(单词翻译:单击)
Want to do it with me this time?
这次想和我一起叹息吗?
Feels pretty good, doesn't it?
感觉不错,对吗?
Sighing is one of those universal human experiences.
人类普遍都会叹息 。
For people around the world, taking a deep breath has a calming power, and it's part of the way we experience and communicate emotion.
对世界各地的人来说,深呼吸有一种镇定的能力,它是我们体验和交流情感的一种方式 。
But it turns out that the assumptions we make when we hear other people sighing… aren't always right.
但事实证明,我们在听到别人叹息时所做的假设并不总是正确的 。
The reasons we sigh start with biology, because your lungs actually need to sigh just keep functioning properly.
首先从生物学上讲,人类叹息实际上是因为肺部需要通过叹息来维持正常的功能 。
When you take a deep breath, you're kind of rebooting them.
深呼吸的时候是在重启我们的肺部 。
When you're breathing normally for a while, that's what scientists call eupneic breathing—meaning that it's normal and unlabored.
正常呼吸一段时间就是科学家们所说的平静呼吸,意思是呼吸正常和不费力 。
And if you just let people sit with their eupneic breathing for a while, eventually they'll take a breath that's about twice the usual volume of air,
如果你让人们安静地坐着呼吸一段时间,最终他们会呼吸到比平常两倍的空气,
which is what we tend to call a sigh.
这就是我们常说的叹息 。
That's usually followed by what's known as a post-sigh apnea—
随后会出现呼吸暂停——
a little gap between breaths that's a bit longer than normal.
呼吸的间隙略比正常时间长 。
This big breath pushes you to fully expand your alveoli—the tiny air sacs that fill up your lungs.
这种大的呼吸会使肺泡完全扩张——充满肺部的微小气囊 。
And that helps keep your lungs from collapsing, which is good, because collapsing is a very bad thing that you really don't want your lungs to do.
这有助于防止肺部衰竭,是好事,因为衰竭是一件非常糟糕的事情,你真的不想让肺衰竭 。
Researchers have found that people's breathing becomes more variable just before they sigh,
研究人员发现,人们在叹息之前,呼吸会更加多变,
and it's a little more consistent afterward.
之后会更加一致 。
So it really is like your lungs get a reset.
所以这就像肺部被重置了一样 。
Generally, you need to sigh every 5 minutes or so just to keep your lungs in working order.
一般情况下,你需要每5分钟左右叹息一次,以保持肺部正常工作 。
You even sigh in your sleep, although that tends to be less often.
你甚至会在睡梦中叹息,尽管这种情况并不常见 。
But there are lots of factors that can change the pattern of when you sigh—like stress—and that's where the psychology comes in.
但是有很多因素可以改变你的叹息模式,比如压力,这就是心理学的作用 。
Psychologists have known for a while that breathing patterns are related to emotions.
一段时间以来,心理学家已经知道呼吸模式与情绪有关 。
But sighing is weird because it seems to be related to both positive and negative emotions.
但是叹息很奇怪,因为它似乎与积极和消极的情绪都有关 。
For example, you might sigh because you're stressed or frustrated, but you might also do it because you're feeling relaxed.
例如,你可能会因为压力或沮丧而叹息,也可能因为感到放松而叹息 。
One way to explain the contradiction is that sighing could have a lot to do with relief:
这一矛盾可能与放松有很大关系:
you do it because you're feeling relieved, or because you're stressed out and your brain is trying to make you feel more relieved.
叹息是因为感到放松,或者是因为压力过大,大脑试图让你感到更放松 。
In a 2009 study published in the journal Psychophysiology, a group of Belgian researchers decided to test this idea.
2009年发表在《心理生理学》杂志上的一项研究中,一组比利时研究人员决定测试这一想法 。
In three separate experiments, the team made a total of 115 people listen to an obnoxiously loud white noise turn on and off.
在三个独立的实验中,研究小组让115人听一种刺耳的白噪音 。
They used different shapes on a screen to signal whether a noise was coming.
