胖子眼中的世界：山更高路更远

Eating too much doesn’t just make your waistline expand, it also makes distances seem bigger.

暴饮暴食不仅会导致腰围暴涨，还会让你觉得山高路远。

Research shows that being overweight distorts perception.

研究表明，过度肥胖会影响感知功能。

As a result, fat people see distances as being further and slopes as being steeper.

因此，在胖子眼中，坡更陡，路更远。

This could put them off exercising and so leave them trapped in a vicious circle, where the fatter they get, the less activity they want to do.

也难怪胖子们对锻炼敬而远之了。这就是个恶性循环，人越胖，便越不愿运动。

Researcher Jessica Witt said, of Colorado State University, said it is wrong to assume that we all perceive the world in the same way.

科罗拉多州立大学的研究员杰西卡·威特称，不应盲目认为所有人感知到的世界都是相同的。

In one study, she asked 66 people of different shapes and sizes to estimate how far away a traffic cone was.

在一项研究中，她询问身形体态各异的66人：他们距前方的路障有多远。

The cone was actually 25m away.

正确答案是25米。

Those who were a slim nine stone saw it as being just 15m from them, but those who weighed in at 23 stone judged it to be 30m away - or twice as far.

身形纤瘦、体重9英石（约合57公斤）的采访对象表示，他们离路障15米远。而重达23英石（约合146公斤）的人则称，他们离路障有30米远——是前者数据的足足两倍。

Dr Witt’s research, which involved hundreds of people overall, also showed that the overweight perceive slopes as being steeper.

威特博士在研究中共采访了数百人，她还得出另一个结论：同一个斜坡，在胖子眼中更加陡峭。

She believes these calculations are done unconsciously and are the body’s way of saving it from the extra effort needed to exercise when overweight.

她认为，人脑会在无意识中判断距离。由于胖子不愿运动，预估出较远的距离便成了绝佳“借口”。

Importantly, they have no control over this.

重点是，整个判断过程未受主观控制。

So, far from being lazy when they baulk at the thought of exercise, the overweight are simply being seeing the world differently.

因此，胖子们或许并不是因为懒而不愿运动，而是因为世界在他们眼中的样子的确不同于其他人。

And if they want to exercise away their flab they should start small.

如果他们想下定决心甩掉赘肉，则需要一步一步来。

She told the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference: ‘Someone trying to help a client with obesity become more active needs to understand the tasks they are asking their client to perform don’t look as easy to them.

威特在美国科学促进会年会上发言道：“在指导肥胖人士锻炼时，教练需心中有数，一些看起来简单的动作对胖子而言，并非易事。”

‘So the client is going to see these tasks as being daunting or even impossible.

“不少肥胖人士会认为，那根本是可怕的‘不可能任务’。”

‘And they might be considered to be lazy but maybe lots of us wouldn’t walk a distance that looked twice as far.’

“不少人会觉得，胖子们就是懒惰成性。但我们不妨扪心自问，让自己多走一个来回，你会愿意吗？”

The researcher said that alternatively, the obese could try wearing telescopic glasses, to change their perception.

威特称，肥胖人士不妨尝试佩戴远视眼镜，强化感知功能。

Dr Witt concluded: ‘We think that these perceptual biases can create a vicious cycle for people with obesity where they see the world as impossible to navigate.

她总结道：“我们认为，感知缺陷会导致肥胖人士陷入恶性循环，仿佛万事万物都离他们千里之远。”

‘They will be less likely to choose to be active – and that’s going to continue this unhealthy lifestyle.’

“如此一来，肥胖人士就更不愿挪动脚步了，生活也变得越来越不健康。”

Vocabulary

traffic cone：锥形交通路标

flab：松弛的肌肉

telescopic：远视的