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I see you watching YouTube when you're supposed to be working, huh well.
我看到你在工作时看YouTube了，没事。
Don't sweat it. it turns out that taking a break to see some cuteness might actually benefit your work.
别怕，事实证明，休息一下，看些可爱的事物可能有益于工作。
There's a lot we're still learning, but according to some research, looking at cute animals is associated with a boost and focus and fine motor skills.
我们对此了解的并不多，但根据一些研究，看可爱的动物与提高注意力和精细的运动技能有关。
So the next time you're sucked into one of those cute puppy stories on snapchat, you might be doing yourself a favor.
所以，下次当你在Snapchat上被可爱的小狗故事吸引时，你可能是在帮自己的忙呀。
First though, let's back up and talk about what cute means anyway.
不过，我们还是先谈谈到底可爱意味着什么吧。
You might have your own opinions, but based on what psychologists have seen in studies, people generally find things cute, because of what's called baby schema, that's your classic baby look.
你可能有自己的观点，但根据心理学家在研究中的观察，人们觉得事物很可爱，通常是因为所谓的婴儿图式，就是典型的婴儿样。
Think big head large eyes and chubby cheeks.
想想大脑袋、大眼睛和圆乎乎的脸颊。
Baby schema was first described in the 1940s and the animal behaviorist that proposed it believed humans are hard-wired to respond to these characteristics with care giving behavior, which intuitively makes sense.
婴儿图式最早出现在20世纪40年代，动物行为学家提出，人类天生会用关怀的行为来应对这些特征。从直觉上看，这是有道理的。
Babies are super fragile and it's an our species best interest to think they're cute and important to care for.
婴儿非常脆弱，我们认为他们可爱，需要照顾，是出于物种的最佳利益考虑。
Evidence backs this up too.
很多证据也证实了这一点。
For example in a 2009 experiment where researchers manipulated the baby schema of an image to be more dramatic, people tended to rate the subjects of those images as cuter and reported a greater desire to care for them
例如，在2009年的一项实验中，研究人员将婴儿模式的图像操作得更为生动，人们倾向于将这些图像中的人物评价得更可爱，报告说他们更愿意照顾他们。
And it's not just human babies, other studies suggest that we tend to react about as strongly to babies of other species like puppies as we do to infants of our own species
这不仅限于人类的婴儿，其他研究表明，我们对其他物种的幼崽（如小狗）的反应和对自己物种的婴儿反应一样强烈。
So cute faces make us want to keep things safe, but it's a pretty big leap to go from that kind of care giving behavior to a generally sharper mind and better motor skills.
所以，可爱的脸庞让我们想要保持安全状态，但从关怀的行为到更敏锐的头脑和更好的运动技能，这可是个相当大的飞跃。
Researchers started making that jump around 2009, when a study was published in the journal emotion.
研究人员大约在2009年开始进行这一飞跃性的研究，当时有一项研究发表在《情感》期刊上。
The researchers had 96 college students look at pictures of either baby or adult animals, then play the game operation.
研究人员让96名大学生看幼崽或成年动物的照片，然后进行游戏操作。
It's that board game where you have to use tiny little pliers to remove organs from an irate looking man and every time you make a wrong move, the board buzzes and the guy's nose lights up.
这是一款棋盘游戏，你必须用小钳子从一个怒气冲冲的男人身上取下器官，每次一移错，棋盘就会发出嗡嗡声，男人的鼻子也会亮起来。
Yeah, it's great it's also terrifying.
没错，很好玩，但也挺可怕的。
Operation takes careful nimble movements to do well.
操作这个游戏时需要小心、动作灵活，才能做好。
And in the study participants who had been primed with baby animals did better at it than those who had looked at adult ones to a degree that reached statistical significance.
在这项研究中，看过小动物照片的参与者比那些看过成年动物照片的人做得好，结果具有统计学意义。
But there were some limitations to this for one thing, the participants weren't time so it wasn't clear whether they did better because cuteness boosts their fine motor control or just because it made them slow down.
但研究也存在一些局限性。一方面，没有记录参与者的用时，所以不清楚他们做得更好，是因为可爱的照片提高了他们的精细运动控制，还是因为让他们的速度变慢。
Also operation is essentially a care giving task.
这个游戏操作本质上也是一项关怀任务。
You basically tending to a sick patient.
