为何捏泡沫纸让人爽歪歪？

Recently, the manufacturers of Bubble Wrap, the alarmingly addictive packaging that was apparently a brand name all along, announced that they would be redesigning their product. The new version — the horror — will not pop. As Jaime Fuller notes on Daily Intelligencer, the newly imagined product will be called iBubble Wrap, “its Rice Krispies-esque melodies replaced by bubbles that transfer air between one another so they never deflate.”

最近，泡泡包装膜的制造商Bubble Wrap(没错,这个闻名的产品就是品牌名)打算推出一款无法捏爆的气泡包装，它夺走了我们捏爆气泡的乐趣。Jaime Fuller在Daily Intelligencer上说:”新包装名为iBubble Wrap，每个气泡之间的空气是互通的,它将取代爆米花型泡泡包装膜.

This raises an important question: What, exactly, was ever so satisfying about popping Bubble Wrap, anyway? As it happens, Kathleen M. Dillon, now psychology professor emerita at Western New England College, published a study in the journal Psychological Reports back in the early 1990s investigating this.

这就牵扯出一个重要的议题:为何捏爆Bubble Wrap会这么令人满足呢？西新英格兰学院的心理学教授Kathleen M. Dillon在20世纪90年代早期就曾研究过这个问题，他的研究发表在《心理学报告》上。

A relatively light topic for scientific investigation, to be sure, but in her write-up, Dillon defends her inquiry with some surprising heft, quoting a 1970stome about the calming powers of touch: "In ancient Greece it was customary, and is still in so much of Asia, to carry a smooth-surfaced stone, or amber, or jade, sometimes called a 'fingering piece.' Such a 'worrybead,' as it is also named, by its pleasant feel, serves to produce a calming effect. The telling of beads by religious Catholics seems to produce a similar result." Dillon adds that keeping your hands busy with little projects like needlework is considered relaxing, and suggests that attacking a sheet of Bubble Wrap might work in the same way.

这是一个相对轻松的科学调查，在Dillon的论文中，她引用了20世纪70年代关于触碰力量的看法：“在古希腊和如今的亚洲大部分地方，人们会携带一块表面光滑的石头、琥珀或者玉石，有时候它被称作‘念珠’。这样的‘安神串珠’正如同它的名字一样，能通过它那令人愉悦的触感给人镇定之感。天主教的述说之珠似乎有着相似的效果。”Dillon还表示让你的手忙于小项目，比如针线活能让人放松下来，她认为捏爆Bubble Wrap的包装纸似乎有相同的作用。

And indeed, Dillon's research did show that undergraduates who got to pop two sheets of Bubble Wrap felt at once calmer and more awake after they were done than before they'd started; they also reported higher levels of calmness and alertness than a group that was not granted popping privileges. Borrowing from the theories of Robert E. Thayer, a psychologist who studied biological explanations for moods, she speculates that it has to do with a very natural, human response to stress: freezing in your tracks. In real danger, this might be helpful, because it gives you a moment to decide what action to take — better to fight back or flee? A similar thing might happen when people are nervous or stressed, and so it could be that little nervous motions like finger tapping or foot jiggling —or Bubble Wrap popping! —are ways of releasing that muscle tension, which helps reduce the feeling of stress.

Dillon的研究还发现那些捏爆两张Bubble Wrap包装纸的本科生，比他们在捏爆包装纸之前更加冷静也更加清醒。他们也比另外一组没有捏爆包装纸气泡的人更加冷静且警觉性更高。借鉴研究情绪生物学解释的心理学家Robert E. Thayer的理论，她推测这与人类天然的压力应激反应有关，在这种应激状态下人能够在很短的时间内充分调动自身的全部潜能。在遇到真正的危险时，这种应激反应用途非常大，它能让你在瞬间做出最好的决定——勇敢迎战还是逃走？在人们紧张或者压力较大时也会发生相似的事情，因此细微的紧张动作比如敲手指、抖腿或者捏爆Bubble Wrap包装纸都能有效减缓肌肉紧张，有助于减轻压力感。

Or, I don't know, maybe it's just that those little pops are really, really fun to hear. “It’s compulsive," Dillon once told the New York Times. "I’ve seen secretaries fighting for it —Give me that. It’s obviously something that’s desirable and addictive at some level.”

或者,我只是猜测哈,可能就因为气泡捏破的声音实在是太有趣了。纽约时报采访Dillon时他说：“这东西会上瘾,我就见过秘书们为了抢它而激烈厮杀,显然这是一种在某种程度上能令人产生渴望并上瘾的东西。”