評論
打印
Want to do it with me this time?
這次想和我一起嘆息嗎?
Feels pretty good, doesn't it?
感覺不錯，對嗎?
Sighing is one of those universal human experiences.
人類普遍都會嘆息。
For people around the world, taking a deep breath has a calming power, and it's part of the way we experience and communicate emotion.
對世界各地的人來說，深呼吸有一種鎮定的能力，它是我們體驗和交流情感的一種方式。
But it turns out that the assumptions we make when we hear other people sighing… aren't always right.
但事實證明，我們在聽到別人嘆息時所做的假設并不總是正確的。
The reasons we sigh start with biology, because your lungs actually need to sigh just keep functioning properly.
首先從生物學上講，人類嘆息實際上是因為肺部需要通過嘆息來維持正常的功能。
When you take a deep breath, you're kind of rebooting them.
深呼吸的時候是在重啟我們的肺部。
When you're breathing normally for a while, that's what scientists call eupneic breathing—meaning that it's normal and unlabored.
正常呼吸一段時間就是科學家們所說的平靜呼吸，意思是呼吸正常和不費力。
And if you just let people sit with their eupneic breathing for a while, eventually they'll take a breath that's about twice the usual volume of air,
如果你讓人們安靜地坐著呼吸一段時間，最終他們會呼吸到比平常兩倍的空氣，
which is what we tend to call a sigh.
這就是我們常說的嘆息。
That's usually followed by what's known as a post-sigh apnea—
隨后會出現呼吸暫停——
a little gap between breaths that's a bit longer than normal.
呼吸的間隙略比正常時間長。
This big breath pushes you to fully expand your alveoli—the tiny air sacs that fill up your lungs.
這種大的呼吸會使肺泡完全擴張——充滿肺部的微小氣囊。
And that helps keep your lungs from collapsing, which is good, because collapsing is a very bad thing that you really don't want your lungs to do.
這有助于防止肺部衰竭，是好事，因為衰竭是一件非常糟糕的事情，你真的不想讓肺衰竭。
Researchers have found that people's breathing becomes more variable just before they sigh,
研究人員發現，人們在嘆息之前，呼吸會更加多變，
and it's a little more consistent afterward.
之后會更加一致。
So it really is like your lungs get a reset.
所以這就像肺部被重置了一樣。
Generally, you need to sigh every 5 minutes or so just to keep your lungs in working order.
一般情況下，你需要每5分鐘左右嘆息一次，以保持肺部正常工作。
You even sigh in your sleep, although that tends to be less often.
你甚至會在睡夢中嘆息，盡管這種情況并不常見。
But there are lots of factors that can change the pattern of when you sigh—like stress—and that's where the psychology comes in.
但是有很多因素可以改變你的嘆息模式，比如壓力，這就是心理學的作用。
Psychologists have known for a while that breathing patterns are related to emotions.
一段時間以來，心理學家已經知道呼吸模式與情緒有關。
But sighing is weird because it seems to be related to both positive and negative emotions.
但是嘆息很奇怪，因為它似乎與積極和消極的情緒都有關。
For example, you might sigh because you're stressed or frustrated, but you might also do it because you're feeling relaxed.
例如，你可能會因為壓力或沮喪而嘆息，也可能因為感到放松而嘆息。
One way to explain the contradiction is that sighing could have a lot to do with relief:
這一矛盾可能與放松有很大關系：
you do it because you're feeling relieved, or because you're stressed out and your brain is trying to make you feel more relieved.
嘆息是因為感到放松，或者是因為壓力過大，大腦試圖讓你感到更放松。
In a 2009 study published in the journal Psychophysiology, a group of Belgian researchers decided to test this idea.
2009年發表在《心理生理學》雜志上的一項研究中，一組比利時研究人員決定測試這一想法。
In three separate experiments, the team made a total of 115 people listen to an obnoxiously loud white noise turn on and off.
在三個獨立的實驗中，研究小組讓115人聽一種刺耳的白噪音。
They used different shapes on a screen to signal whether a noise was coming.
