評(píng)論
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Even if you’re not a horror fan yourself, you can’t deny that humans on the whole seem to really like getting scared.
即使你自己不是恐怖迷，你也不能否認(rèn)，整體上人類好像真的很喜歡被嚇。
That’s especially apparent this time of year, what with all the haunted houses and spooky hayrides on offer for Halloween.
每年的這個(gè)時(shí)候尤其明顯，因?yàn)槿f圣節(jié)有很多鬼屋和令人毛骨悚然的干草車。
But what is it about fear that draws us in?
但究竟是什么讓恐懼吸引了我們？
My guest today is an expert on precisely that.
今天我們的嘉賓是這方面的專家。
Coltan Scrivner is a behavioral scientist at the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark and the Psychology Department at Arizona State University.
科爾坦·斯克里夫納是丹麥奧胡斯大學(xué)娛樂恐懼實(shí)驗(yàn)室和亞利桑那州立大學(xué)心理學(xué)系的行為科學(xué)家。
He investigates what he calls the “evolutionary and psychological underpinnings of morbid curiosity and our fascination with the darker side of life.”
他調(diào)查了他所謂的“病態(tài)好奇心和我們對(duì)生活陰暗面的迷戀的進(jìn)化和心理基礎(chǔ)”。
Coltan, thanks so much for coming on to talk today.
科爾坦，非常感謝你今天來到現(xiàn)場(chǎng)。
Yeah, happy to be here.
嗯，很高興來到這里。
So what got you interested in studying fear?
是什么讓你對(duì)研究恐懼感興趣呢？
When I was in graduate school, I just became interested in this idea that people sometimes go and watch violence for fun when, in almost every other case, violence is seen as immoral, is pushed to the edges of society, is punished.
我還在讀研究生的時(shí)候，就開始對(duì)這樣一個(gè)觀點(diǎn)感興趣：人們有時(shí)候看暴力畫面是為了好玩，但幾乎在所有其他情況下，暴力都是不道德的，暴力的人會(huì)被推到社會(huì)的邊緣，受到懲罰。
But there are very circumscribed cases throughout history and across cultures where violence is not only okay but sometimes celebrated.
但在歷史上和文化中，有一些非常有限的案例表明，暴力不僅是可以接受的，有時(shí)還會(huì)受到贊揚(yáng)。
And so I started out kind of with that, what seemed like a paradox, there.
這么看，它好像是個(gè)悖論。
And over time that kind of evolved into: “Well, people also scare themselves for fun, right? Why do they do that?”
隨著時(shí)間的推移，這種想法變成了：“嗯，人們也會(huì)為了好玩而嚇唬自己，對(duì)吧？他們?yōu)槭裁匆@樣做？”
And that kind of meshed with the interest in violence. And over time that sort of evolved into this research program that I have on morbid curiosity.
這種現(xiàn)象與人們對(duì)暴力的興趣相吻合。隨著時(shí)間的推移，它演變成了我對(duì)病態(tài)好奇心的研究項(xiàng)目。
So what do we know about morbid curiosity? Why do humans like stuff that scares them or grosses them out?
那我們對(duì)病態(tài)好奇心了解多少呢？為什么人類會(huì)喜歡讓他們害怕或惡心的東西？
Well, most people don’t enjoy the feelings of being grossed out, for example.
大多數(shù)人都不喜歡被惡心的感覺。
But a lot of people will look if you say, “Oh, my gosh, this is so gross; you have to see this,” right? So it is kind of a weird thing.
但如果你說：“哦，天哪，這太惡心了；你得看看”的話，多數(shù)人都會(huì)看，這種現(xiàn)象很奇怪。
And, you know, one thing that I’ve found from my research is that a lot of people, especially when it comes to fear, may not necessarily enjoy the feeling of fear itself.
我在研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)的一點(diǎn)是，很多人，尤其是涉及到恐懼時(shí)，喜歡的可能并不是恐懼本身。
Some people do: adrenaline junkies, for example, people, like, who like skydiving or who like roller coasters or things like that.
