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This episode is brought to you by Squarespace.
本集節目由Squarespace贊助。
You know that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you boot up an old 8-bit Nintendo game like Legend of Zelda, or Super Mario 3?
當你啟動一款老式的8位任天堂游戲《塞爾達傳說》或《超級馬里奧3》時，你會有一種溫暖模糊的感覺嗎?
Or maybe when you think back to celebrating the holidays as a kid, something magical just seems to be missing now.
或者，當你回想起小時候慶祝節日的情景時，你會發現現在似乎缺少了某些神奇的東西。
That's nostalgia: a bittersweet longing to return to something in your past.
就是懷舊之情：苦樂參半，渴望回歸過去。
We're still learning exactly how nostalgia works and why it could be useful,
我們還在確切地了解懷舊是如何起作用的以及它為什么有用，
but researchers do have a few ideas -- including some things you should watch out for.
但研究人員確實有一些想法——包括某些你應該注意的事情。
Psychologists consider nostalgia a complex emotion, which means it has what's called positive and negative valence.
心理學家認為懷舊是一種復雜的情感，這意味著它具有所謂的正面和負面效價。
Basically, it's good and bad feelings wrapped up all in once.
基本上，良好的感覺和不良的情緒交織在一起。
Unlike joy or sadness, which are pretty straightforward, nostalgia has all the happiness of a fond memory,
與非常直接的喜悅或悲傷不同，懷舊的所有美好回憶都洋溢著幸福，
along with the sad realization that you might never get to experience that thing again.
但也滲透著悲哀：可能再也不會經歷那件事了。
A lot of what we know about nostalgia comes from the University of Southampton in England,
我們對懷舊的了解大部分來自英格蘭南安普敦大學，
where they did a bunch of different studies about nostalgia in 2006.
2006年，他們做了一系列關于懷舊的不同研究。
In two experiments with a few dozen subjects each,
兩個實驗中，每個實驗有幾十個主題，
researchers found that making people feel lonely or sad made them significantly more likely
研究人員發現，給人感覺孤獨或悲傷的人，
to get all nostalgic than people who felt cheerful or neutral, even if they weren't asked about their memories.
比那些感到高興或情緒中立的人更容易懷舊，即使他們沒有被問及記憶。
The experiments were too small to draw broad conclusions,
這些實驗范圍太小，無法從廣義上下定論，
but the researchers proposed that nostalgia could exist to help us deal with negative emotions.
但是研究人員提出懷舊可以幫助我們處理消極情緒。
Specifically, since they noticed from those experiments that lonely people often became nostalgic,
具體來說，既然經實驗觀察，孤獨的人經常懷舊，
they thought nostalgia could be used to form social bonds, improve self-esteem,
那么研究人員認為，懷舊可以用來形成社會紐帶，提高自尊心，
or improve your mood -- although there could be other benefits, too.
或改善心情——雖然也可能有其它好處。
To test this out, they conducted a few slightly larger studies,
為了驗證這一點，他們進行更大規模的研究，
where 50 to 120 people were either asked to think about something nostalgic from their past
要求50~120人回想他們過去的一些往事，
or to just think about something ordinary they did that week,
或者想想他們那周做的尋常事，
like picking up their dry cleaning. Then they did some surveys.
比如去取他們的干洗衣物，然后他們做了一些調查，
According to the surveys, the people who'd felt nostalgic had improved moods and self-esteem,
根據調查結果，那些懷舊人的情緒和自尊得到改善，
and they also felt less anxious about their relationships and more bonded with people in general.
此外，他們對自己的人際關系也不那么焦慮，而且更容易與他人建立聯系。
Which is cool! But the people in these studies weren't necessarily feeling sad or lonely,
很酷！但這些研究中的人并不一定感到悲傷或孤獨，
so the researchers also wanted to figure out if nostalgia could protect you from being in a bad mood,
所以研究人員還想弄清楚懷舊是否能讓人擺脫壞心情，
even when you think about really upsetting things -- like your own death.
甚至當你想到真正令人難過的事情——比如自己死去。
And the answer was essentially yes. In an experiment, 75 people wrote about their own deaths,
答案基本上是肯定的。在一項實驗中，有75人寫了自己的死亡，
and then half of those people thought about something nostalgic.
然后有一半人想到懷舊的事物。
Afterwards, all the participants did a word completion task,
之后，所有參與者都做了一個詞干補全任務，
where they were asked to complete different words based on their first few letters.
他們被要求根據前幾個字母完成不同的單詞。
So, if they were given a six-letter word starting with C-O-F-F,
給他們一個以C-O-F-F開頭的六個字母的單詞
they might say the word was coffin if they were still thinking about death, or coffee, which is just pretty neutral.
