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Science and technology
科学与技术
Sexual selection
性选择
Hunkier than thou
强于汝
Scientists are finally succeeding where so many men have failed: in understanding why women find some guys handsome and others hideous.
科学家终于发现女性在评判男性的臭与美时大多数男性失败在哪了。
WHEN it comes to partners, men often find women's taste fickle and unfathomable.
在选择配偶时，男性发现女性的品味经常起伏不定，难以理解。
But ladies may not be entirely to blame.
然而我们却不能将这一问题完全怪罪在女性身上。
A growing body of research suggests that their preference for certain types of male physiognomy may be swayed by things beyond their conscious control—like prevalence of disease or crime—and in predictable ways.
因为越来越多的研究显示女性对于男性某些特定相貌的偏爱可能受制于其意识控制以外的事物—比如流行疾病或者犯罪—并且影响方式可以被预测。
Masculine features—a big jaw, say, or a prominent brow—tend to reflect physical and behavioural traits, such as strength and aggression.
像宽大的下巴或者突出的眉骨这些阳刚性的特征总是可以反映出诸如力量以及进攻性这些生理和行为上的特点。
They are also closely linked to physiological ones, like virility and a sturdy immune system.
而这些同样与生育能力以及强健的免疫系统等生理特点有着密切的联系。
The obverse of these desirable characteristics looks less appealing.
但是这些令人羡慕的特点却有着不太受欢迎的负面影响。
Aggression is fine when directed at external threats, less so when it spills over onto the hearth.
比如进攻性在攘外时确实有着尚佳额表现，但是却难以用来处理家庭生活。
Sexual prowess ensures plenty of progeny, but it often goes hand in hand with promiscuity and a tendency to shirk parental duties or leave the mother altogether.
而强劲的性能力确实能保证后代的繁衍生息，但是往往导致私生活的不检点以及抛弃妻儿而不尽赡养之责。
So, whenever a woman has to choose a mate, she must decide whether to place a premium on the hunk's choicer genes or the wimp's love and care.
所以无论何时何代女性在选择配偶时都必须在高大威猛的大男人和体贴关爱的小男人之间做出抉择。
Lisa DeBruine, of the University of Aberdeen, believes that today's women still face this dilemma and that their choices are affected by unconscious factors.
来自阿伯丁大学的丽萨.德布鲁因认为当今的女性仍然面临这种两难境地而且他们的选择会受到非意识因素的影响。
In a paper published earlier this year Dr DeBruine found that women in countries with poor health statistics preferred men with masculine features more than those who lived in healthier societies.
在今年早期发表的一份论文中德布鲁因博士发现与生活在卫生状况较好的社区中的妇女相比来自卫生状况较差国家的妇女更钟情于那些拥有阳刚外表特征的男性。
Where disease is rife, this seemed to imply, giving birth to healthy offspring trumps having a man stick around long enough to help care for it.
在疾病连连的地区，这一点暗示了生育更加健康的后代要比嫁一个整天能够伴你左右并提供细心呵护的男人更重要。
In more salubrious climes, therefore, wimps are in with a chance.
而在一些相对安逸的地区，小男人 便因此有了一定的机会。
Now, though, researchers led by Robert Brooks, of the University of New South Wales, have taken another look at Dr DeBruine's data and arrived at a different conclusion.
目前，由新南威尔斯大学的罗伯特.布鲁克斯率领的研究者对于德布鲁因博士的数据有着另一种理解并得出一个不同的结论，
They present their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
并将所发些的结果发表在了《皇家协会会刊》上。
Dr Brooks suggests that it is not health-related factors, but rather competition and violence among men that best explain a woman's penchant for manliness.
布鲁克斯博士认为与其说是涉及健康的相关因素不如说男人之间的竞争和暴力可以最好地解释女性对于男子气概的追捧。
The more rough-and-tumble the environment, the researcher's argument goes, the more women prefer masculine men, because they are better than the softer types at providing for mothers and their offspring.
研究者辩解道，环境越是恶劣，女性就越发地选择阳刚型男子，因为与稍显温和的男性相比更具男人气概的男子在赡养妻儿方面更能胜任。
An unhealthy relationship
一个不健康的关系
Since violent competition for resources is more pronounced in unequal societies, Dr Brooks predicted that women would value masculinity more highly in countries with a higher Gini coefficient, which is a measure of income inequality.
由于不平等社会更容易发生为争夺资源的暴力竞争，布鲁克斯博士预测在基尼系数较高国家的妇女可能更看重男人阳刚的一面。
And indeed, he found that this was better than a country's health statistics at predicting the relative attractiveness of hunky faces.
而事实上，他发现通过这种方法比利用一个国家的健康状况统计数据能够更好地预测一张标致的脸庞是否具有吸引力。
The rub is that unequal countries also tend to be less healthy.
问题是收入不平等国家的人口健康状况也不会太好。
So, in order to disentangle cause from effect, Dr Brooks compared Dr DeBruine's health index with a measure of violence in a country: its murder rate.
