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Trust is essential to social interaction among humans. Making friends, conducting business transactions, leading a team, and even playing games would be all but impossible without it. But have you ever wondered why we trust other people at all?
信任对人们进行社交互动至关重要。没有信任，就不能交朋友，进行商业交易，领导团队，就连玩游戏都是不可能的。你可曾想过究竟为什么要相信他人？
Little is known about the science of trust, but researchers have begun to focus on the peptide oxytocin as a potential clue to the biological basis for this behavior. Oxytocin is produced in the hypothalamus, and acts on areas of the brain responsible for social behaviors.
很少有人了解信任的科学，但研究人员已经开始重视这一领域，他们发现催产素是一条潜在线索，可能是信任这种行为的生理学基础。催产素产生于下丘脑，作用于大脑，促进人们进行社交活动。
Scientists hypothesize that oxytocin stimulates a trust response by encouraging "approach behavior" —that is, reducing the natural suspicion we have to the social proximity of others. The chemical has also been found to reduce the brain's fear response to pictures of human faces.
科学们假设通过鼓励“趋向行为”（即降低我们天生的对他人的怀疑，从而接近他人），催产素能刺激信任反应。据研究，在面对人类面孔照片时，这种化学物质可以降低人们胆怯心理。
Under its influence, people are more willing to take social risks. In one study, researchers had their subjects play a simple game based on trust. Those who had been given a dose of synthetic oxytocin were more likely to trust the other players than those who had not.
在其影响下，人们也更愿意承担社会风险。在一项研究中，科学家们让受试者玩一个建立在信任基础上的游戏。那些服用过一剂合成催产素的受试者，更容易相信别人，而其他人则没有。
In another study, seventy individuals with general social phobias used synthetic oxytocin for one month, taking a dose before entering difficult social situations. These subjects were more relaxed and exhibited a higher level of confidence when interacting with others while supplementing their brain's natural levels of the chemical.
在另外一项研究里，70名患有社交恐惧症的受试者连续一个月服用合成催产素，并在进入社交困境之前也服用一剂。受试者在与他人交流时，表现得更轻松，并展现出十分自信的一面。
Scientists are hopeful that further research into the effects of oxytocin will provide a new way to treat anxiety disorders in humans, from debilitating shyness to autism and schizophrenia. As they continue to explore oxytocin's role in brain activity, they hope to further understand these disorders, as well as the normal function of trust in human societies.
科学家们希望通过进一步研究催产素作用，能研发出一种新的方式来治疗人类的焦虑症，克服软弱的羞怯心理，孤独症和精神分裂症。随着继续探索催生素在大脑的作用，他们希望进一步了解这些行为障碍，还有信任在人类社会中的正常功能。
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