【01】脸与第一印象

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Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, the programme where we explore an interesting topic and bring you six bits of useful vocabulary. I’m Neil.

欢迎来到6分钟英语。本节目带你探索有趣的话题，学习6个实用单词。我是尼尔。

And I’m Rob. Today we’re talking about first impressions – and how they’re often wrong.

我是罗布。今天我们谈论的是第一印象——以及为何第一印象总是错误的。

So let’s start with the term first impression – it’s the idea or opinion that you have about someone after meeting them for only a short time.

那么我们先从第一印象这个词开始——它是你遇见某人之后短时间内形成的对他/她的一种观点或看法。

It’s very natural to make a quick judgement about someone based on their appearance or facial expression.

基于某人的外貌或面部表情迅速对其做出判断是一件很常见的事。

We’re going to be hearing about the research of Professor Alexander Todorov from Princeton University in the US.

我们一会儿要听听来自美国普林斯顿大学的亚历山大·托多洛夫教授的研究。

First, a question: how long does he say it takes to form an impression about someone’s face? Is it...

首先，想一下这个问题：对一个人的脸形成一种印象需要多长时间？

a） under one secondb） one secondc） six seconds

A 不到一秒B 一秒C 六秒

I’ll go for b） one second.

我会选择B，一秒。

Well, we‘ll find out if you‘re right or not later on the programme.

好的，在节目的最后我们将揭晓你的答案是否正确。

So – Alexander Todorov has been researching our impressions.

那么——亚历山大·托多洛夫教授一直在研究我们的印象感观。

His tests asked people to decide whether they thought faces were dominant, competent, trustworthy or extroverted.

他做了一项测试，要求人们凭借脸孔判断他们是什么样的人：强势的、可以胜任的、值得信赖的、外向的。

Let’s just look at those words for a second. Dominant means being strongest or most important. Competent means being able to do things.

我们先来看看这些词：Dominant意思是强大的、占主导地位的。Competent意思是能够胜任某些事情。

While if you’re trustworthy it means people trust you – you are worth their trust. And being extroverted means you are energetic and enjoy spending time with others.

如果你是trustworthy，就说明人们相信你——你值得他们信任。而extroverted就是说你精力充沛，乐意与他人交往。

So what did he find out? Faces that look happy and feminine – like a woman - were rated as more trustworthy.

所以这位教授研究出了什么呢？看起来很开心很柔和——比如说女性，这样面孔的人比较值得信赖。

While faces that were more masculine – like a man – were seen as more dominant.

那么比较阳刚的面孔，比如男性，则被视为比较强势。

Wider faces with big eyes were seen as more extroverted.

脸庞较宽且眼睛比较大的人被认为比较外向。

Now the important thing that Todorov says is that these judgements aren’t accurate. Someone who looks competent isn’t necessarily competent!

托多洛夫所说的重要的一点就是，这些判断并不精确。有些看起来很有能力的人其实并没有什么才能。

So, what does this mean in ? Here’s Professor Todorov:

那么，这在事实上意味着什么呢？来听听托多洛夫教授怎么说：

Trustworthiness, dominance and attractiveness are the three big things that we form impressions of people.

可信度、主导性、以及吸引力是我们形成对人的第一印象的三个重要因素。

But interestingly we have done some work predicting the electoral success of politicians,

但有趣的是，我们对几名参加总统竞选的政要做了预测，

and the judgement that is most predictive of who is going to win the election is perceived competence.

能力，是人们对即将赢得竞选的人的判断。

And this is not random at all, because if you ask voters what is the most important attribute of a politician, competence is the one on the top.

这并不是随意预测的，因为如果你询问选民一个政客最重要的特点是什么，能力排在首位。

OK, so this is actually quite significant. People say that the most important attribute – or quality – for a politician is competence – the ability to do things.

好吧。那这个还挺重要的。人们认为一个政客最重要的特点或品质是能力，也就是做事情的能力。

That sounds fair enough. But because we make judgements based on appearance – this can actually affect how people vote.

听起来很有道理。但是由于我们是基于外貌做判断，这个确实能对选民产生影响。

If voters believe – or perceive someone to be competent – they’re more likely to vote for him or her.

如果选民们认为，或者感觉某人有能力，他们就更可能偏向于投他或她一票。

He says this applies especially to people who are less educated about politics – they are more likely to be influenced by appearance.

他说这个结论适用于不太了解政治的人们，他们更容易被外貌影响。

He says this applies to around 25% of voters – so the number of people who go with their gut is large enough to influence the outcomes of elections!

他表示，大约25%的选民是这样的，凭借第一感觉来投票的选民人数大到足以影响选举的结果了！

Wow. To go with your gut. That means to make a decision which isn’t based on rational thought – it’s based on instinct, on a feeling, on your gut.

哇，To go with your gut，意思是不依赖理性思考做决定，而是凭借本能、感觉、直觉。

Yes – your gut is your stomach and the organs in your belly. So, can we tell nothing from a person’s face?

