探祕男人長鬍須的真正原因(下)

This is something that holds true both inmodern times and throughout human history. Dominance can provide a staggeringshort-cut to mating opportunities: genetic evidence indicates that about 8% ofthe male population of Asia today is a descendent of Genghis Khan and hisfamily.

無論是在現代社會，還是在整個人類歷史上，這一點都是始終成立的。較高的支配地位爲男性贏得交配機會提供了非常驚人的捷徑：基因證據顯示，今天約有8%的亞洲男性是成吉思汗（Genghis Khan）及其家族的後代。

A study by the appropriately-named NigelBarber linked British facial hair fashions between 1842 and 1971 to the ratioof men to women in the marriage market. It found that in times with a greaterproportion of single men competing for fewer women, beards and moustachesbecame more fashionable.

在奈吉爾.巴伯爾（Nigel Barber ）進行的一項研究中，他將英國在1842年至1971年間的鬍子修剪時尚潮流與婚姻市場上的男女比例聯繫了起來。結果顯示，每當男性對女性的競爭比較激烈時，鬍子就會變得流行起來。

Beards aren’t the only feature that canconvey dominance – voices do too. People tend to vote for leaders withlower-pitched voices, and during competitive tasks men lower the pitch of theirvoice if they think they are more dominant than their opponent. Like facialhair, voice pitch also easily distinguishes men and women.

鬍鬚並不是能彰顯支配地位的唯一特徵——聲音也具有同樣的作用。人們傾向於將票投給那些聲音較爲低沉的領袖。而在競爭激烈的任務中，如果某人認爲自己比競爭對手更佔上風，也會壓低自己的聲音。如同鬍鬚一樣，音調也能很容易的判斷出一個人的性別。

To help trace the evolutionary origin ofbeards and voices, we tested whether they were seen as attractive, dominant orboth. We asked 20 men and 20 women to rate the dominance and attractiveness ofsix men who were video-taped on four occasions as they let their facial hairgrow. We then used computer software to create four versions of each videowhere the men’s voices had been changed to sound higher and lower-pitched.

爲了尋找鬍子和嗓音在進化上的起源，研究人員開展了一系列測試，看看人們是否認爲它們代表着吸引力和支配地位。研究人員讓6名男性分別在四種不同的鬍子狀態下拍攝了四段視頻，然後讓20名男性和20名女性對他們的吸引力和支配能力進行評估。他們還用電腦軟件做了四份不同版本的視頻，改變了片中男人聲音的高低。

Beards didn’t affect a man’sattractiveness rating consistently, but those who let their facial hair growwere perceived as more dominant

鬍子對男人的吸引力沒有確切的影響，但留有鬍子的男性被認爲更具有支配能力

We found that male voices that soundeddeeper than average were rated as the most attractive. Really deep or highpitches weren’t as popular. In contrast, men’s voices were perceived asincreasingly dominant the lower they were. Beards didn’t affect a man’sattractiveness rating consistently, but those who let their facial hair growwere perceived as more dominant than others –in line withprevious research.

結果發現，音調低於平均值的男性被認爲是最有吸引力的，過高或過低的音高都不受歡迎。不過，男人的聲音越低，在受試者心目中的支配能力就越強。鬍子對男人的吸引力沒有確切的影響，但留有鬍子的男性被認爲比其他人更具有支配能力，這與此前的研究是一致的。

The tension between attracting a mate andcompeting with others doesn’t just apply to beards and voices. Men on averagealso think their body should be more muscular than women report that they want,while women on average believe they need to be thinner and wear more make-upthan men report that they want. We’re not always thatgreat at judging what the other sex finds appealing, but maybe that’s in partbecause our instincts are to out-compete our peers as well as attract apartner.

吸引異性和與同性競爭之間存在的矛盾在鬍子和嗓音方面並不適用。平均而言，男性總希望自己比女性心中的理想形象多一些肌肉，而女性則認爲自己應該比男性喜歡的更瘦一些、妝更濃一些。我們似乎不太擅於判斷異性究竟認爲什麼樣的特徵具有吸引力，或許一部分原因是因爲，我們的本能做法便是打敗同性、吸引異性。

Of course, most of this research has beencarried out within western populations. Make-up use, average body composition,and even the very ability to grow facial hair all differ enormously across theworld – meaning we could get different results elsewhere.

當然，這些研究大多數都是在西方國家進行的。化妝品的使用、身體平均構成、甚至長鬍子的能力都可能因爲世界不同的地區而存在非常大的差異，意味着如果我們是在別處開展這些實驗的話，也許又會得出不同的結果。

But the point is that, whether it’s facialhair or something else, we often see this pattern of competing requirementsleading to differences in appearances. Think you can please everyone all of thetime? You can’t.

但關鍵是，不管是鬍子還是其它東西，我們總喜歡將一個人的競爭能力與外貌聯繫在一起。你以爲你能一直取悅所有人嗎？那是不可能的。