Well, it turns out that there is a simple explanation for this phenomenon.

這現象其實很容易解釋。

If we make a little graph of Niceness vs. Good Looks, we can start to get an answer.

我們把「善良度」和「養眼度」做成圖表，就可以知道答案。

First, we have to assume that people are equally spread across this chart;

首先，假設所有人在這圖表中是均勻分布的；

meaning some people are mean and ugly, some people are ugly and nice, some are good looking and mean, and some are good looking and nice!

也就是說，有些人又壞又醜、有些醜但善良、有些人好看但很壞，還有些人是內外兼優的大天菜。

Of course, this is based on your subjective taste, and what you find beautiful and nice.

當然，這都是根據你的主觀喜好、以及你對美和善良定義的。

Now if you think about it, you probably have zero interest in people who you find mean and ugly, meaning your pool of potential mates gets a bit smaller.

稍微動動腦，你應該會對那些人醜個性又壞的酸菜們毫無興趣，也就是說，你擇偶選項就少了一些。

And truthfully, you probably prefer a certain combination of niceness and good looks.

老實講，在善良和養眼程度的組合中，你應該會有自己的偏好。

Ultimately, we’re left with a triangle of people you find acceptable and give attention to in the first place.

最後，這些三角形內剩下的人，就是你覺得還不錯、一開始就會注意到的優菜。

But now, 100% of the people left in your pool who aren’t that attractive to you are nice—they have to be otherwise you wouldn’t pay them any attention.

圖左那群外表不怎麼吸引你的人，全都會很好相處——必須是這樣，不然你根本不會鳥他們。

After all, if somebody is nice, you’re less likely to be critical of their appearance, which brings down the average of nice people's looks.

畢竟，你比較不會苛求個性好的人的外表，但這也拉低了你所認知的好人外表水平。

To the same token, almost half of the people that are beautiful to you are mean.

同樣地，會有近半數的優菜是你覺得好看、但難相處的。

Again, if somebody is mean, you likely require that they be really attractive for you to give them any attention, which makes it seem like more attractive people are jerks.

相同道理，個性糟糕的人，他們就要長得更秀色可餐，才能引起你的注意，這就會讓你感覺好看的混蛋更多。

If we take this a step further, we can assume that people who are both hot and nice are the best catches, and get swept off the market more quickly, further increasing your perception and bias.

再進一步延伸，我們可以推測，內外兼優的天菜是最搶手的，他們會迅速地從市場上被掃掠一空，這又更強化了你的認知及偏見。

We can see a similar thing happen with food. Do you ever wonder why it seems that healthy foods just don’t taste as good?

選擇食物時也會有相似的情況。你有沒有想過，為什麼健康的食物嚐起來都不太好吃？

Well, let’s use our chart—Yumminess vs. Healthiness.

把我們的圖拿出來用用吧——「美味度」對上「健康度」。

Of course, in reality, this chart probably isn’t evenly distributed, because food is often created to specifically taste good, so the right-hand side of the graph is likely more dense.

當然，現實中這張圖應該不會是均勻分布，因為食物通常會被特意弄得很好吃，所以圖表右邊會比較密集。

Regardless, we can take out all the foods that don’t taste good and aren’t even good for you because why would you bother eating them?

儘管如此，我們還是可以剔除掉那些難吃又沒營養的食物，因為幹嘛要吃它們？

But of the foods leftover that you do eat, now 100% of the foods that don’t taste good are good for you!

但剩餘那些還可入口的食物，可以掛保證難吃的食物一定就很健康。

Just like the dating graph, it’s because of the people or the foods that you don’t pay attention to, that your perception becomes skewed.

就像先前的交友圖，正是因為那些你不屑一顧的對象或食物讓你的認知產生偏差。

Back to dating, and it’s true. From your perspective, good-looking people are more likely to be jerks, but it’s because of who you’re paying attention to in the first place.

這道理套回交友也行得通。在你的認知中，好看的人通常會是混蛋，但這要看你一開始的注意力放在誰身上。

You simply ignore the ugly jerks!

你根本忽略了人醜又不好相處的酸菜們！

Special thanks to Blue Apron for supporting this episode, and giving the first 300 people who sign up with our link, three free meals on their first order.

特別感謝 Blue Apron 贊助這集影片以及提供前三百名在連結處註冊的會員，首購免費三份餐點。

Blue Apron allows you to create delicious, chef-designed recipes, by delivering fresh-farm ingredients to your doorstep in the exact right proportions for cooking!

Blue Apron 讓你能自己做出美味、廚師級食譜的美食，他們會備好煮菜所需的新鮮食材和準確份量，配送到你家門口！

It’s a fun and simple way to try new recipes every week, which take less than 40 minutes to make instead of doing the same old thing.

每週試做不同的菜餚，好玩又簡單，而且不用四十分鐘就可以弄好，不會像以前一樣一成不變。

You can get cooking by using the link in our description.

只要查看我們說明處的連結就可以開始煮菜了。

And subscribe for more weekly science videos!

訂閱頻道看更多每周科學影片！