的!
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A fun consequence of this is that our experience of cuteness
這個研究發現一個有趣的結果是,我們對於可愛的體驗
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can be triggered by things that aren't human babies.
也可以被人類寶寶以外的事物所驅動
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For instance, shells, bunnies, owls and even a hammer.
例如:貝殼、兔子、貓頭鷹甚至是鐵鎚
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A hammer, how can that be?
一枝鐵鎚!這怎麼會可愛?
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Take a look at this interactive tool from the Exploratorium.
看看這個來自科學探索館的互動式教學
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A hammer is boring.
一枝鐵鎚一點都不吸引人
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But if we apply Lorenz's traits and make it really round and really squat,
但是,如果我們運用 Lorenz 所列的可愛特色,把這枝鐵鎚變得又圓又矮胖
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it goes from a utilitarian tool to a cute little tiny hammer.
它便從一個實用的工具變成了一個小巧可愛的鐵鎚了
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Oh, he's just a little hammer, don't hurt him.
喔~他只是一枝小小的鐵鎚,不要傷害它
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It is a hammer that has become cute,
這是一枝變可愛的鐵鎚
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because we gave it qualities that we see in our own offspring.
因為我們賦予它在我們子孫身上所看到的可愛素質
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As Daniel Dennett puts it,
根據 Daniel Dennett 的說法:
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"if human babies looked like this, instead of that, we would find this cute."
「如果人類寶寶看起來像這樣 (右),而不是那樣 (左),我們就會覺得這個 (右) 可愛」
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And whenever we saw something that looked like it,
而且不管我們何時看到像這樣的東西
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we would wanna cuddle and snuggle with it.
我們都會想要撫摸、緊抱它不放
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Alright, so we have a pretty good idea about the how and what of cute.
好了!所以,我們現在已經知道可愛的理由及素質了
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But where is cute?
但是,是什麼部位使我們感知到可愛呢?
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Well, researchers have shown cute baby pictures to subjects
恩,研究員拿出可愛寶寶們的圖片
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while using functional MRI to track activity in the brain.
給正在使用核磁共振的人看,並追蹤他們的腦部活動
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And sure enough, the cuter the baby in the picture, the more activation found right here --
非常確定的是,越是可愛的寶寶,則能激發腦部這區域的活化——
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the nucleus accumbens. A pleasure centre.
伏隔核,快樂中樞
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When activated, the nucleus accumbens releases dopamine.
伏隔核被活化時會釋放出多巴胺
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It's all part of our internal reward system.
分布在我們體內中的酬賞系統
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It's the same part of the brain targeted by cocaine and meth.
這也是吸食古柯鹼及甲基安非他命的反應位置
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Cuteness is such a powerful force on the brain
可愛在腦部有著很強大的影響力
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in fact that it can affect our behaviours -- what we like, what we buy.
事實上它會影響我們的行為——我們所喜歡或購買的東西
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And so it's no coincidence that the creators of cartoon characters,
所以,卡通人物的創作家
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like Mickey Mouse or Pikachu,
將例如米老鼠或是皮卡丘
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have drawn them more and more cute over time.
畫得一次比一次地可愛並不是偶然
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The Japanese concept of Kawaii is a great example of this
日本人所認為的可愛就是一個很好的例子
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and it's one that's fun to quantify.
而且量化起來會更有趣
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If you're an adult, how many of your own heads, stacked on top of each other,
如果你們是個成年人,你們覺得要疊幾個頭
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do you think it would take to equal your height?
才等於你們的身高?
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The answer for most of us is around 7.5.
答案是:對我們大部分人而言,大約是 7.5 個頭
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But illustrations of people that are meant to make them look heroic or noble
但是,想畫一個英雄或高貴的角色時
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tend to make the person around 8 to 8.5 heads high.
較會把人畫到約 8 到 8.5 個頭高
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Cute goes the other way.
可愛則是相反的
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Manga characters tend to only be about 5.5 to 6.5 heads tall.
漫畫角色們通常是 5.5 到 6.5 的頭身高
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Back to babies.
我們再來談論一下寶寶
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There are many other psychological factors at work
有很多其他的心理因素
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that cause us to want to instinctively take care of our young.
促使著我們本能地呵護著小孩
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And to be sure, some of them are decidedly not cute.
可以確定的是,有些事情並不是絕對的可愛
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For instance, poopy diapers.
舉例來說:充滿便便的尿布
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Researchers have found that mothers, when exposed to soiled diapers,
研究者發現,當母親接觸到髒的尿布時
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tend to consider the smell coming from their own child's diaper to be the least terrible,
他們會想著自己小孩的尿布臭味是最不難聞的
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despite not knowing which diaper belonged to which kid.
儘管不知道哪一個尿布才是自己孩子的
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When something retains juvenile traits all the way through adulthood, it is called neoteny.
當某人可以維持著年輕的特質一直到成人,這稱為是幼態持續
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And we love it, especially in animals that we keep as pets.
我們愛這種幼態持續,特別是我們養的寵物
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Of course, us humans have selectively bred all kinds of animals
當然,我們人類選擇性地培育各種動物
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to make each generation more and more useful to us.
讓每一代的動物能更符合我們的需求
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But the dog may be the animal that we have spent the most time designing,
但是,狗應該是人類花最久的時間來培育的
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making each generation better at hunting or better at staying cuter for longer.
使每一代越來越會打獵或越能持續保有可愛
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Dogs like this have been designed by us to look, grow and behave in ways that we want.
這些狗的外貌、成長以及行為已經被培育成我們喜愛的形式
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Not that dissimilar from how we would design, say, a DVD player and its features.
就如同我們會設計 DVD 播放器及它的功能那樣
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So whether it's staying cute forever or just being a really great hunting companion,
所以,不管是永遠地可愛下去或是單單成為一個非常好的打獵夥伴
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the modern dog, more than any other animal,
現代的狗,相對於其他任何動物
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could be considered not so much a consequence of nature
可以被想成不再是大自然演化的結果
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as much as it is a piece of human technology.
而是人類科技的作品
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As Science Friday puts it,
誠如 Science Friday 所指出:
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"the dog is man's best friend because it may be man's best invention."
「狗是人類的最要好的朋友,可能是因為牠是人類的最好發明」
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So go pet a cute dog today.
所以,去養一隻可愛的毛小孩吧!
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And as always, thanks for watching.
一如往常地,謝謝您們的收看