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Maybe it was when you saw the Grand Canyon for the first time,
敬畏也许产生在你第一次看到大峡谷的时候，
or when you found yourself standing 20 centimeters from the whorls of Starry Night,
或者是在你发现自己站在离《星空》螺旋只有20厘米的地方时，
or listening to the New York Philharmonic play the Star Wars theme.
或者是在你听纽约爱乐乐团演奏《星球大战》主题曲的时候。
Maybe watching a Wakandan sunset.
也许是你在看瓦坎达日落的时候。
No matter what causes it, being awestruck feels much the same.
不管起因是什么，敬畏的感觉大多相同。
Your mouth drops open. Time stops. You forget to breathe.
你张大嘴巴。时间静止。你忘了呼吸。
Awe is one of the most powerful, transformative emotions we have,
敬畏是我们拥有的最强大、最具变革性的情感之一，
and it's a key part of how we develop our understanding of the world.
在我们如何发展对世界的理解中发挥着重要作用。
But it turns out that connection goes both ways.
但事实证明这种联系是双向的。
Because feeling awe might tell you a lot about the world,
因为感知敬畏可以告诉你很多关于世界的事情，
but the psychology of awe can tell you a lot about humans.
但是敬畏心理学可以告诉你很多关于人类的事情。
Most psychologists agree that awe is a feeling
大多数心理学家都认为敬畏是一种感觉，
that happens when something is so vast that it's hard to fit into your current way of thinking.
当某些东西非常浩瀚，以至于你目前的思维方式很难适应它时，就会产生这种感觉。
"Vastness" in this context can be something that's just plain old big, like a redwood tree,
这种情境下的“Vastness”可以是普通的大物件，比如红杉树，
but it can also mean something that's larger than yourself in all kinds of ways,
也可以是在各方面都比你庞大的事物，
a higher social standing, for example, or even just a concept.
甚至是一个概念，例如更高的社会地位。
When you're confronted with this thing, it just … doesn't fit.
当你面对它时，它…不符合你的思维方式。
It's too much, too vast, in a way that makes it hard to even comprehend.
它太多了，太大了，超出了你的理解范围。
And that's when you feel it: You are awestruck.
这就是你对它的感觉：你感到敬畏。
This definition is pretty new, at least among psychologists.
这种定义相当新颖，至少在心理学家之间是这样。
Philosophers and poets have talked about awe for millennia,
哲学家和诗人谈论了几千年的敬畏，
but psychologists didn't really start studying it until recently,
但心理学家们最近才开始研究它，
partly because it's hard to find ways to inspire awe in a lab, no matter how amazing those automatic pipettes are.
部分原因是，不管自动吸量管有多神奇，我们都很难在实验室里找到激发敬畏的方法。
The field really kicked off in 2003, when a group of researchers published a study in Cognition Emotion
这个领域真正开始于2003年，一组研究人员发表了一项关于认知情绪研究的时候，
where they first proposed the idea of awe as a way of processing something that seems too vast to comprehend.
他们在研究中第一次提出，“敬畏”这个概念是一种处理似乎过于庞大以至于无法理解的事物的方式。
They also came up with five so-called "flavors" that might affect our sense of awe:
他们还提出了五种可能影响敬畏感的所谓“口味”：
threat, beauty, ability, virtue, and a sense of the supernatural.
威胁，美丽，能力，美德，以及超自然的感觉。
Including "threat" in that list might be surprising at first,
列表包括“威胁”，这一开始可能会让人吃惊，
because people don't talk about awe as a negative thing or a sign of a threat, but it can be.
因为人们不会把敬畏说成是一种消极事物或威胁标志，但它可能是。
The word "awe" actually comes from Middle English words for fear, dread and terror. Uh, yikes?
“Awe”一词来源于中世纪英语中表示恐惧、畏惧和恐怖的单词，很惊讶是吧？
And good and bad awe are both part of the English language today.
好的“awe”与糟糕的“awe”都是现代英语的一部分。
It's what the words "awesome" and "awful" have in common.
这就是“awesome”和“awful”两个词的共同之处。
Negative awe is the type of feeling you might get from looking at pictures of horrible destruction after a hurricane or an earthquake.
消极敬畏是你看到飓风或地震过后可怕的毁灭场景时可能产生的感觉。
It's definitely not in the same category as sequoias and rainbows,
它肯定不与红杉和彩虹在同一类别，
but it's hard to wrap your head around in a similar way.
你很难用类似的方式认真思考它。
But whether the feeling is positive or negative,
无论感觉积极还是消极，
the evolutionary roots of awe can tell you a lot about why we experience it in the first place.
敬畏的进化根源可以告诉你很多我们起初为什么会经历它的原因。
Like a lot of emotions, it all comes down to how social we are as a species.
与很多情感类似，这一切都归结于我们作为一个物种的社会性。
In that 2003 paper about the "flavors" of awe,
在2003年那篇关于敬畏的“味道”一文中，
the researchers also proposed that the feeling evolved as a way for underlings to react to a powerful leader.
研究人员还提出，这种感觉以下属对一位强大领导者做出反应的方式进化。
That … might seem kind of unsettling these days,
这似乎有点儿让人不安，
because we've seen fascism and we all know how that goes.
