经济学人外刊精读丨人类行为学.docx

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1、1 5经济学人外刊精读|人类行为学经济学人原文Human behaviour: smell you later, alligatorFriends, it seems, often have similar body odours1 DOGS GREET other dogs nose-first, as it weresniffing each other from fore to (especially) aft. People are not quite so open about the process of sniffing each other out. But the size

2、of the perfume industry suggests scent is important in human relations, too. There is also evidence that human beings can infer kinship, deduce emotional states and even detect disease via the sense of smell. Now, Inbal Ravrcby, Kobi Snitz and Noam Sobel of the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Isra

3、el, have gone a step further. They think they have shown, admittedly in a fairly small sample of individuals, that friends actually smell alike. They have also shown that this is probably the case from the get-go, with people picking friends at least partly on the basis of body odour, rather than th

4、e body odours of people who become friends subsequently converging.2 As they report in Science Advances, Dr Ravrcby, Dr Snitz and Dr Sobel started their research by testing the odours of 20 pairs of established, non-romantic, same-sex friends. To do this they employed an electronic nose (e-nose) and

5、 two groups of specially recruited human “smellers”.【3】The e-nose used a set of metal-oxide gas sensors to assess T-shirts worn by participants. One group of human smellers were given pairs of these shirts and asked to rate how similar they smelt. Those in the other group were asked to rate the odou

6、rs of individual T-shirts on five subjective dimensions:pleasantness, intensity, sexual attractiveness, competence and warmth. The e-nose results and the opinions of the second group of smellers were then subjected to a bit of multidimensional mathematical jiggery-pokery (think plotting the results

7、on a graph, except that the graph paper has five dimensions), and they, too, emerged as simple, comparable numbers.4 All three approaches yielded the same result. The T-shirts of friends smelt more similar to each other than did the T-shirts of strangers. Friends, in other words, do indeed smell ali

8、ke. But why?5 To cast light on whether friendship causes similarity of scent, or similarity of scent causes friendship, Dr Ravreby, Dr Snitz and Dr Sobel investigated whether e-nose measurements could predict positive interactions between strangersthe sort of “clicking“ thal is often the basis of a

9、new friendships. To this end they gathered another 17 volunteers, gave them T-shirts to wear to collect their body odours, ran those odours past the e-nose, and then asked the participants to play a game.【6】That game involved silently mirroring another individuaPs hand movements. participants were p

10、aired up at random and their reactions recorded. After each interaction, they demonstrated how close they felt to their fellow gamer by overlapping two circles (one representing themselves, the other their partner) on a screen. The more similar the two electronic smell signatures were, the greater t

11、he overlap, participants also rated the quality of their interaction in the game along 12 subjective dimensions of feelings that define friendship.Similar odours corresponded to positive ratings for nine of these dimensions. Intriguingly, however, two participants smelling alike did not mean they we

12、re any more accurate at the mirroring game than others, as measured by a hidden camera.7 Why scent might play a role in forming friendships remains obscure.Other qualities correlated with being friends, including age, appearance, education, religion and race, are either immediately obvious or rapidl

13、y become so. But while some individuals have strong and noticeable body odour, manyat least since the use of soap has become widespread-do not. It is present. But it is subliminal. Dr Ravreby speculates that there may be “an evolutionary advantage in having friends that are genetically similar to us

14、”. Body odour is known to be linked with genetic make-up (particularly with the genes underlying part of the immune system called the mijor histocompatibility complex). Smelling others may thus allow subconscious inferences about genetic similarity to be drawn.【8】That still, however, does not quite

15、answer the question. DrRavreby speculates that odour-matching of this sort may be an extended form of kin selection, which spreads an individuaFs genes collaterally, by helping the reproduction of relatives who are likely to share them. If those who smell similar are kin enough fbr this to apply, th

16、eir children will be as well. So by helping friends, Dr Ravreby offers, 4twe help spread our own genes.” 99长难句.原文：To cast light on whether friendship causes similarity of scent, or similarity of scent causes friendship, Dr Ravreby, Dr Snitz and Dr Sobel investigated whether e-nose measurements could

17、 predict positive interactions between strangersthe sort of “clicking“ that is often the basis of a new friendships.1 .分析：该句主句的结构为主(Dr Ravreby, Dr Snitz and Dr Sobel)谓(investigated)宾 语从句(whether e-nose measurements could predict positive interactions between strangers )；宾语从句的结构为主(e-nose measurements)谓(could predict)宾(positive interactions)othat引导定语从句，先行词是clicking,该定语从句的结构是主(clicking) 谓(is)宾(the basis of a new friendships)。2 .译文：为了弄清是友谊导致气味相似，还是气味相似促成友谊，拉夫雷比博士、斯尼茨 博士和索贝尔博士研究了电子鼻的测量是否可以预测陌生人之间的积极互动这种“激 活”通常是产生新友谊的基础。本文选自经济学人（Sciencestechnology July 2th 2022