【经济学人】男人和女人之间会不会产生性信息素丨2017.03.11丨总第837期

FOR several decades biologists have pondered the question of whether men and women produce pheromones. A pheromone is a chemical signal from one animal to another. Often, though not always, such chemicals indicate sexual availability—and when it comes to human mating signals in particular, those looking into the matter have a couple of specific molecules in mind.

      近几十年来，生物学家一直在思考这样一个问题：男人和女人会不会产生信息素。信息素是指从一种动物传递到另一动物的化学信号。这种化学物质通常表明性的可行性，而当涉及到人类发出交配信号时，研究人员会想到某些特定的化学分子。

• Ponder v.衡量，思考

• Indicate 象征，表明

• Molecules 分子，微小颗粒

Androstadienone (AND) and estratetraenol (EST) are derived, respectively, from male and female hormones and are exuded in sweat. The idea that they are pheromonal is thus worth investigating. The results of such investigations as have been made so far, though, are contradictory. Some experiments have found that these molecules make opposite-sex faces, or photographs thereof, appear more attractive to heterosexual volunteers. Others discern no such effect.

男性和女性的荷尔蒙分别产生雄甾二烯酮(AND)和雌甾四烯(EST)，这两种分子通过汗水渗出来。于是就值得探究一下AND和EST是否是信息素。然而，到目前为止针对这个想法所做的研究，其结论是矛盾的。从一些实验结果发现，对异性恋志愿者来讲，这两种化学分子的产生使异性的面孔或者照片对他们更具吸引力。从其他实验则看不出这样的效果。

• Houmones 荷尔蒙

• Pheromonal 信息素

• Heterosexual 异性恋的

Unfortunately, most of these studies were done with groups of volunteers too small for clear conclusions to be drawn, or using less-than-rigorous experimental methods. (That has not stopped businesses taking up the idea: several brands of “pheromone perfume” based on EST and, especially, AND are available for hopeful Romeos and Juliets.) To try to clear up the confusion, a group of researchers led by Robin Hare of the University of Western Australia have performed one of the most stringent studies to date. They report their results this week in Royal Society Open Science.

很可惜，大多数这种研究的志愿者规模太小，或者采取了条件不够严谨的实验方法，以至于不能得出清晰的结论。（但这并未阻碍各企业利用这种概念：一些“信息素香水”品牌是基于EST成分的，更多是基于AND，充满希望的罗密欧与朱丽叶们买得到这些香水。）为努力澄清这个困惑，一个由西澳大学的罗宾·黑尔领导的研究小组进行了迄今为止最为严格的一个研究。他们将在本周的《皇家学会开放科学》上发布他们的报告。

• less-than-rigorous 不严格

• to date 到今天

Dr Hare and his colleagues took 43 men and 51 women, all of them straight, and gave them two tasks. One was to decide whether an androgynous computer-generated face was, on balance, more likely to be female or male. The other was to rate members of the opposite sex shown in photographs for both their sexual attractiveness and their likelihood of being unfaithful.

黑尔博士与他的同事们选取了性取向都为异性的四十三名男性与五十一名女性，然后向他们指派两项任务：一是判别电脑合成的中性面孔总体来说是更可能是女性还是男性；二是为照片中的异性所表现出的性吸引力与出轨的可能性打分。

• Androgynous：雌雄同体

The participants completed both tasks twice, on consecutive days. On one day they were exposed to the appropriate molecule (AND for the women; EST for the men) and on the other to a placebo that ought to have had no effect. Crucially, the study was double-blinded, which meant that neither the researchers nor the participants knew which day was which. This should have made it impossible for unconscious biases on the part of the experimenters or the subjects to have had any effect on the result.

在连续的两天里，参与者们都两次完成了这两项任务。其中一天他们都接触适合的化学分子（对女士使用AND，男士使用EST），另一天接触没有任何作用的安慰剂。重要的是，这项测试是一项双盲测试，这就意味着研究员和参与者都不知道哪一天是哪一天。这就使得实验者和被实验者因无意识的偏见而对结果产生影响变得不可能了。

• Consecutive：adj.连续的，连贯的

• Placebo：n.安慰剂，宽心话，为死者所颂的晚祷词

• Crucially：adv.至关重要的，重要的

• Bias：n.偏见

If AND and EST really are aphrodisiac pheromones, the researchers reasoned, then they ought to make participants more likely to assume that androgynous faces belonged to the opposite sex. They should also boost the sex appeal of the people in the photographs—and, because of that boost, increase the perception that those people might be unfaithful, since the attractive have more opportunities for infidelity than the plain.（读者试译）

研究人员解释说，如果AND和EST真的是引起性欲的信息素，那么它们应该让参与者们倾向于将中性面孔认定为异性。“期待您的翻译，将您的理解留言在文章下方留言处，第二天将会有长难句解析。”

• Aphrodisiac：adj.引起性欲的，壮阳的

In fact, they did none of these things. The study thus found no evidence that either AND or EST is a pheromone. Those who buy pheromone perfumes based on them would therefore appear to be wasting their money. Whether the triumph of hope over experience will cause them to carry on doing so anyway is a different question altogether.

事实上，这些化学分子并没有上述那些效果。这项研究也因此没有发现证据表明AND或EST是信息素。所以，那些因为AND或EST而买了信息素香水的人看来是在浪费钱。至于他们是否让希望战胜事实经验，从而继续购买，那就是个完全不同的问题了。

• Triumph：n.胜利，巨大的成就
  

翻译 ▍Neo,下罗小柜员，陌上

审核 ▍白夜叉

编辑 ▍张哼哼