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Want to do it with me this time?
这次想和我一起叹息吗?
Feels pretty good, doesn't it?
感觉不错，对吗?
Sighing is one of those universal human experiences.
人类普遍都会叹息。
For people around the world, taking a deep breath has a calming power, and it's part of the way we experience and communicate emotion.
对世界各地的人来说，深呼吸有一种镇定的能力，它是我们体验和交流情感的一种方式。
But it turns out that the assumptions we make when we hear other people sighing… aren't always right.
但事实证明，我们在听到别人叹息时所做的假设并不总是正确的。
The reasons we sigh start with biology, because your lungs actually need to sigh just keep functioning properly.
首先从生物学上讲，人类叹息实际上是因为肺部需要通过叹息来维持正常的功能。
When you take a deep breath, you're kind of rebooting them.
深呼吸的时候是在重启我们的肺部。
When you're breathing normally for a while, that's what scientists call eupneic breathing—meaning that it's normal and unlabored.
正常呼吸一段时间就是科学家们所说的平静呼吸，意思是呼吸正常和不费力。
And if you just let people sit with their eupneic breathing for a while, eventually they'll take a breath that's about twice the usual volume of air,
如果你让人们安静地坐着呼吸一段时间，最终他们会呼吸到比平常两倍的空气，
which is what we tend to call a sigh.
这就是我们常说的叹息。
That's usually followed by what's known as a post-sigh apnea—
随后会出现呼吸暂停——
a little gap between breaths that's a bit longer than normal.
呼吸的间隙略比正常时间长。
This big breath pushes you to fully expand your alveoli—the tiny air sacs that fill up your lungs.
这种大的呼吸会使肺泡完全扩张——充满肺部的微小气囊。
And that helps keep your lungs from collapsing, which is good, because collapsing is a very bad thing that you really don't want your lungs to do.
这有助于防止肺部衰竭，是好事，因为衰竭是一件非常糟糕的事情，你真的不想让肺衰竭。
Researchers have found that people's breathing becomes more variable just before they sigh,
研究人员发现，人们在叹息之前，呼吸会更加多变，
and it's a little more consistent afterward.
之后会更加一致。
So it really is like your lungs get a reset.
所以这就像肺部被重置了一样。
Generally, you need to sigh every 5 minutes or so just to keep your lungs in working order.
一般情况下，你需要每5分钟左右叹息一次，以保持肺部正常工作。
You even sigh in your sleep, although that tends to be less often.
你甚至会在睡梦中叹息，尽管这种情况并不常见。
But there are lots of factors that can change the pattern of when you sigh—like stress—and that's where the psychology comes in.
但是有很多因素可以改变你的叹息模式，比如压力，这就是心理学的作用。
Psychologists have known for a while that breathing patterns are related to emotions.
一段时间以来，心理学家已经知道呼吸模式与情绪有关。
But sighing is weird because it seems to be related to both positive and negative emotions.
但是叹息很奇怪，因为它似乎与积极和消极的情绪都有关。
For example, you might sigh because you're stressed or frustrated, but you might also do it because you're feeling relaxed.
例如，你可能会因为压力或沮丧而叹息，也可能因为感到放松而叹息。
One way to explain the contradiction is that sighing could have a lot to do with relief:
这一矛盾可能与放松有很大关系：
you do it because you're feeling relieved, or because you're stressed out and your brain is trying to make you feel more relieved.
叹息是因为感到放松，或者是因为压力过大，大脑试图让你感到更放松。
In a 2009 study published in the journal Psychophysiology, a group of Belgian researchers decided to test this idea.
2009年发表在《心理生理学》杂志上的一项研究中，一组比利时研究人员决定测试这一想法。
In three separate experiments, the team made a total of 115 people listen to an obnoxiously loud white noise turn on and off.
在三个独立的实验中，研究小组让115人听一种刺耳的白噪音。
They used different shapes on a screen to signal whether a noise was coming.