如果他們還在思考死亡，他們可能會說出“棺材”這個詞，或者中性詞——“咖啡”。
The people who thought about dying but didn't get nostalgic answered with way more death-related words,
那些考慮過死亡但沒有懷舊情緒人回答的詞匯更多與死亡相關，
while the nostalgic people gave more neutral answers, almost as if they'd never thought about death in the first place.
雖然懷舊的人給出的答案更中性，就像他們幾乎從未想過死亡一樣。
The researchers think that could mean nostalgia has even more benefits than just social bonding or a better mood --
研究人員認為，這可能意味著懷舊比單純的社交或較好的情緒更有益處——
it could also remind us about what we find meaningful in life and help us be less concerned about our lives ending.
它還能提醒我們在生活中發現的有意義的事兒，并幫助我們減少對生命結束的關注。
These studies were pretty limited, though, and there's still a lot we don't know about nostalgia.
然而，這些研究相當有限，我們仍對懷舊知之甚少。
For example, since most of the subjects were young university students,
例如，因為大多數的研究對象都是年輕的大學生，
we don't know if older people experience the feeling the same way.
所以我們不知道老年人是否有同樣的感受。
Still, these studies support the idea that nostalgia has a purpose: If you're feeling down,
盡管如此，這些研究仍然支持這樣一種觀點：懷舊帶有一種目的性：如果你情緒低落，
it might cheer you up by helping you feel closer to people and focus on the things that are important to you.
懷舊可能會讓你感覺與人更親近，更專注于對你來說重要的事情，從而讓你振作起來。
But there are also some less-helpful side effects.
但也有一些副作用，對人益處不大。
For one thing, nostalgia can screw with your memory a bit.
首先，懷舊會讓你的記憶有些混亂。
When people are asked to rate TV shows from different decades,
當被要求對不同年代的電視節目進行評分時，
they generally say that shows from the past are better than the ones today,
人們通常說過去的節目比今天的節目好，
even when they're reminded of current TV shows they like just as much or even more.
即使人們提醒他們，他們喜歡的現在電視節目和過去電視節目相比一樣好或者更好。
It's like they just forget all the really, really bad TV that used to be out there.
就好像他們只是忘記了過去那些糟糕透頂的電視節目。
People also tend to rate the movies from the year they graduated high school as better than what's currently being made,
人們也往往認為他們高中畢業那年的電影比現在制作的要好，
no matter how old they are.
不管電影多么老舊。
Plus, nostalgia can make you part with your cash more easily,
此外，懷舊還能讓你更容易花錢，
which advertisers knew long before scientists started studying it.
早在科學家開始研究之前，廣告商就知道這一點。
There's a reason why it was basically impossible to get your hands on an NES Classic.
這就是為什么你根本不可能得到一部任天堂NES Classic的原因。
Studies have shown that nostalgia in ads makes you willing to pay more for the same product,
研究表明，廣告中的懷舊情結使您愿意為同一產品花更多的錢，
or even just give your money away.
或者干脆把錢給別人。
Researchers think that might be because nostalgia makes you feel more connected to people,
研究認為，這可能是因為懷舊會讓你感覺與人的聯系更緊密，
which some studies have shown could make money seem less important.
一些研究表明，金錢似乎不那么重要。
But we'll have to do more research to figure out why that is.
但是我們必須做更多的研究才能找出原因。
So, nostalgia might cheer you up and make you feel closer to the people around you.
所以，懷舊可能會讓你振作起來，讓你感覺和周圍的人更親近。
But it's not all sugar cookies and Triforces.
但并不都是糖餅干和Triforces。
This episode was made possible by Squarespace which is a company that makes it really easy to create a custom,
本集是由Squarespace公司制作，這家公司制作的網站個性、
professional, dynamic website that works on both mobile and desktop.
專業、動態，移動端和電腦端皆可運行。
Once upon a time, when I first move to Montana, I did this professionally,
曾幾何時，當我第一次搬到蒙大拿州時，我做到了這一點，
I made websites people can give me thousand of dollars for websites,
我做的網站可以拿到幾千美元，
that are much less cool and less good than Squarespace's award winning templates.
這遠不如Squarespace獲獎的模板酷炫優良。
Whether you're an entrepreneur, a musician, an artist, or just looking to sell NES Classics on the internet, maybe you're scientists
無論您是企業家，音樂家，藝術家，還是只想在互聯網上銷售NES Classics，也許您就是科學家
and you wanna level up your website presents.
想要升級網站，
Squarespace can help you get taken seriously, get clients, and get hired, and sell those Nintendos.
Squarespace可以幫助你吸引客戶，預定商品，并出售這些“任天堂”。
Make your next move by visiting Squarespace.com, and use the offer code “SCISHOWPSYCH” to get 10% off your first order.
訪問Squarespace.com，使用“SCISHOWPSYCH”的報價代碼，新客戶享九折優惠。
