揭祕長着一副娃娃臉的好處

We've been judging people based on the way they look for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks turned it into a science, "physiognomy".

幾千年以來，我們一直根據人的長相來評判他人。古希臘人把這種方式轉化爲科學，命名爲"相面術"。

As early as 500 BC, the mathematician Pythagoras would scrutinise young men's faces to determine if they'd make a good student; not long after Aristotle wrote how large-headed people were mean.

早在公元前500年，數學家畢達哥拉斯就通過仔細觀察年輕人的面部來決定他們是不是好學生。不久之後，亞里士多德就寫道，頭大的人很吝嗇。

It was widely believed at the time that the animal a person resembled was as good a judge of character as any.

那時的人們普遍相信，長得像某種動物的人也可能具有相應的個性。

By the Middle Ages it was well and truly mainstream.

中世紀時期，這成爲了真正意義上地主流觀念。

Professionals coined the phrase "stuck-up" to refer from the belief that those with upturned noses had an air of superiority, "high-brow" to refer to the high foreheads of aristocrats and "low-brow" to the less refined foreheads of the lower classes.

專業人士編造出一個短語"stuck-up"，意指擁有朝天鼻的人更具有優越感這種信念，"high-brow"意指貴族的高額頭，"low-brow"意指下層階級並不精緻的額頭。

Back in 2016, we're still doing it. We view those who resemble Labradors as warm, while those who resemble lions as more dominant.

到了2016年，我們仍然這樣做。我們覺得長得像拉布拉多犬的人溫順，而像獅子的人更擁有支配感。

We think of those with "resting moody face" as more aggressive, those who are less attractive as sick and expect people who look familiar to share our values.

面色僵硬的人更具有進攻性，長得不怎麼漂亮的人一臉病態，我們期待臉熟的人和我們擁有共同的價值觀。

Many of these judgements occur in as little as 50 milliseconds.

很多這樣的判斷僅僅發生在50毫秒間。

These bizarre subconscious errors aren't as ridiculous as they sound.

這些離奇的潛意識裏的錯誤並不像聽起來那麼荒謬。

Faces contain valuable clues to who we're dealing with (Are they aggressive? Are they sick?). Deep in our evolutionary past, the ability to make rapid, unconscious categorisations had life-and-death importance.

對於我們正在相處的人來說，面部包含着很多具有價值的線索，（他們具有進攻性嗎？他們生病了嗎？）深深根植在我們過去的進化史中，做出快速而下意識的分類的能力攸關生死。

To get to grips with why having a babyface is so great, first we need to understand what happens when we recognise an actual baby.

爲了明白爲什麼擁有娃娃臉很棒，首先，我們需要明白當我們看到真正的孩子時，會發生些什麼。

In fact the features of babies – and those universally considered "cute" – are nothing more than a series of developmental accidents.

事實上，全世界公認嬰兒的特徵就是"可愛"，那隻不過是一系列發育事件罷了。

Since our eyes are already fully grown by the time we're born and our heads aren't. Similarly, our bodies do a lot more growing later on than our heads. They have more body fat than adults; chubby cheeks. The list goes on.

因爲自打我們出生起，我們的眼睛就發育完全了，但是我們的頭部並沒有。相同地，我們的身體之後比我們的頭部發育的更多。嬰兒比成人更肥一些：擁有更加豐滿的雙頰等等。

And regardless of whether you're very maternal or find babies really annoying, we're hardwired to respond to their features by turning into cooing, baby-talking lunatics.

無論你是不是產婦，無論你是不是覺得嬰兒真的很煩，我們都會自覺對他們的特徵做出反應，變成輕聲細語，如嬰兒般交談的瘋子。

Crucially, gazing into their innocent faces makes us less aggressive and more generous, smiley and helpful.

更關鍵的是，看着他們純真的臉龐，就會讓我們的行爲更加柔和，更加慷慨，充滿笑意並且樂於助人。

So there you have it. Next time you find yourself staring affectionately into the eyes of a baby-faced friend, colleague or date – just remember, you may be the latest victim in a long-running systematic evolutionary fraud.

所以，現在你明白了。下次，如果你發現自己含情脈脈地盯着擁有娃娃臉的朋友、同事或者約會對象時，只需記住，你可能是長期以來進化欺騙的最新受害者。