那么根据人脸我们就什么都分辨不出来么？

Todorov says faces carry useful information about things like a person’s mental state, and whether they’re tired or sick. But they don’t tell you about a person’s character.

托多洛夫表示，人的脸上有很多有用的信息，比如他的精神状态，是否疲惫或生病。但是不能告诉你他的性格。

Indeed. It’s not only elections where this counts, we also judge during job interviews and meetings.

的确。凭第一印象做评判不只在选举中出现，我们也在面试或会议中也会做评判。

So what can we do to minimise the chances of being affected – should we just close our eyes when we meet people?

那我们怎样才能将被第一印象影响的可能性降到最低呢？难道说要在跟人碰面的时候闭上眼睛？

Well, it’s not such a bad idea! There’s the example of the Boston Symphony Orchestra – back in the 1950s it was entirely made up of male musicians.

这个注意不错！美国波士顿交响乐团里就有个例子。大约在1950年代，这个乐团里全部都是男性音乐家。

They then introduced ’blind auditions’ in other words they listened to new musicians without looking at them.

后来他们进行了一次盲选试镜，也就是说，他们只听试镜者的演奏而不去看他们长什么样子。

And what happened – I guess many more women were selected?

后来呢？我猜是许多女性演奏者入选了。

Exactly – around 50%. Of course, gender and race are also huge factors in how we perceive faces.

的确是。大约50%。当然，性别和种族也是对面孔形成感观的重要因素。

Todorov says we tend to react most positively to faces that look like our own.

托多洛夫称，我们在面对与自己相像的面孔时，反应更积极。

Right, well – I guess we just need to take a deep breath and try not to judge too much.

是的。那么，我想我们只需要深呼吸，尽量不要对人们做过多的评价。

Easier said than done, I’m afraid. Especially when we judge so quickly! But do we do it in under a second, one second or six seconds?

恐怕是说起来容易做起来难。尤其是我们总是只用很短的时间给人下定论，是一秒之内，一秒钟还是六秒钟呢？

I said one second.

我说的是一秒钟。

According to Todorov it takes under one second.

托多洛夫说不到一秒。

I think it’s safe to say it’s very fast. So shall we quickly go through today’s vocabulary?

保险的说法就是很快。现在我们来快速浏览一遍今天的新单词吧？

Ok – first up: first impression – the first judgement you make about something. What was your first impression of me, Rob?

好的。第一个：first impression——就是你对某件事情的第一判断。罗布，你对我的第一印象是什么？

Well I thought you were very trustworthy and extroverted.

嗯……我觉得你是一个值得信赖、性格外向的人。

Well isn’t that convenient, （and accurate?!）, because those were exactly the two adjectives I wanted to look at next.

呃，你还挺会挑方便准确的词，因为这两个形容词正是我接下来要讲到的。

Being trustworthy is important in life – it means people trust you…

值得信赖在生活中是一种很重要的品质——它意味着人们信任你。

And being extroverted is more of a character type – extroverts like to be with people,

外向是一种性格特征，extroverts——性格外向的人，喜欢与人交往，

and are often seen as confident – whereas the opposite – introverts, usually need to spend time on their own, and aren’t as loud.

通常被认为很有自信，它的反义词introverts——内向的人，通常需要花费更多时间独处，而且偏向安静。

Both of these are interesting attributes – or qualities. You could say that mathematical ability is an essential attribute for an engineer.

这些都是很有意思的特点，或者说品质。你可以说，数学能力对与工程师来说是一项基本特点。

And competence is the number one attribute for a politician.

competence，能力对政治家来说是最重要的特点。

Although people don’t always vote depending on actual competence, they base it on their perception.

尽管人们不会因为你的实际能力而给你投票，但他们会凭借自己的感观判断你的能力。

What they see, or perceive, as competence. ’Perceived competence’ might be different from actual competence!

他们所看到的的，感觉到的某人的能力，与他/她真实的能力还是有差距的。

Yes, in many situations we tend to go with our guts. We make decisions based on deep feelings. Do you do that, Neil?

是的，许多情况下，我们倾向于相信直觉，基于内心深处的感觉做决定。尼尔，你会这样做吗？

Yes, some things you can think about too much. When I left my last job, I really just went with my gut – it felt like the right thing to do.

是的，有些事情你会想的特别多。当我辞掉上一份工作时，我真的是凭直觉做的决定，那种感觉就像是，你要去做一件正确的事情。

Of course – because it meant coming to work here with me!

当然了，因为这意味着你要来这里和我一起工作！

Naturally. So – that’s it for our chat about first impressions – for more do visit our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube pages, and of course our website!

当然。那么，这就是我们关于第一印象的话题了。想了解更过，请访问我们的Facebook，Twitter，Instagram以及YouTube网页，还有我们的官方网站！

Bye for now.

再见啦！

Good Bye!