The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

一项研究表明，男性在与迷人的女性聊上几分钟后，在脑功能测试中的表现要逊色于那些仅和相貌平庸的女性聊过天的男人。

Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or "cognitive resources" trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

研究结果发表在《实验与社会心理学期刊》上，研究人员认为也许是因为男性在想法设法吸引漂亮女性时，消耗了太多的脑功能或“认知资源”。

The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

该发现或许可以有助于理解在工作场所与女性调情的男性的表现，或者甚至在男女混合学校的考试成绩。

Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

然而女人则不会因为和帅哥聊天而受到影响。

This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.

这也许不过是因为男人在进化时就被设定为要为“交配机会”多操心一些。

Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

荷兰内梅亨大学的心理学家们作此研究缘起他们中的一位在与一个从未谋面的美女搭讪时遇到了麻烦，当她问起他住哪时，他居然忘记了自己的住址！

Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he "temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources".

研究人员称，貌似他急于给美女留下深刻印象以至于“暂时性占用了他所有的认知资源”。

To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

为了观察其他男性是否也会受这种因素影响，他们召集了40位异性恋的男学生。

Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

每位都进行了一个标准的记忆测试，他们必须在观察一串字母时尽快说出每个字母是否与之前的字母相同。随后每位测试者与研究团队中的男女成员聊上7分钟，再次进行同样的测试。

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

结果显示男性们在企图给美女留下深刻印象后，反应速度和准确率都有所降低。所交谈的女性越吸引他们，他们的结果就越遭。

But when the task was repeated with a group of female volunteers, they did not get the same results. Memory scores stayed the same, whether they had chatted to a man or a woman.

但当同样的测试在一组女性志愿者中进行时，并没有出现同样的结果，无论她们的交谈对象是男是女，结果都没有改变。

In a report on their findings the researchers said: "We conclude men's cognitive functioning may temporarily decline after an interaction with an attractive woman."

他们在研究报告中称：“我们得出的结论是在与美女交流后，男性的认知功能会暂时性的下降。”

Psychologist Dr George Fieldman, a member of the British Psychological Society, said the findings reflect the fact that men are programmed to think about ways to pass on their genes.

英国心理学会的心理学家Dr George Fieldman说研究结果反应出男性的天性便是设法传递他们的基因。