2014年考研英语二阅读 Text 2 原文翻译及答案解析

An article in Scientific American has pointed out that empirical research says that, actually, you think you're more beautiful than you are. We have a deep seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing strategies to achieve this. Social psychologists have amassed oceans of research into what they call the "above average effect", or "illusory superiority", and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average in leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others - all obviously statistical impossibilities.

《科学美国人》杂志的一篇文章指出，实证研究表明，实际上，你认为自己比实际更美。我们有一种深层的需求，即自我感觉良好，并且我们自然地采用一系列自我增强策略来实现这一点。社会心理学家积累了大量关于他们称之为“高于平均效应”或“虚幻优越感”的研究，并显示例如，70%的人认为自己在领导力上高于平均水平，93%在驾驶上，85%在与他人相处上——这些显然都是统计上的不可能。

We rose-tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations. We become defensive when criticised, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem. We stalk around thinking we're hot stuff.

我们美化记忆，将自己置于自我肯定的环境中。当被批评时，我们变得防御性强，并对他人应用负面刻板印象来提升自尊。我们四处招摇，自以为很了不起。

Psychologist and behavioural scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key study into self-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather than have people simply rate their beauty compared with others, he asked them to identify an original photograph of themselves from a lineup including versions that had been altered to appear more and less attractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is "an automatic psychological process, occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation". If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flattering image — which most did — they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.

心理学家兼行为科学家尼古拉斯·埃普利监督了一项关于自我增强和吸引力的关键研究。他没有让人们简单地将自己与他人比较来评价自己的美，而是要求他们从一排照片中识别出自己的原始照片，这些照片包括被修改得更美和更不吸引人的版本。研究指出，视觉识别是“一种自动的心理过程，发生得快速且直觉，几乎没有或没有明显的有意识思考”。如果受试者迅速选择了一张虚假的讨好照片——大多数人确实如此——他们真心相信那就是自己真实的样子。

Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there any evidence that those who self-e呻anced the most (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored pictures were real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities. In fact, those who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other markers for having higher self-esteem. "I don't think the findings that we have are any evidence of personal delusion," says Epley. "It's a reflection simply of people generally thinking well of themselves." If you are depressed, you won't be self enhancing.

埃普利发现反应上没有显著的性别差异。也没有证据表明那些自我增强最多的人（即认为最正面修改的照片是真实的参与者）这样做是为了弥补深层的不安全感。事实上，那些认为吸引力评分更高的图像真实的人，与那些显示出更高自尊其他标志的人直接对应。埃普利说：“我认为我们的研究结果并不是个人妄想的证据。”“这仅仅反映了人们普遍对自己有好的看法。”如果你抑郁，你就不会自我增强。

Knowing the results of Epley's study, it makes sense that many people hate photographs of themselves viscerally — on one level, they don't even recognise the person in the picture as themselves. Facebook, therefore, is a self-enhancer's paradise, where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit, style, beauty, intellect and lifestyles. It's not that people's profiles are dishonest, says Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Madison University, "but they portray an idealised version of themselves."

了解埃普利研究的结果后，许多人发自内心地讨厌自己的照片是有道理的——在某种程度上，他们甚至不认得照片中的人是自己。因此，Facebook是一个自我增强者的天堂，人们可以只分享最讨人喜欢的照片，以及他们智慧、风格、美丽、智力和生活方式的精华。威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的卡塔利娜·托马说，这并不是说人们的个人资料不诚实，“而是它们描绘了一个理想化的自我版本。”

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