明星丑闻让你暗爽？无须自责

If you feel a pang of guilty pleasure when you read celebrity tittle-tattle, don't be too hard on yourself.

要是你在看明星八卦时会感到一阵罪恶的快感，无需过分自责。

Hearing juicy gossip about famous people apparently fires up the brain's pleasure centre in the same way as eating the finest food or even winning the lottery.

听一段劲爆的名人八卦会刺激大脑的愉快中枢，就像吃到最美味的食物，甚至中彩票时的感受一样。

And it's not good news that gives us the biggest buzz. Tales about stars' troubles are what we crave, with affairs, drink-driving and other misdemeanours stirring up feel-good chemicals in the brain.

而正面八卦并不能给我们最大的刺激。我们更垂涎于明星们所遭遇的麻烦事。外遇、酒驾等越轨行为才会让我们的大脑产生兴奋的化学反应。

Most of us would never admit that we enjoy such tales but brain scans carried out during a study show that deep down, we find them highly amusing.

大多数人绝不会承认自己享受这些八卦，但在一项研究中，脑部扫描表明，在内心深处我们对这些八卦非常感兴趣。

Researchers scanned the brains of a group of students while a person read out snippets of gossip about them, their best friends and a host of movie stars. Some of the gossip was designed to put the person in a bad light, such as having an affair or walking out on their family.

研究者们对一组学生进行了脑部扫描，同时让人把一些八卦消息念给他们听，其中有关于他们自己的，关于他们密友的，也有一些电影明星的。其中一部分八卦是为了丑化当事人而设计的，比如有外遇或抛弃家庭等。

They may have been the victim of bad luck, such as being in a hit-and-run accident. Other gossip included heartwarming tales of caring for the sick and helping parents track down missing children.

还有一些八卦是关于当事人遭遇厄运的，比如被车撞了而肇事者逃逸等。另一些八卦则是温暖人心的故事，比如当事人照顾病人或帮助失踪儿童的父母寻找孩子等等。

The volunteers were also asked how amusing they found each piece of information.

志愿者们还被要求评价每条八卦的有趣程度。

The most interesting results related to the negative stories about the celebrities. These stirred up dopamine and other feel-good chemicals in the brain's "reward region".

结果显示，最吸引人的八卦是关于名人的负面报道，这些报道会刺激大脑中的“奖励区域”释放多巴胺等让人产生愉悦感的化学物质。

The scans, carried out at Shenzhen University in China, revealed that the students were particularly tickled by tales of stars' misfortune, with a celebrity scandal exciting the brain more than news of a friend in trouble.

这组在深圳大学开展的扫描表明，学生们对明星的不幸遭遇尤为感兴趣，名人的丑闻比身边朋友有难的消息更能让他们的大脑兴奋起来。

However, they would not admit to finding the celebrity gossip amusing – perhaps because they didn't want be seen to be gloating over the misfortunes of others.

但是，学生们并不会承认自己对名人八卦感兴趣，这可能是因为他们不想被看做幸灾乐祸的人。

Adam Perkins, neurobiologist from King's College, London, was fascinated by the findings which were published in the journal Social Neuroscience. "Celebrities are particularly likely to be envied, and when they fall from grace we therefore are likely to feel particularly happy," he said.

这项研究结果刊登在《社会神经科学》杂志（Social Neuroscience）上。伦敦国王学院神经生物学家亚当·帕金斯（Adam Perkins）对研究成果非常感兴趣。他说：“人们尤其容易对名人产生嫉妒心理，他们身陷丑闻时，可能会让我们产生一种强烈的快感。”

"An interesting follow-up study would be to investigate whether personality characteristics affect responses to negative gossip about celebrities.

“一项有趣的后续研究将探讨个性特点是否会影响人们对名人负面八卦的反应。

"For example, and this is speculative, people who are prone to feeling miserable might gain pleasure from hearing about celebrities having a bad time because it makes them feel that famous people can also feel bad."

“比如，这只是推断，当容易悲伤的人听说明星处境艰难时，可能会产生快感，因为他们会觉得名人也不好过。”

He suggested our love of celebrity scandal has ancient roots, adding: "Since we are essentially running round the modern world with a cave person's brain, it may perhaps be that our familiarity with the lives of celebrities tricks our brains into seeing them as within our peer group and therefore direct competition for us, even though we have never met them.

帕金斯表示，人们对名人丑闻的热爱有着古老的渊源。“本质上说，尽管生活在现代世界，但我们的大脑还是洞穴人的大脑。或许，我们与名人生活的相似程度，会让我们的大脑觉得他们也属于我们中的一员，因此也是我们的直接竞争对手，尽管我们从未见过他们。”他说。

"When a celebrity falls from grace, our brain’s reward centres activate as if we had witnessed the downfall of a more successful rival within our own tribe."

“当一位名人身陷丑闻时，我们大脑中的“奖励区域”便会启动，就像亲眼目睹部落中比自己更成功的竞争对手垮台一般。”

Vocabulary

tittle-tattle：八卦，闲聊

snippet：（消息、资讯等的）片段

gloat：得意洋洋，幸灾乐祸

fascinate：使（某人）着迷，极感兴趣

speculative：猜测的