发在线信息比打电话更浪漫

Most millennials hate the thought of leaving a voicemail, especially when it's to a love interest. Now, scientists say they have good reason.

大多数千禧一代不喜欢语音留言，尤其不喜欢给喜欢的人发语音。现在，科学家说这的确有些道理。

A new study has found Facebook messages and emails are more likely to get you a date than a simple phone call. This contradicts previous research that claims email and text messages can lack emotion.

一项新的研究表明，与一个普通电话相比，在Facebook发信息或发邮件更可能给你带来一场约会。这种观点与之前一项研究结果相悖，该研究认为邮件和短信缺少人情味。

'The bottom line is that email is much better when you want to convey some information that you want someone to think about,' said one of the authors, Alan Dennis from Indiana University. Dennis and co-author Taylor Wells, an assistant professor at California State University-Sacramento, wanted to learn more about how we respond emotionally to emails.

印第安纳大学(Indiana University)的艾伦•丹尼斯(Alan Dennis)是该研究的一位作者。他说，“最重要的是，当你想表达一些希望引起别人思考的信息时，发邮件会更适合。另一位作者是来自加州州立大学-萨克拉门托分校(California State University-Sacramento)的助理教授泰勒•韦尔斯(Taylor Wells)，他和丹尼斯想深入了解人们对于邮件情绪上的反应。

In a study of 72 teenagers, scientists found that people who sent romantic emails were more emotionally aroused and used stronger and more thoughtful language than those who left voicemails.

在一项针对72个青少年的研究中，科学家发现，与语音留言的人相比，发送浪漫邮件的人会投入更多感情，使用更加强烈、意味深长的语言。

The research was conducted by placing skin sensors on the subjects' faces to measure muscle movement associated with positive and negative emotion, and on their feet to measure arousal. Subjects were randomly chosen to do voicemail or email and to either produce a practical or a romantic message.

研究通过在研究对象的脸上放置皮肤传感器检测其对于积极、消极情感的肌肉反应，在脚上放置皮肤传感器测量其兴奋度。该研究随机挑选研究对象，让他们发送实用或是浪漫的语音信息或邮件。

'When writing romantic emails, senders consciously or subconsciously added more positive content to their messages, perhaps to compensate for the medium's inability to convey vocal tone,' Dennis and Wells wrote in the paper. 'Email enables senders to modify the content as messages are composed to ensure they are crafted to the needs of the situation. Voicemail lacks this feature,' they added. 'A sender records a voicemail in a single take, and it can be sent or discarded and re-recorded, but not edited. [This means] senders engage with email messages longer and may think about the task more deeply than when leaving voicemails. This extra processing may increase arousal.'

两位作者在研究报告中写道，“写浪漫邮件时，发件人有意识或下意识地在信息里添加积极的内容，或许是弥补无法传递声音的不足。他们补充道，“发邮件时可以修改内容，保证内容符合情境。而语音信息做不到这一点，发语音时，一次只能一口气说完，语音内容只能发送、舍弃或是重录，无法修改。这也意味着发邮件时投入的精力更多，相较于发语音，他们会思考得深入，这种额外的加工处理或许增加情感。

The use of email induced more arousing psychophysiological responses than voicemail, regardless of whether the message was practical or romantic. The study found the results held true for both men and women.

无论是实用信息还是浪漫信息，发邮件都比发语音信息更能引起生理和心理上的反应。研究结果对男女同样适用。

The findings run counter to something known as 'media naturalness theory', a commonly held evolutionary standard suggesting that the further we get away from face-to-face communications, the less natural and less effective it becomes.

这些发现与所谓的“媒介自然性理论相悖。“媒介自然性理论是一种通常认可的发展标准，该标准认为与人交流时隔得距离越远，交流越不自然且越低效。

The researchers, however, did not see much use of emoticons and emojis in their emails. Rather, they found that when writing emails, subjects took more time to choose their words carefully to make sure the language conveyed the full meaning.

但是，研究者发现邮件中并没有使用太多情感符号与表情文字。他们发现实验对象会花更多时间斟酌用词，确保言尽其意。

Dennis warns people against misinterpreting these findings to suggest that face-to-face meetings, personal phone calls and other direct forms of communications aren't as useful.

丹尼斯告诫人们不要理解错误研究发现，并不是说面对面的交流，打电话等直接沟通方式没有用。

'If something isn't really clear and you want to make sure that everyone has the same understanding of what something means, that's best done in phone calls, face-to-face meetings or video conferencing,' Dennis said.

丹尼斯说，“如果有些事不清楚，而你希望确保大家都理解你想表达的意思，最好还是打电话、面对面交流，或是视频通话。

The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

这项研究已经获准在期刊《计算机与人类行为》(Computers in Human Behavior)发表。

Vocabulary

arousal: 兴奋

emoticon: 情感符