他们在屏幕上用不同的形状来发出是否有噪音的信号 。
One shape meant guaranteed irritation, one meant the subject was safe,
一种形状意味着肯定会有噪音,一种意味着安全,
and one meant there was a 50-50 chance that they'd have to hear the noise.
一种意味着听到噪音的几率为50% 。
The researchers found that people sighed a little more
研究人员发现,人们更容易叹息
while they were hearing the noise, but a lot more once it was over.
虽然他们听到了噪音,但当噪音结束后,他们听到的声音更多 。
And, when they were asked about their emotions during the experiment,
当被问及实验期间的情绪时,
people who sighed more also rated themselves as feeling more relieved.
那些经常叹息的人也认为自己感觉更轻松 。
But it didn't matter if it was relief from the obnoxious sound ending or just from discovering they didn't have to hear the sound.
但是,无论是从讨厌的声音结束中得到解脱,还是仅仅因为发现自己不必听到这种声音,都不重要 。
They'd sigh just because of the relief from the anticipation of the stress.
他们叹息,只是因为从预期的压力中得到了解脱 。
So if sighing has to do with feeling relieved or relaxed,
所以,如果叹息与感觉轻松或放松有关,
it makes sense that it would be associated with a lot of different emotions.
叹息关乎许多不同的情绪是有道理的 。
If you're taking a stressful test, for example, you might sigh in relief once you finish a problem,
例如,如果你在参加一个压力很大的考试,你可能会在做完一道题之后松一口气,
but you might also sigh while you're working on the next problem to try to make yourself feel more relieved and lower your stress levels.
但当你在做下一道题的时候,你也可能会叹息,试图让自己放松下来,舒缓压力 。
Some psychologists have proposed that because people tend to sigh when they're feeling relief from stress,
一些心理学家提出,因为人们在舒缓压力时往往会叹息,
humans learned to interpret sighing from others as a signal of safety.
所以人类学会了将他人的叹息理解为一种安全信号 。
Which would explain why sighing seems to be a little contagious—
这就解释了为什么叹息似乎有点传染性了
it's like your brain is thinking “oh, my friend thinks that tiger's gone? I guess I can take a breath too.”
就像你的大脑在想“哦,我的朋友认为麻烦事已经走了?我想我也可以喘口气了 。”
But now that most of us don't spend our days trying to evade tigers,
但现在我们大多数人都不再整天躲避麻烦了,
we read into sighing a little differently—and sometimes not as accurately.
我们对叹息的理解略有不同——有时甚至不那么准确 。
For example, in a 2008 study, 117 people were given hypothetical stories about someone sighing and asked what they thought the sigh meant.
例如,在2008年的一项研究中,117人被给予一个关于某人叹息的假设,并被问及该叹息的含义 。
Usually, they assumed it meant something negative—most often sadness.
通常,他们会认为叹息意味着某种消极的东西——通常是悲伤的情绪 。
And if the story was about someone sighing alone, people interpreted the feeling as more intense.
如果假设是关于一个人独自叹息,人们的这种感觉会更加强烈 。
But if they were told to imagine themselves in the story,
但是如果让他们想象自己叹息的话,
they came up with more varied responses, like maybe they were frustrated or just tired or bored.
他们就会给出更多不同的回答,比如可能感到沮丧,或者只是疲惫或无聊 。
So, when you hear someone sigh, it could mean that they're sad—
所以,当你听到某人叹息时,这可能意味着他们很难过
but it's worth keeping in mind that there are lots of other possibilities too.
但要记住的是,还有很多其它可能 。
They could be stressed, or frustrated, or even experiencing a moment of calm and taking a breath.
可能是压力,或者沮丧,或者甚至是片刻的平静和呼吸,
Or it could just be a totally involuntary response to keep their lungs working properly.
或者可能只是一个完全无意识的反应,以保持肺部正常工作 。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych, which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.
感谢收看本期心理科学秀节目,感谢Patreon对本节目的支持 。
If you'd like to learn more about the weird ways your brain interprets the world around you—and why you shouldn't always trust it—
如果你想了解更多关于大脑对周围世界的解读——为什么人类不应该总是相信它?
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登陆youtube.com/scishowpsych订阅我们的节目 。