因为我们见到过法西斯主义，都知道这是怎么回事。
But fear and submission in the face of powerful group members are actually common in lots of primates,
但是在面对强大的群体成员时，多灵长类动物都会恐惧和屈服，这很常见，
and back in the day, it was the simplest way to avoid conflict.
回到以前，这是避免冲突的最简单方法。
And there are some heartwarming social benefits to awe, as well, it makes us treat each other better.
敬畏还有一些暖心的社会福利，它让我们更好地对待彼此。
One 2015 study on this involved a series of experiments with a total of nearly 2,000 participants.
2015年，研究人员用近2000名受试者对此进行了研究，做了一系列实验。
It found that when people thought about a time that they experienced awe,
它发现当人们想到自己经历敬畏的那段时间时，
they tended to become more generous and selfless and make more ethical decisions.
往往变得更加慷慨无私，做出更道德的决定。
So awe would've had plenty of evolutionary advantages when it comes to cooperating as a group.
所以当涉及到小组合作时，敬畏会有很多进化上的优势。
But other researchers have proposed that the evolution of awe is more closely tied to intelligence.
但其他研究人员提出，敬畏的进化与智力联系得更紧密。
The idea is that you experience awe in situations where it's important to be acquiring information that you can use later.
该观点是指，获取你以后可以使用的信息非常重要，在此情形下你会感到敬畏。
It makes sense: if something is awe-inspiring because it doesn't fit with your understanding of the world,
这是有道理的：如果某件事因为不符合你对世界的理解而令人敬畏，
that's probably something that you should know more about if you wanna survive.
那么它可能是你应该更多了解的事情，如果你想活下去的话。
The feeling of awe directs your attention away from yourself and toward your environment,
敬畏的感觉将你的注意力从你自己转移到你的环境中，
so you can acquire more information about this new, possibly life-changing thing, whether it's positive or negative.
所以你可以从这个可能改变生活的新事物中获取更多信息，无论它积极还是消极。
So awe might have given us a social advantage or an intellectual advantage, or maybe some combination of both.
敬畏可能会给我们带来社会优势或者智力优势，或者两者兼而有之。
But no matter why the emotion evolved, we know that it's incredibly powerful,
但无论情感为什么进化，我们都知道它非常强大，
to the point that it can, like, totally hack your brain and body.
关键是它能完全影响你的大脑和身体。
For one thing, it can improve your physical health.
一方面，它可以改善你的身体健康。
It's been linked to lower levels of inflammation, which plays a role in all sorts of illnesses.
它与较低的炎症水平有关，后者在各种疾病中起着重要作用。
Awe can also change your perception of what's causing events to unfold.
敬畏还可以改变你对事件起因的看法。
Studies have found that it makes people more likely to interpret
研究发现，它让人们更容易理解
a series of events as the consequence of something intentional, as opposed to random chance.
一系列事件是有意的结果，而不是偶然发生的。
It's all part of the search for an explanation for something your brain is struggling to comprehend,
这些都是解释大脑很难理解某物的部分探究过程，
which could help us explain why religion is a thing.
这能帮助我们解释为什么宗教是一件大事。
Oh, and also awe can basically stop time.
哦，敬畏也可以停止时间。
A 2011 study found that subjects who experienced awe were more likely to report
2011年的一项研究发现，经历过敬畏的受试者更有可能报告说
feeling that time was "boundless" and like they had enough time to get things done.
他们感觉时间是“无限的”，似乎有足够的时间把事情做完。
They were also more willing to volunteer their time to help others.
他们更愿意奉献自己的时间去帮助他人。
So altering our perception of time might be part of how awe leads to those social benefits.
所以改变我们对时间的感知可能是敬畏的一部分社会福利。
It's hard to know how or whether most of these effects apply to the negative type of awe,
我们很难知道这些影响如何或者是否适用于消极敬畏，
because there's much less research on it.
因为对它的研究少得多。
But one study did find that negative feelings of awe didn't produce the same health benefits as positive awe did,
但是一项研究发现，消极敬畏并没有产生和积极敬畏一样的健康益处，
so the effects don't seem to be exactly the same.
所以它们的效果看起来并不完全一样。
One thing is clear, though: these experiences, where something is so huge and incomprehensible
不过有一件事很清楚：经历那些如此庞大和难以理解的事物，
that it makes you rethink your understanding of the world are part of how we function as a species.
会让你重新思考自己对世界的理解是我们作为一个物种的一部分角色。
Whether it's inspired by the Grand Canyon or a natural disaster,
不管它是不是受到大峡谷还是自然灾害的启发，
awe changes you, maybe more than you know.
敬畏都改变了你，这种改变超出你的了解。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych,
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀，
and thank you to all of our patrons on Patreon for helping support this channel.
也感谢Patreon上的所有赞助人对本栏目的支持。
We are a community of humans who want to understand more about humans,
我们是一个人类社群，想要更多地了解人类，
specifically, the brain parts, and if that, to you, sounds like something that's cool,
特别是人类大脑，如果它对你来说听起来很酷的话，
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
你可以登陆youtube.com/scishowpsych点击订阅。
