苏亚雷斯咬人事件的科学解析

The most feared jaws in football have again snapped shut on human flesh. Renowned Uruguayan jerk Luis Suárez appeared to chomp the shoulder of Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during a World Cup match on Tuesday. The player's latest chomp raises questions about sportsmanship. Namely, what kind of brain decides it is OK, in the course of athletic performance, to seize part of a competitor's body between your teeth like a rabid pit bull?

球场上最可怕的大白鲨又咬人了，高清相机清楚地捕捉到这一幕。周二的世界杯球场上，著名的乌拉圭混蛋路易斯•苏亚雷斯看起来似乎咬了意大利球员的乔吉奥•基耶利尼。苏神的咬人事件引起了观众对运动员职业道德问题的一片声讨。换而言之，他到底是哪根筋抽风了才会觉得咬人无罪？从运动员的表现来看，他像发疯的斗牛犬一样去咬了对手的身体。

The psychology of poor sportsmanship is something that generally comes up in the context of child athletes. Acting out on the field can be a sign that a kid doesn't handle competition well, or hasn't yet developed the cortical means to regulate his feelings. By the time you are a grown adult and a professional football player, though, athletic misbehaviour signals something else besides one's presence at a way station on the path to moral maturity.

这个糟糕的运动员心理道德通常与运动员儿时的成长环境有关。苏亚雷斯在球场上的表现可以看成是小朋友不懂踢足球，或是他连基本的情绪控制方法都不懂。尽管他已经成年并成为了一个职业足球运动员，但到这之前，在他走向心理成熟的途中，他的不正当举止也标志了一些除了个人行为以外的其他东西。

In adults who aren't world class athletes, poor sportsmanship might indicate an anger issue like intermittent explosive disorder, or any condition-autism, ADHD-that impairs your understanding of social norms. Or you could just be a jerk.

成年人中那些非巨星级的运动员，职业道德的低下可能体现了诸如间歇性爆发混乱症这样的愤怒问题，或者是任何环境孤僻症，ADHD社会准则意识削弱症等，或者这人本来就是个混蛋。

But according to Dr. Richard D. Ginsburg, a clinical psychologist and sports psychology consultant for Massachusetts General Hospital, the tantrums of professional players are often made of stronger stuff. "You have athletes who are highly driven to win, fiercely competitive, and who must increase their intensity in ways that involve physical contact with others," he says. And because they are doing all this in situations-like a World Cup match-that are highly visible and drenched with meaning, the adrenaline generated is tremendous. "An intense amount of arousal is required," Ginsburg says. "It's the moment. The media exposure. Learning how to harness your aggression in a way that's effective and balanced is an art form for pro athletes. People don't appreciate how hard it is."

但按照Richard D. Ginsburg博士的说法，作为麻州综合医院的一个临床心理学家和运动学心理顾问，他认为职业球员的愤怒是被高压逼出来的。他说：“运动员们为了拿下比赛，被迫激烈地拼抢，提高运动强度并且与别人发生肢体接触。”而且正因为在这全球瞩目并充满意义的世界杯比赛里，运动员更是如此，使他们产生了更多的肾上腺素。“他们需要大量的刺激，” Ginsburg说，“在这样关键时刻。在媒体的聚光灯下，学会如何利用自己的愤怒来提高球场上的效率并且保持心理平衡是一个职业球员应掌握的艺术。观众不会知道这有多难。”

Ginsburg, who has never met or treated Suárez, told me he was reluctant to make assumptions about the footballer's character in particular. But as a general rule, he says that putting a player with poor impulse control in such a hypercharged context is like sprinkling your fireplace with gunpowder. "It's the situation and it's also who we're dealing with," he says. "These huge emotional outbursts can start to make a kind of sense."

Ginsburg从来没有见过和治疗过苏亚雷斯，他告诉我他不太愿意刻意对该名球员的性格做出任何假设。但按照一般规则来说，这种咬人之举就像把火药丢进火炉一样，体现了苏神对冲动薄弱的自控力。“这种情况和这样的人是我们正在研究的对象，”他说：“这些心理大爆发行为开始有了它们的意义。”

Bad sportsmanship occasionally pays off, as when a player might hypothetically handle the ball off the line in a World Cup match against, say, Ghana. But Ginsburg notes that it would be hard to argue that Suárez's more tooth-focused behaviour was somehow strategic. Though he wasn't penalized for his light Italian snack, FIFA could choose to ban Suárez for the rest of the tournament.

差劲的职业道德偶尔也会有好处，像在世界杯里对战加纳时，这些职业素质底下的球员可能会经常把球踢出界。有人表示苏亚雷斯的咬人行为是战略安排而不是故意的，但Ginsburg表示这种观点几乎站不住脚。虽然苏亚雷斯在那场比赛上没有收到裁判的判罚，但是赛后足联还是判处苏亚雷斯在剩余的比赛里禁赛。

Back in April 2013, when Suárez tenderized the arm of Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, sports psychologist Dr. Thomas Fawcett echoed this interpretation, speculating that we'd witnessed something "primitive" and "spontaneous." He told the BBC that biting usually signalled frustration and that he suspected Suárez would bite again. Good call, Dr. Fawcett! Give that man a raise.

回到2013年的四月，当苏亚雷斯咬了切尔西球员伊万的手臂时，运动心理学家托马斯福斯特博士就不断解释了他的猜想，在苏亚雷斯身上我们一起见证了“原始的”和“无意识的”的野蛮精神。他那会就告诉BBC咬人这种行为是苏神失望的表现，他怀疑苏亚雷斯会再咬人。太牛了，这个预言果然应验，福斯特，为你点个赞。