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Psychology
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Tall, dark and stable Wobbly furniture leads to a desire for emotional stability
搖搖晃晃的家具讓人在情緒上追求穩定
CLEARLY, a person’s decisions are determined by circumstances.
顯然，任何人在做決策的時候都受決策時的周遭環境所影響。
Just how closely they are determined, however, has only recently become apparent.
但具體來說會造成多大的影響直到最近才有了一個較為清晰的解釋。
Experiments conducted over the past few years have revealed that giving someone an icy drink at a party leads him to believe he is getting the cold shoulder from fellow guests, that handing over a warm drink gives people a sense of warmth from others,
在過去幾年進行的一系列實驗中，有一個實驗發現在聚會中，給客人提供冷飲會讓他有不受旁邊人待見的感覺傾向，相反，提供溫水等有溫度的飲料會讓他們感覺到周圍人的溫暖。
and—most astonishingly—that putting potential voters in chairs which lean slightly to the left causes them to become more agreeable towards policies associated with the left of the political spectrum.
最讓人驚奇的是，在另外一個關于潛在選民的實驗中，讓一個沒有立場的潛在選民，坐在椅子上并微微向左邊靠，他會更加認同與左派相似的政治立場。
The latest of these studies also looks at the effect of furniture.
這一系列實驗最近將他們的目標轉向了家具，研究家具對人的影響。
It suggests that something as trivial as the stability of chairs and tables has an effect on perceptions and desires.
他們假設許多不被人注意到的細節例如桌椅的穩定性會影響到人們對于其他事物的看法和愿望。
The study was conducted by David Kille, Amanda Forest and Joanne Wood at the University of Waterloo, in Canada, and will be published soon in Psychological Science.
這份研究是由David Kille，Amanda Forest以及滑鐵盧大學的Joanne Wood一同完成的，即將在《心理科學》雜志上發表。
Mr Kille and his collaborators asked half of their volunteers to sit in a slightly wobbly chair next to a slightly wobbly table while engaged in the task assigned.
在實驗中，他們選取了47個處于單身的大學本科生，將他們分為兩組，一半學生在實驗中坐在一張會搖晃的桌子旁一張會搖的椅子上，
The others were asked to sit in chairs next to tables that looked physically identical, but were not wobbly.
另外一半則是坐在外表相似卻非常穩的椅子上。
Once in their chairs, participants were asked to judge the stability of the relationships of four celebrity couples:
研究人員給兩組學生展示四組夫婦的照片：
Barack and Michelle Obama, David and Victoria Beckham, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, and Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis.
奧巴馬和米歇爾，維多利亞和貝克漢姆，Jay-Z和碧昂斯，強尼戴普和vanessa paradis，
They did this by rating how likely they thought it was, on a scale of one to seven, that a couple would break up in the next five years.
然后讓學生們給四對夫婦的情感穩定性打分—從一分到七分，他們未來五年離婚/分手的幾率，
A score of one meant extremely unlikely to dissolve.
一分代表幾乎不可能分開，
A score of seven meant extremely likely to dissolve.
七分代表十分可能分手。
After they had done this, they were asked to rate their preferences for various traits in a potential romantic partner.
接下來，調查者讓兩組學生分別對一系列理想配偶的特征進行打分—量表上給出一系列特征，
Traits on offer included some which a pilot study indicated people associate with a sense of psychological stability, some that are associated with psychological instability and some with no real relevance to instability or stability.
依舊是一分到七分，一分代表一點也不喜歡這樣子的七分代表大愛。量表上設置的特征，有些與追求穩定相關聯，有些與追求不穩定相關聯，有一些是隨機挑選的特質，三類特征交錯放置。
Participants rated the various traits on another one-to-seven scale, with one indicating not at all desirable and seven meaning extremely desirable.
其中關于追求穩定的一些特質包括是否值得信賴，是否可靠。而追求不穩定的特質包括是否自發性強，或是具有探險精神。
The results reveal that just as cold drinks lead to perceptions of social conditions being cold, tinkering with feelings of physical stability leads to perceptions of social instability.
調查結果就像之前那個聚會不要請人喝冷飲的調查一樣，在身體感受到不穩定狀態的時候會使得心理上更加傾向于感受到社交中的不穩定因子。
Participants who sat in wobbly chairs at wobbly tables gave the celebrity couples an average stability score of 3.2 while those whose furniture did not wobble gave them 2.5.
搖椅上的人給那四對夫婦打得分數是3.2，比另外一組高出0.7，越高分數代表越可能分開。
What was particularly intriguing, though, was that those sitting at wonky furniture not only saw instability in the relationships of others but also said that they valued stability in their own relationships more highly.
最有趣的還不是這里，最有趣的是這些坐在搖晃家具上的人不僅更傾向于看見他人關系中不穩定的因素，也傾向于更加重視追求自己與他人關系中的穩定因子。
They gave stability-promoting traits in potential romantic partners an average desirability score of 5.0, whereas those whose tables and chairs were stable gave these same traits a score of 4.5.
他們在后一個實驗中對理想配偶的穩定特質重視程度的打分平均是5.0，比另外一組高出0.5，
The difference is not huge, but it is statistically significant.
雖然數字上的差異不是很大，但是就數據分析來說，已經很能說明問題了。
Even a small amount of environmental wobbliness seems to promote a desire for an emotional rock to cling to.
即使只是環境中存在一點點的不穩定因素似乎都會讓人們產生趕快抓住一根感情稻草的沖動。
