Time May Upend Laws of Attraction
一見未鍾情 仍大有可為
By John Tierney

After decades of studying the concept of “mate value,” social scientists now have the data necessary to explain the choices in a tale like “Pride and Prejudice.”
研究「配偶價值」數十年後，社學科學家如今有了必要的資料，可以解釋《傲慢與偏見》這樣的故事中，抉擇的道理。

In Jane Austen’s telling, the tall and good-looking Mr. Darcy initially denigrates Elizabeth Bennet’s appearance: “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” Even worse, her family’s social status is “so decidedly beneath my own.”
在珍．奧斯汀的敘述裡，高大英俊的達西起初羞辱伊麗莎白．班奈特的長相：「她長得還過得去，但是沒漂亮到讓我動心的程度。」更糟的是，她家的社會地位「斷然遠低於我的家世背景」。

His initial reactions make perfect sense to evolutionary psychologists, because these preferences can improve the odds of passing on one’s genes. Beauty and physical symmetry are markers of a mate’s genetic fitness; wealth makes it more likely that children will survive to adulthood. Researchers have found that people tend to end up with those of similar mate value.
他最初的反應對演化心理學家來說，再合理也不過了，因為這些偏見可以提高傳遞基因的機率。美貌和身體的對稱性是配偶基因優良的標記，財富則讓子女更有可能安然長大成人。研究人員發現，人們傾向於和配偶價值相近者定下來。

To test how superficial people are, psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin asked students to rate the romantic appeal of their opposite-sex classmates.
為了測試人們有多麼以貌取人，奧斯汀德州大學的心理學家要求學生給異性同班同學的浪漫魅力打分數。

At the start of the semester, the students agreed on who in their class was most desirable. But when asked three months later, their judgments varied widely.
在學期開始時，學生對於誰是班上的萬人迷具有共識。但是等到三個月後再問，學生的評價變得南轅北轍。

These changes in attitudes should mean that there are fewer losers in the mating game, because everyone isn’t vying for the same person, noted Paul Eastwick, an assistant professor at the university who published the study last year.
態度上的這些改變應該意味在求偶遊戲中，失敗者會少一些，因為不是所有人都鎖定同一個對象，去年發表研究結果的德州大學助理教授保羅．伊斯特威克指出。

To test this, Dr. Eastwick joined with Eli Finkel of Northwestern University in Illinois, in a study of couples was published online this month in Psychological Science.
為了證明此一推論，伊斯特威克參與伊利諾州西北大學心理系教授艾里．芬克對伴侶的研究，上個月在《心理科學》期刊的網站發表了研究結果。

Some of the couples had been married for five decades; others had been dating for just a few months. The study found that if they’d begun going out within a month of meeting, they tended to be equally attractive physically. But if they’d been acquaintances for a long time, or if they’d been friends before becoming lovers, then someone hot was more liable to end up with someone not so hot.
有些伴侶結婚已經五十年，也些才約會幾個月。研究發現，如果見過面後一個月內就開始約會，雙方的外貌可能十分匹配。但是如果雙方認識已久，或者在變成戀人前一直是朋友，兩個人最後在一起，外型比較性感的人選擇和外型不那麼性感的人結合的可能性，會比較高。

This gradual change seems to occur quite often, said the anthropologist Helen Fisher of the Kinsey Institute, who works with Match.com on its annual survey of single adults in America.
此一漸進的改變似乎經常發生，金賽性學研究所的人類學家海倫．費雪如此表示，她和約會網站Match.com合作發表美國單身成人的年度調查報告。

In the 2012 survey, 33 percent of men and 43 percent of women answered yes when asked if they had ever fallen in love with someone they did not initially find attractive. Dr. Fisher terms this process “slow love.”
在2012年的調查中，被問到是否曾和初見並不鍾情的對象墜入過愛河時，33%的男性和43%的女性給予肯定回答。費雪稱此過程為「慢慢愛」。

As for Mr. Darcy, as he converses with Elizabeth and enjoys her playful wit, she even starts to look different: “But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes.”
對達西來說，在他和伊麗莎白聊天，並欣賞她的機智後，她甚至看起來也開始不一樣了。「儘管在朋友面前與自己心裡，都說她的相貌沒有甚麼可取之處。但一轉眼的工夫，他就發覺她美麗烏黑雙眸透出的眼神，使她的整個臉蛋兒顯得極其聰慧。」

He fins, of course, that he can’t resist her. “In vain I have struggled,” he tells her. “It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”
當然，他發現，自己無法抗拒她。「我的掙扎徒勞無功，」他告訴她：「以後也不會成功。我將不再壓抑感情。請務必允許我告訴妳，我有多麼仰慕妳和熱愛妳。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/science/for-couples-time-can-upend-the-laws-of-attraction.html

2015-07-21聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報十版下