所以为了澄清效应产生的原因，布鲁克斯博士将德布鲁因博士的健康指数与反映一个国家暴力事件水平的谋杀案发率进行了对比。
Again, he found that his chosen indicator predicts preference for facial masculinity more accurately than the health figures do.
他再次发现其所选择的指标要比人口健康状况指数更准确地放映女性对于男性外在阳刚特性的偏爱。
However, in a rejoinder published in the same issue of the Proceedings, Dr DeBruine and her colleagues point to a flaw in Dr Brooks's analysis: his failure to take into account a society's overall wealth.
然而，德布鲁因博士及其同事在《皇家协会会刊》上发表了关于此问题的回复，他们指出布鲁克斯博士的分析存在一个缺点：这就是他没有将一个社会群体的所有财富考虑在内。
When she performed the statistical tests again, this time controlling for GNP, it turned out that the murder rate's predictive power disappears, whereas that of the health indicators persists.
德布鲁因博士再次进行了统计学验证，其结果是谋杀案发率的预测性消失了而人口健康状况指数的却依然存在。
In other words, the prevalence of violent crime seems to predict mating preferences only in so far as it reflects a country's relative penury.
换句话说，就目前而言利用暴力犯罪的流行程度来预测择偶偏好只适用于一个相对拮据的国家。
The statistical tussle shows the difficulty of drawing firm conclusions from correlations alone.
这些统计学上的争辩显示仅从相关性难以得出确凿的结论。
Dr DeBruine and Dr Brooks admit as much, and agree the dispute will not be settled until the factors that shape mating preferences are tested directly.
德布鲁因博士和布鲁克斯博士都非常赞同这一点，并且一致认为只有在形成择偶偏好的因素被直接验证后才能消除双方的分歧。
Another recent study by Dr DeBruine and others has tried to do just that.
由德布鲁因博士及其他成员主导的另一个研究就是为了尝试这方面的验证。
Its results lend further credence to the health hypothesis.
这项研究的结果加强了健康偏好假说的可信性。
This time, the researchers asked 124 women and 117 men to rate 15 pairs of male faces and 15 pairs of female ones for attractiveness.
这次，研究者邀请124名女士及117名男士给15对男性面孔图片及15对女性面孔图片的魅力程度进行评级。
Each pair of images depicted the same set of features tweaked to make one appear ever so slightly manlier than the other or more feminine.
每一对面孔都具有相同的外貌特征，只是如果图片上是男性的面孔，则其中一幅略显阳刚，而如果是女性的面孔，其中一幅则略显柔美。
Some were also made almost imperceptibly lopsided.
有些面孔则呈现出一边倒的情况使得难以分辨差异。
Symmetry, too, indicates a mate's quality because in harsh environments robust genes are needed to ensure even bodily development.
由于在严酷的环境下优良的基因可以为后代的生理发育带来保障，所以外貌的对称性同样被作为择偶的标准。
Next, the participants were shown another set of images, depicting objects that elicit varying degrees of disgust, such as a white cloth either stained with what looked like a bodily fluid, or a less revolting blue dye.
接下来，参与者会观看一系列让人感觉恶心程度不一的图片，例如一块沾有貌似体液或者不太让人反感的蓝色色块的白布。
Disgust is widely assumed to be another adaptation, one that warns humans to stay well away from places where germs and other pathogens may be lurking.
由于反感情绪被广泛认为是另一种适应，它可以警告人类远离那些可能潜伏着细菌和病原体的地方。
So, according to Dr DeBruine's hypothesis, people shown the more disgusting pictures ought to respond with an increased preference for masculine lads and feminine lasses, and for the more symmetrical countenances.
所以，根据德布鲁因博士的假设，观看了较多让人反感的图片的人群应该会更偏向于选择阳刚的小伙子和柔美的小姑娘以及面貌对称性较高的图片。
That is precisely what happened when they were asked to rate the same set of faces one more time.
当被要求重新给这些图片进行评级时所得出的结果还是一样。
But it only worked with the opposite sex; the revolting images failed to alter what either men or women found attractive about their own sex.
但是，这只对给异性面貌图片进行评级时有效。令人反感的图片无法改变男性或者女性给同性面貌图片评级的结果。
This means sexual selection, not other evolutionary mechanisms, is probably at work.
这意味着验证过程中产生效果的是性选择而不是其他进化机制。
More research is needed to confirm these observations and to see whether other factors, like witnessing violence, bear on human physiognomic proclivities.
还需要更多的研究来证实这些观点并确定是否还有其他诸如目睹暴力等因素会对人类以貌取人的倾向产生影响。
For now, though, the majority of males who do not resemble Brad Pitt may at least take comfort that this matters less if their surroundings remain spotless.
目前看来，对于绝大多数长得不够布拉德.皮特的男士们来说至少可以松一口气了，因为只要你保持清洁，长得像不像布帅哥倒也没什么。