他們在屏幕上用不同的形狀來發出是否有噪音的信號。
One shape meant guaranteed irritation, one meant the subject was safe,
一種形狀意味著肯定會有噪音，一種意味著安全，
and one meant there was a 50-50 chance that they'd have to hear the noise.
一種意味著聽到噪音的幾率為50%。
The researchers found that people sighed a little more
研究人員發現，人們更容易嘆息
while they were hearing the noise, but a lot more once it was over.
雖然他們聽到了噪音，但當噪音結束后，他們聽到的聲音更多。
And, when they were asked about their emotions during the experiment,
當被問及實驗期間的情緒時，
people who sighed more also rated themselves as feeling more relieved.
那些經常嘆息的人也認為自己感覺更輕松。
But it didn't matter if it was relief from the obnoxious sound ending or just from discovering they didn't have to hear the sound.
但是，無論是從討厭的聲音結束中得到解脫，還是僅僅因為發現自己不必聽到這種聲音，都不重要。
They'd sigh just because of the relief from the anticipation of the stress.
他們嘆息，只是因為從預期的壓力中得到了解脫。
So if sighing has to do with feeling relieved or relaxed,
所以，如果嘆息與感覺輕松或放松有關，
it makes sense that it would be associated with a lot of different emotions.
嘆息關乎許多不同的情緒是有道理的。
If you're taking a stressful test, for example, you might sigh in relief once you finish a problem,
例如，如果你在參加一個壓力很大的考試，你可能會在做完一道題之后松一口氣，
but you might also sigh while you're working on the next problem to try to make yourself feel more relieved and lower your stress levels.
但當你在做下一道題的時候，你也可能會嘆息，試圖讓自己放松下來，舒緩壓力。
Some psychologists have proposed that because people tend to sigh when they're feeling relief from stress,
一些心理學家提出，因為人們在舒緩壓力時往往會嘆息，
humans learned to interpret sighing from others as a signal of safety.
所以人類學會了將他人的嘆息理解為一種安全信號。
Which would explain why sighing seems to be a little contagious—
這就解釋了為什么嘆息似乎有點傳染性了
it's like your brain is thinking “oh, my friend thinks that tiger's gone? I guess I can take a breath too.”
就像你的大腦在想“哦，我的朋友認為麻煩事已經走了？我想我也可以喘口氣了。”
But now that most of us don't spend our days trying to evade tigers,
但現在我們大多數人都不再整天躲避麻煩了，
we read into sighing a little differently—and sometimes not as accurately.
我們對嘆息的理解略有不同——有時甚至不那么準確。
For example, in a 2008 study, 117 people were given hypothetical stories about someone sighing and asked what they thought the sigh meant.
例如，在2008年的一項研究中，117人被給予一個關于某人嘆息的假設，并被問及該嘆息的含義。
Usually, they assumed it meant something negative—most often sadness.
通常，他們會認為嘆息意味著某種消極的東西——通常是悲傷的情緒。
And if the story was about someone sighing alone, people interpreted the feeling as more intense.
如果假設是關于一個人獨自嘆息，人們的這種感覺會更加強烈。
But if they were told to imagine themselves in the story,
但是如果讓他們想象自己嘆息的話，
they came up with more varied responses, like maybe they were frustrated or just tired or bored.
他們就會給出更多不同的回答，比如可能感到沮喪，或者只是疲憊或無聊。
So, when you hear someone sigh, it could mean that they're sad—
所以，當你聽到某人嘆息時，這可能意味著他們很難過
but it's worth keeping in mind that there are lots of other possibilities too.
但要記住的是，還有很多其它可能。
They could be stressed, or frustrated, or even experiencing a moment of calm and taking a breath.
可能是壓力，或者沮喪，或者甚至是片刻的平靜和呼吸，
Or it could just be a totally involuntary response to keep their lungs working properly.
或者可能只是一個完全無意識的反應，以保持肺部正常工作。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych, which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.
感謝收看本期心理科學秀節目，感謝Patreon對本節目的支持。
If you'd like to learn more about the weird ways your brain interprets the world around you—and why you shouldn't always trust it—
如果你想了解更多關于大腦對周圍世界的解讀——為什么人類不應該總是相信它？
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登陸youtube.com/scishowpsych訂閱我們的節目。
