(单词翻译:单击)
Around 100,000 videos of cats get uploaded to YouTube—each day.
每天，大约有10万个猫咪视频被上传到YouTube。
One scientific explanation for this phenomenon stems from a simple yet powerful concept: cuteness, or more precisely, the baby schema.
对这一现象的一个科学解释源于一个简单而有力的概念：可爱，或者更准确地说，婴儿图式。
Baby schema is a set of characteristics found in young children that evoke innocence and vulnerability,
婴儿图式是幼儿身上的一组特征，这些特征会唤起天真和脆弱，
such as a round face, large eyes, a tiny nose, a small mouth, chubby cheeks, a curved body—and sometimes clumsy movements, playful behavior or even floppy ears.
例如圆脸、大眼睛、小鼻子、小嘴巴、胖乎乎的脸颊、弯曲的身体——有时还有笨拙的动作、嬉戏的行为，甚至是松软的耳朵。
When you combine these traits, most of us can't help but feel a deep sense of care for the baby,
当你把这些特征结合起来时，我们大多数人都会情不自禁地对婴儿产生一种深切的关爱，
thereby increasing their chance of survival—an involuntary reaction that, strangely, even extends to inanimate objects.
从而增加他们存活的机会——这是一种不由自主的反应，奇怪的是，这种反应甚至延伸到无生命的物体。
So what happens to your brain when you see something adorable?
当你看到可爱的东西时，你的大脑会发生什么呢？
First, your reward pathway lights up, and dopamine flows through your synapses which gives you sensations of pleasure and attachment.
首先，你的奖励通路被激活，多巴胺流经你的突触，让你产生愉悦和依恋的感觉。
As a result, you become caring, affectionate, and may even crave to cuddle.
因此，你变得关心、深情，甚至渴望拥抱。
This response can be so profound that it can tame your temper, enhance your concentration, increase your attention to detail, and even improve your productivity.
这种反应可能非常深刻，它可以控制你的脾气，提高你的注意力，增加你对细节的关注，甚至提高你的工作效率。
In one experiment researchers observed people playing Operation, a game that tests our hand-eye coordination.
在一项实验中，研究人员观察了人们玩“Operation”游戏，这是一种测试手眼协调能力的游戏。
Those who looked at something cute before their game performed significantly better compared to those who didn't.
那些在游戏前看可爱东西的人比那些没有看的人表现得更好。
The theory: subconsciously the winners still had babies in mind and hence were more careful and focused.
理论是：获胜者潜意识里仍然想着孩子，因此更加小心和专注。
And another study found that when we watch cat videos we feel more energetic, positive, and less anxious or sad. But there can be even more surprising reactions.
另一项研究发现，当我们看猫的视频时，我们会感到更有活力、更积极，更少焦虑或悲伤。但可能会有更令人惊讶的反应。
When you are overwhelmed by feelings of cuteness, you may find yourself gritting your teeth, balling your fists, or having the urge to bite, pinch, or squeeze the creature that captured your heart.
当你被可爱的感觉所淹没时，你可能会发现自己咬紧牙关、握紧拳头，或者有冲动去咬、捏或挤压俘获芳心的生物。
This quirky response became known as cute aggression. The scientific study of this and other reactions to anything adorable has a long history.
这种奇怪的反应被称为可爱攻击。对这种反应和其他对任何可爱事物的反应的科学研究历史悠久。
In 1949, Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian ethologist, first argued that infantile features trigger nurturing responses in adults:
1949年，奥地利动物行为学家康拉德·劳伦兹首次提出，婴儿特征会引发成年人的养育反应：
an evolutionary adaptation that ensured that the old cared for the young, ultimately securing the survival of the species.
这是一种进化适应，确保年长的照顾年幼的，最终确保物种的生存。
And later Lorenz, along with Niko Tinbergen, received a Nobel Prize for his work on the baby schema.
后来，劳伦兹和尼科·廷贝亨因其关于婴儿图式的研究而获得诺贝尔奖。
Our fascination with this phenomenon can be traced back to the cherubic figures in Renaissance art and the Japanese concept of kawaii, which originated from an 11th-century novel.
我们对这一现象的迷恋可以追溯到文艺复兴时期艺术中的天使形象和日本的“kawaii”概念，后者源于11世纪的一部小说。
However, its roots likely extend to the very dawn of human civilization.
然而，它的根源可能可以延伸到人类文明的黎明。
Fast forward to today, and teens in Tokyo, the global epicenter of the force of cuteness, express their interpretations of what's adorable by worshiping cartoons, cosplaying,
快进到今天，东京这个全球可爱力量的中心，青少年通过崇拜卡通、角色扮演、
dressing like dolls, or using a handwriting style that's so cute, and so difficult to read, that it had to be banned in schools.
打扮成洋娃娃或使用非常可爱且难以阅读的笔迹来表达他们对可爱的理解，以至于这种笔迹不得不在学校被禁止。
Even though, according to modern science, it may very well calm them down and increase their performance.
尽管根据现代科学，它很可能让他们平静下来并提高他们的表现。