他们在屏幕上用不同的形状来发出是否有噪音的信号。
One shape meant guaranteed irritation, one meant the subject was safe,
一种形状意味着肯定会有噪音，一种意味着安全，
and one meant there was a 50-50 chance that they'd have to hear the noise.
一种意味着听到噪音的几率为50%。
The researchers found that people sighed a little more
研究人员发现，人们更容易叹息
while they were hearing the noise, but a lot more once it was over.
虽然他们听到了噪音，但当噪音结束后，他们听到的声音更多。
And, when they were asked about their emotions during the experiment,
当被问及实验期间的情绪时，
people who sighed more also rated themselves as feeling more relieved.
那些经常叹息的人也认为自己感觉更轻松。
But it didn't matter if it was relief from the obnoxious sound ending or just from discovering they didn't have to hear the sound.
但是，无论是从讨厌的声音结束中得到解脱，还是仅仅因为发现自己不必听到这种声音，都不重要。
They'd sigh just because of the relief from the anticipation of the stress.
他们叹息，只是因为从预期的压力中得到了解脱。
So if sighing has to do with feeling relieved or relaxed,
所以，如果叹息与感觉轻松或放松有关，
it makes sense that it would be associated with a lot of different emotions.
叹息关乎许多不同的情绪是有道理的。
If you're taking a stressful test, for example, you might sigh in relief once you finish a problem,
例如，如果你在参加一个压力很大的考试，你可能会在做完一道题之后松一口气，
but you might also sigh while you're working on the next problem to try to make yourself feel more relieved and lower your stress levels.
但当你在做下一道题的时候，你也可能会叹息，试图让自己放松下来，舒缓压力。
Some psychologists have proposed that because people tend to sigh when they're feeling relief from stress,
一些心理学家提出，因为人们在舒缓压力时往往会叹息，
humans learned to interpret sighing from others as a signal of safety.
所以人类学会了将他人的叹息理解为一种安全信号。
Which would explain why sighing seems to be a little contagious—
这就解释了为什么叹息似乎有点传染性了
it's like your brain is thinking “oh, my friend thinks that tiger's gone? I guess I can take a breath too.”
就像你的大脑在想“哦，我的朋友认为麻烦事已经走了？我想我也可以喘口气了。”
But now that most of us don't spend our days trying to evade tigers,
但现在我们大多数人都不再整天躲避麻烦了，
we read into sighing a little differently—and sometimes not as accurately.
我们对叹息的理解略有不同——有时甚至不那么准确。
For example, in a 2008 study, 117 people were given hypothetical stories about someone sighing and asked what they thought the sigh meant.
例如，在2008年的一项研究中，117人被给予一个关于某人叹息的假设，并被问及该叹息的含义。
Usually, they assumed it meant something negative—most often sadness.
通常，他们会认为叹息意味着某种消极的东西——通常是悲伤的情绪。
And if the story was about someone sighing alone, people interpreted the feeling as more intense.
如果假设是关于一个人独自叹息，人们的这种感觉会更加强烈。
But if they were told to imagine themselves in the story,
但是如果让他们想象自己叹息的话，
they came up with more varied responses, like maybe they were frustrated or just tired or bored.
他们就会给出更多不同的回答，比如可能感到沮丧，或者只是疲惫或无聊。
So, when you hear someone sigh, it could mean that they're sad—
所以，当你听到某人叹息时，这可能意味着他们很难过
but it's worth keeping in mind that there are lots of other possibilities too.
但要记住的是，还有很多其它可能。
They could be stressed, or frustrated, or even experiencing a moment of calm and taking a breath.
可能是压力，或者沮丧，或者甚至是片刻的平静和呼吸，
Or it could just be a totally involuntary response to keep their lungs working properly.
或者可能只是一个完全无意识的反应，以保持肺部正常工作。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych, which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.
感谢收看本期心理科学秀节目，感谢Patreon对本节目的支持。
If you'd like to learn more about the weird ways your brain interprets the world around you—and why you shouldn't always trust it—
如果你想了解更多关于大脑对周围世界的解读——为什么人类不应该总是相信它？
you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
可以登陆youtube.com/scishowpsych订阅我们的节目。
