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Sheepishly, Kevin Adkins admits that when he's insecure, he uses big words to appear smarter.
凱文·阿德金斯不好意思地承認，當他缺乏安全感時，他會用一些大詞來顯得更聰明。
"Only when I need to impress the person," says the 45-year-old. "Dates with women? Definitely.
這個45歲的家伙說道，“只在我需要給這個人留下印象的時候?！薄昂团思s會？肯定的。
At the grocery store? Not so much." A few years ago, when flirting with a stylist at the barbershop,
在雜貨店？沒那么多。”幾年前，在理發店和一個造型師調情時，
he asked her to give him a "symmetric" hair-cut instead of just requesting that she trim it evenly.
他要求她給他剪一個“對稱的”發型，而不是僅僅要求她修剪均勻。
And when he gave an attractive woman directions,
他在指示這個迷人的女人時，
he made a point of telling her that the two options they'd discussed were "equidistant"
他向這個女人強調說，他們討論的兩個選項是“等距”，
rather than simply saying that both were about the same distance.
而不是簡單地距離大概相同。
Adkins is among the myriad Homo sapiens who suffer from periphrasis.
阿德金斯是眾多飽受迂回表達之苦的智人之一。
Translation: Many of us use longer words in place of shorter ones.
翻譯：我們中很多人使用長話代替短話。
Because folks know, consciously or unconsciously, that others form impressions of them after a glance or a short conversation,
因為人們知道，不論有意還是無意，另一些人是在一瞥或簡短的交談后形成對他們的印象，
they often work harder to give the "right" impression.
他們經常更努力地去留下“正確”的印象。
"People think, If I can show that I have a good vocabulary, I'll sound smarter,"
“人們認為，如果我用詞高級的話，我聽起來會更聰明?！?/div>
says Daniel Oppenheimer, PhD, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
匹茲堡卡內基梅隆大學的心理學教授丹尼爾·奧本海默博士說道。
The problem with this plan is that it can easily go wrong.
這個計劃的問題是它很容易出錯。
"It's almost a game that two people are playing," says Eric R. Igou, PhD, a social psychologist at Ireland's University of Limerick.
“這幾乎是兩個人在玩的游戲，”愛爾蘭利默里克大學的社會心理學家埃里克·R·艾構博士說。
"If the observer, person B, doesn't have the same theory, it can backfire."
“如果這個觀察者，人物B沒有同樣的理論，它可能會產生反效果?！?/div>
Person A may be perceived as pretentious instead of intelligent.
人物A可能會被視作自命不凡的人而不是智慧的人。
Using big words may also confuse listeners, which is definitely moving in the wrong direction.
使用大詞可能也會使聽的人迷惑，這肯定會走向錯誤的方向。
"People associate intelligence with clarity of expression," says Oppenheimer.
奧本海默說，“人們將智慧和清晰的表達聯系在一起?！?/div>
That's especially true when it comes to the written word.
在使用書面語時，這一點尤其正確。
A small study cited in Applied Cognitive Psychology found a negative relationship between complexity of writing and judged intelligence:
《應用認知心理學》上引用的一項小型研究發現，寫作的復雜性與判斷能力之間存在負相關關系：
The more writers tried to sound smart, the less intelligent they were perceived to be.
作家越是想聽起來更聰明，人們對他們的感知就越不聰明。
So what can you do to sound smarter? Speak clearly and directly. Leave the dictionary and thesaurus at your desk.
你可以做什么讓自己聽起來更聰明呢？清晰和直接的表達。把詞典和寶庫放在你的桌上。
And follow these tips, which come from behavioral psychologists (and other very bright people)
還有遵從以下來自行為心理學家（和其他很聰明的人）的建議
| 重點單詞 | 查看全部解釋 | |||
| impression | [im'preʃən] |
想一想再看 n. 印象，效果 |
聯想記憶 | |
| limerick | ['limərik] |
想一想再看 n. 五行打油詩 |
聯想記憶 | |
| negative | ['negətiv] |
想一想再看 adj. 否定的，負的，消極的 |
聯想記憶 | |
| clarity | ['klæriti] |
想一想再看 n. 清楚，透明 |
||
| psychologist | [sai'kɔlədʒist] |
想一想再看 n. 心理學家 |
聯想記憶 | |
| smart | [smɑ:t] |
想一想再看 adj. 聰明的，時髦的，漂亮的，敏捷的，輕快的，整潔的 |
||
| glance | [glɑ:ns] |
想一想再看 v. 一瞥，掃視，匆匆一看，反光，閃爍，掠過 |
||
| impress | [im'pres] |
想一想再看 n. 印象，特徵，印記 |
聯想記憶 | |
| confuse | [kən'fju:z] |
想一想再看 vt. 混淆，使困惑，使混亂 |
聯想記憶 | |
| intelligent | [in'telidʒənt] |
想一想再看 adj. 聰明的，智能的 |
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