有些人喜歡，比如腎上腺素迷，喜歡跳傘或過山車之類的。
And a lot of people—like a lot of horror fans even, for example—actually don’t necessarily enjoy the feeling of being afraid, but they do enjoy the feeling of overcoming that fear ...
很多人，比如很多恐怖片迷，其實(shí)并不喜歡害怕的感覺，但他們確實(shí)喜歡克服恐懼的感覺……
They enjoy the sort of, you know, self-confidence you get from tackling something difficult.
他們喜歡那種，從解決困難中獲得的自信。
And I think, you know, humans see this in other areas of their life, but it’s interesting, too, that it shows up in this sort of entertainment sector as well.
生活中，你也可以在其他領(lǐng)域種看到這一點(diǎn)，但有趣的是，它也出現(xiàn)在娛樂領(lǐng)域。
Are we the only animals who like getting scared on purpose?
我們是唯一喜歡故意受到驚嚇的動(dòng)物嗎？
I don’t think so. You know, it’s always hard to tell what other animals enjoy versus don’t enjoy and just sort of—it’s hard to interpret behaviors, right, in that way.
我覺得不是。我們很難分辨其他動(dòng)物喜歡什么，不喜歡什么，很難用這種方式來解釋它們的行為。
But we’re certainly not the only animals that put themselves in scary situations when they don’t have to or watch scary things when they don’t have to.
但我們肯定不是唯一一種在沒有必要的時(shí)候把自己置于可怕境地的動(dòng)物，或者在沒有必要的時(shí)候看可怕的東西。
So for example, if you’re out (in the) Serengeti, you might see some Thomson’s gazelles grazing about, and you might see a cheetah kind of in the background, which is one of their natural predators.
例如，如果你在塞倫蓋蒂，可能會(huì)看到一些湯姆遜瞪羚在吃草，或許在遠(yuǎn)處你會(huì)看到一只獵豹，這是它們的天敵之一。
And what you’ll see is that—you know, you would expect if—you know, I’m not a gazelle, but if I was a gazelle, I would think, “Okay, if I saw a cheetah, I should probably run every single time,” right?
這時(shí)候，你會(huì)祈禱：我不是瞪羚，但如果我是瞪羚，我會(huì)想，“如果我看到獵豹，每次都要逃跑，”對(duì)吧？
But that’s not actually what you see. Instead what you see is that some of the gazelles will actually stop and observe the cheetah.
但現(xiàn)實(shí)并非如此。相反，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)一些瞪羚會(huì)停下來觀察獵豹。
And it’s not random which gazelles do this; it’s actually the adolescents and the subadults, so kind of those gazelles who are young and healthy and fit and could escape if something happened but maybe don’t have as much exposure to their natural predators yet.
瞪羚這么做并非偶然；其實(shí)是少年期或快成年的瞪羚會(huì)這么做，萬一發(fā)生什么事，這些年輕又健康的瞪羚隨時(shí)能逃跑，但它們可能還沒有那么多的機(jī)會(huì)接觸到它們的天敵。
So the assumption there is that they are trying to learn something about their natural predators because, you know, cheetahs, like most cats, spend about 23 out of 24 hours of the day just lounging, right, and not actually hunting or eating or doing anything else.
所以我們的假設(shè)是，它們?cè)谠噲D了解天敵，因?yàn)楂C豹像大多數(shù)貓科動(dòng)物一樣，一天24小時(shí)里有23個(gè)小時(shí)都是懶洋洋的，對(duì)吧，不打獵，不吃東西，也不做其他事情。
And so it’d be pretty inefficient for prey animals in general to always run every time they saw a predator.
所以對(duì)被捕食的動(dòng)物來說，每次看到捕食者就跑是非常低效的。
So instead what animals tend to do is gather information about potential threats, in particular their predators.
動(dòng)物傾向于收集有關(guān)潛在威脅的信息，尤其是它們的捕食者。
