Those Seeking the New May Find Happiness

好奇愛嘗鮮比較容易快樂

By John Tierney

Do you make decisions quickly based on incomplete information? Do you lose your temper quickly? Are you easily bored?
你會不會根據不完整的訊息驟然決斷？很容易發脾氣？很容易覺得無聊？

Those are the kinds of questions used to measure novelty-seeking, a personality trait long associated with problems like attention deficit disorder, compulsive gambling and criminal behavior.
這些都是用於評估追求新奇事物人格特質的問題。這種人格特質一直與注意力不足、自我強迫性賭博及犯罪行為等問題有關。

Now researchers see that it can also be a crucial predictor of well-being.
研究人員如今發現，它可能也是預測快樂幸福的極重要指標。

“Novelty-seeking is one of the traits that keeps you healthy and happy and fosters personality growth as you age,” says C. Robert Cloninger, a psychiatrist who developed personality tests for measuring this trait. “If you combine this adventurousness and curiosity with persistence and a sense that it’s not all about you, then you get the kind of creativity that benefits society as a whole.”
曾為評估這種特質而設計多項性格測驗的精神病學家柯洛寧格說：「追求新奇的特質能使你常保健康快樂，同時讓你的人格隨年歲而成長。如果抱持這種冒險精神和好奇心，持以之以恆而且不要只想到自己，就會具備對整個社會有益的創造力。」

Fans of this trait are calling it “neophilia.” In her book “New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change,” the journalist Winifred Gallagher argues that neophilia is a quintessential human survival skill.
這種特質的粉絲稱它「喜新性」。記者溫妮菲蕾蒂‧賈拉格在所著《新：瞭解我們對新奇及改變的需求》一書中指出，喜新性是典型的人類求生技巧。

“Nothing reveals your personality more succinctly than your characteristic emotional reaction to novelty and change over time and across many situations,” says Ms. Gallagher, who classifies people as neophobes, neophiles and, at the most extreme, neophiliacs.
賈拉格把一般人區分為對新奇事物恐懼者、愛好者，以及最極端的成癖者。她說：「長時間與不同情境下你對新奇與變化的典型情緒反應，最能扼要顯露你的人格特質，勝過其他任何事物。」

Neophiliacs are more likely to possess a “migration gene,” a DNA mutation that occurred about 50,000 years ago, as humans were dispersing from Africa around the world, according to Robert Moyzis, a biochemist at the University of California, Irvine. The mutations are more prevalent in the most far-flung populations, like Indian tribes in South America descended from the neophiliacs who crossed the Bering Strait.
爾灣加州大學生化學家莫伊席斯指出，人類祖先大約5萬年前自非洲向全球各地散布時，DNA發生突變，形成「遷徙基因」。追求新奇事物成癖好者比較可能擁有這種基因。這種基因在最偏遠地區的族群身上更為常見，例如當年橫越白令海的追求新奇事物成癖者在南美洲的印第安部落後裔。

Researchers have found that a tendency for novelty-seeking also depends on upbringing, the local culture and stage of life. By some estimates, the urge for novelty drops by half between the ages of 20 and 60.
研究人員發現，喜新性與養育、在地文化及生命的階段也都有關。部分研究人員認為，追求新奇事物的衝動在20歲到60歲之間會減半。

Dr. Cloninger, a professor of psychiatry and genetics at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, tracked people using a personality test he developed two decades ago.
柯洛寧格現任密蘇里州聖路易華盛頓大學精神病學與遺傳學教授，他以自己20年前設計的性格測驗追蹤調查對象。

He found a trio of traits essential to a happy temperament: novelty-seeking, persistence and “self-transcendence.”
他發現快樂性格不可缺的三種特質：追求新奇、堅持，以及「自我超越」。

“People with persistence tend to be achievers because they’ll keep working at something even when there’s no immediate reward,” Dr. Cloninger says. “They’ll think, ‘I didn’t win this time, but next time I will.’ But what if conditions have changed? Then you’re better off trying something new. To succeed, you want to be able to regulate your impulses while also having the imagination to see what the future would be like if you tried something new.”
柯洛寧格說：「執著的人比較能夠成功，因為就算沒有即時的報償，他們還是會專注於一件事。他們會想，『我這次沒贏，但下次會贏。』然而如果環境改變，結果如何？這時候，你最好嘗試其他事物。為了成功，你想要能夠約束自己的衝動，同時保有對嘗試其他新事物會是什麼光景的想像力。」

The other trait in the trio, self-transcendence, gives people a larger perspective. “It’s the capacity to get lost in the moment doing what you love to do, to feel a connection to nature and humanity and the universe,” Dr. Cloninger says. “It’s sometimes found in disorganized people who are immature and do a lot of wishful thinking and daydreaming, but when it’s combined with persistence and novelty-seeking, it leads to personal growth and enables you to balance your needs with those of the people around you.”
自我超越的特質則會使人視野更寬。柯洛寧格說：「它是做你所愛的事時完全投入，感覺與大自然、全人類以至宇宙產生關係的能力。有時候我們會在未成熟、經常一廂情願或做白日夢、思緒紊亂者身上看到這種特質。不過如果它與堅持、追求新奇的特質結合，往往會導向個人成長，同時使你可在個人與周圍人們的需求之間取得平衡。」

But the urge for novelty can also lead you astray. “Neophilia spurs us to adjust and explore and create technology and art, but at the extreme it can fuel a chronic restlessness and distraction,” Ms. Gallagher says.
追求新奇的衝動也會使你誤入歧途。賈拉格說：「喜新性督促我們調整，探索並創造科技與藝術，但在最極端情況下，也會引起長期坐立不安與分心。」

She and Dr. Cloninger both advise neophiles to be selective. “Don’t go wide and shallow into useless trivia,” Ms. Gallagher says. “Use your neophilia to go deep into subjects that are important to you.”
她與柯洛寧格建議愛好新奇事物的人們善加選擇。賈拉格說：「切忌淺獵太多的無謂瑣事。運用你的喜新性深入探究對你重要的事。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/novelty-seeking-neophilia-can-be-a-predictor-of-well-being.html

2012-02-28聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯原文參見紐時週報十版下