散播流言能讓人平靜 有益健康
<p><font face="Arial"> Gossip is healthy because it helps calm you down and is important in maintaining social order, a new study claims. </font></p>
<p><font face="Arial"> 一項新研究稱，散播流言有益健康，因為散播流言能讓人平靜下來，對於維持社會秩序也很重要。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> Idle chatter in the workplace or over a
coffee is often viewed as a damaging habit which spreads salacious
rumours and harms people's reputations. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 在工作場所閒聊或邊喝咖啡邊聊天常被視為有害的習慣，因為它會傳播下流的謠言，損害人們的名譽。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> But new research suggests gossip could
actually lower stress and help people overcome the frustration of seeing
someone doing something wrong and getting away with it. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 然而新研究顯示，散播流言其實能減輕壓力，幫助人們克服看到有人做錯事卻沒受懲罰的挫敗感。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> Psychologists from the University of
California, Berkeley, found that volunteers' heart rates rose when they
observed someone misbehaving, but that this stopped when they were
allowed to discuss what they had seen with others</font><font face="Arial">. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 來自加利福尼亞大學伯克利分校的心理學家發現，當參加研究的志願者看到某些人行為不端時心跳會加速，但當他們可以和別人談論自己所看到的事情時心跳又會恢復正常。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"><img src="http://gb.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2012/02/03/LiKL120203001.jpg" border="0"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> The study, published in the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, focused on "prosocial" gossip which
helps spread information about dishonest people rather than voyeuristic
chatter about celebrities' love lives, the researchers said. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 該研究發表在《個性與社會心理學雜誌》上。研究者稱，這一研究關注的是幫助散播有關不正直的人的資訊的“親社會”流言，而非談論名人感情生活的窺淫狂式的流言。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> In a trial designed to determine how strong
our urge is to spread gossip, some participants even said they would
spend money in order to send a note warning others about people they had
seen cheating in a trust exercise. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 為了明確了解我們散播流言的慾望有多強烈，研究人員開展了一個試驗，試驗中有些參與者甚至表示，會花錢寄信警告別人要提防那個自己發現在信任練習中作弊的人。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> Prof Robb Willer, one of the researchers,
said: "Spreading information about the person whom they had seen behave
badly tended to make people feel better, quieting the frustration that
drove their gossip." </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 其中一位研究人員羅伯 維勒教授說：“散播有關行為不端的人的資訊會讓人們感覺好一些，撫平那種促使他們去散播流言的挫敗感。” </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> The study also showed that passing on
rumours could help us monitor people who behave badly and prevent each
other from being exploited by malicious individuals, Prof Willer added. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 維勒教授補充說，研究還顯示，散播流言能幫助人們監督那些行為不端的人，並防止大家受到惡人的利用。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> In an online trust game where players could
lower their chances of winning by warning others about cheaters, the
threat of being the subject of bad gossip encouraged people to play more
fairly. </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 在一個網上信任遊戲中，如果玩家向他人告發作弊者，作弊者獲勝的機會就會降低，害怕成為不利流言的主角的威脅鼓勵人們更公平地玩遊戲。 </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"><br></font></p><p><font face="Arial"> Prof Willer said: "Gossip gets a bad rap,
but we're finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the
maintenance of social order." </font>
</p><p><font face="Arial"> 維勒教授說：“儘管人們對流言怨聲很多，但我們找到了證據證明它在維持社會秩序方面也發揮著重要的作用。”（來源：滬江英語）</font></p>