Science & technology

科技版块

human behaviour

人类行为

Smell you later, alligator

待会再闻闻你，短吻鳄

To cast light on whether friendship causes similarity of scent, or similarity of scent causes friendship, Dr Ravreby, Dr Snitz and Dr Sobel investigated whether e-nose measurements could predict positive interactions between strangers -- the sort of “clicking” that is often the basis of a new friendships.

为了弄清楚是友谊导致气味相似，还是气味相似导致友谊，Ravreby博士、Snitz博士和Sobel博士研究了电子鼻测量是否可以预测陌生人之间的积极互动--这种“点击”通常是新友谊的基础。

To this end they gathered another 17 volunteers, gave them t-shirts to wear to collect their body odours, ran those odours past the e-nose, and then asked the participants to play a game.

为此，他们召集了另外17名志愿者，给他们穿上收集体味的t恤，让这些体味通过电子鼻，然后让参与者玩一个游戏。

That game involved silently mirroring another individual’s hand movements.

这个游戏包括默默地模仿另一个人的手部动作。

Participants were paired up at random and their reactions recorded.

参与者被随机配对，并记录他们的反应。

After each interaction, they demonstrated how close they felt to their fellow gamer by overlapping two circles (one representing themselves, the other their partner) on a screen.

每次互动后，他们通过在屏幕上重叠两个圆圈(一个代表他们自己，另一个代表他们的伙伴)来展示他们与其他游戏玩家的亲密度。

The more similar the two electronic smell signatures were, the greater the overlap.

两个电子气味特征越相似，重叠就越大。

Participants also rated the quality of their interaction in the game along 12 subjective dimensions of feelings that define friendship.

参与者还根据定义友谊的12个主观感受维度，对他们在游戏中的互动质量进行了评级。

Similar odours corresponded to positive ratings for nine of these dimensions.

类似的气味对应着其中九个维度的正面评分。

Intriguingly, however, two participants smelling alike did not mean they were any more accurate at the mirroring game than others, as measured by a hidden camera.

然而，有趣的是，通过隐藏摄像头的数据，两名气味相似的参与者并不意味着他们在镜像游戏中比其他人更准确。

Why scent might play a role in forming friendships remains obscure.

为什么气味可能会在建立友谊中发挥作用，目前还不清楚。

Other qualities correlated with being friends, including age, appearance, education, religion and race, are either immediately obvious or rapidly become so.

与成为朋友相关的其他品质，包括年龄、外貌、教育、宗教和种族，要么马上就会明显，要么很快就会变得明显。

But while some individuals have strong and noticeable body odour, many -- at least since the use of soap has become widespread -- do not.

但是，虽然有些人有强烈而明显的体味，但许多人--至少自从肥皂的使用变得普遍以来--没有。

It is present.

它是存在的。

But it is subliminal.

但这是潜意识的。

Dr Ravreby speculates that there may be “an evolutionary advantage in having friends that are genetically similar to us”.

Ravreby博士推测，“拥有与我们基因相似的朋友可能是一种进化优势”。

Body odour is known to be linked with genetic make-up (particularly with the genes underlying part of the immune system called the major histocompatibility complex).

众所周知，体味与遗传构成有关(特别是与免疫系统中被称为主要组织相容性复合体的潜在基因)。

Smelling others may thus allow subconscious inferences about genetic similarity to be drawn.

因此，通过闻别人的气味可以得出关于基因相似性的潜意识推断。

That still, however, does not quite answer the question.

不过，这仍然没有完全回答这个问题。

Dr Ravreby speculates that odour-matching of this sort may be an extended form of kin selection, which spreads an individual’s genes collaterally, by helping the reproduction of relatives who are likely to share them.

Ravreby博士推测，这种气味匹配可能是亲缘选择的一种延伸形式，它通过帮助可能共享基因的亲缘去繁殖，来间接传播个体的基因。

If those who smell similar are kin enough for this to apply, their children will be as well.

如果那些气味相似的人有足够的亲缘关系，他们的孩子也是这样。

“So by helping friends,” Dr Ravreby offers, “we help spread our own genes.”

“因此，通过帮助朋友，”Ravreby博士说，“我们帮忙传播我们自己的基因。”

来源：经济学人