参与者基本上是在照顾病人。
So there is no guarantee that these results would extend to something that had nothing to do with care giving.
所以，不能保证研究结果能够延伸到与关怀无关的事情上。
To figure those things out, researchers in Japan took the reins in 2012 with a study called the power of kawaii, a Japanese word that essentially means cute.
为了解决这些疑问，日本的研究人员在2012年进行了一项名为“卡哇伊力量”的研究，卡哇伊是一个日语单词，意思是可爱。
As part of their study, they had participants perform two experiments that relied on speed and had seemingly nothing to do with care giving.
作为研究的一部分，他们让参与者进行两个依赖于速度的实验，这些实验似乎与关怀无关。
In 148 people primed with either pictures of baby or adult animals had to find specific digits and matrices of random numbers.
这148名受试者，无论是先看幼崽还是成年动物照片，都必须找到特定数字和随机数矩阵。
You're asked to complete as many matrices as they could in three minutes.
需要在三分钟内完成尽可能多的矩阵。
In the other, they had 36 people do a global local letter task that's an exercise that tests for global precedence or a person's tendency to more easily process a whole image rather than its individual features.
另一方面，他们让36个人做一个整体局部字母任务，这是一个测试整体优先权的练习，或是看一个人是否更容易处理整个图像而不是个别特征的倾向。
The participants looked at large letters made out of smaller letters and had to quickly say whether what they saw contained a certain character.
参与者看由较小字母组成的大字母，必须迅速说出他们所看到的是否包含某个字母。
If they saw a large H made out of T's for instance, noticing the T's would be a sign that they could pick out small details in a larger scene.
例如，如果他们看到一个由T构成的大H，注意到T就意味着他们可以在更大的场景中找出小细节。
In the end, the people who had looked at baby animals were faster and more accurate at the number matrices and were more able to pick out details in the larger scenes than the other group, that suggested they had better focus and attention to detail.
最后，观察过幼崽图片的人在数字矩阵上的反应速度更快、更准确，在更大的场景中比另一组更能够找出细节，这表明他们对细节有更好的关注度。
Which is pretty surprising, generally speaking, scientists think the way we react to baby schema is probably an evolutional adaptation to make us better at caring for our young and ensuring their survival.
这令人感到非常惊讶，一般来说，科学家认为我们对婴儿模式的反应方式可能是一种进化适应，使我们更好地照顾子女，并确保他们能够生存。
The fact that this gentleness may bleed into other areas of our lives though feels like an unexpected bonus.
事实上，这种温柔的特质可能渗透到生活中的其他领域，尽管感觉像是种意外的收获。
Like on the surface, focusing on a bunch of numbers doesn't seem like it should help you care for an infant.
表面上看，专注于一堆数字似乎并不能帮助你照顾婴儿。
Scientists are still figuring out exactly why that might happen, but it could actually have something to do with another aspect of ensuring that kids survive, protecting them.
科学家们仍在试图搞清其发生的确切原因，但实际上它可能与确保孩子生存、保护他们的其它方面有关。
After all, being super focused and able to pick out individual details might have helped our ancestors stay vigilant and protecting their young ones from threats.
毕竟，这种做事非常专注、能找出细节的特点，有助于我们的祖先保持警惕，避免他们的孩子受到威胁。
Clearly though these aren't ironclad explanations.
不过很明显，这些解释还有待商榷。
There are plenty of limitations to the Japanese study.
日本研究人员的研究存在很多局限性。
Most notably the fact that research is in general don't quite understand what happens in the body when we react to cuteness.
最值得注意的是，研究从总体上看，并不能完全说明当我们对可爱事物做出反应时身体会发生什么变化。
Scientists also haven't really looked into how these effects might apply to seeing cute things in person.
科学家们还没有真正研究，这些影响如何适用于亲眼看到可爱的事物。
Like if you're working from home with your newborn.
比如，你在家里工作，同时照顾婴儿。
This is an area ripe for exploration and we can learn a lot if more researchers jump in.
这是一个值得探索的领域，如果有更多的研究人员加入其中，我们可以学到很多东西。
But either way, babies are pretty helpless and our species has evolved to keep them alive at all costs.
但是不管怎样，婴儿都是非常无助的，我们的物种已经进化到不惜一切代价让他们存活下来。
When you watch cute cat videos you might just be borrowing a little of that evolutionary mojo to make you better at your next task.
当你看可爱猫咪的视频时，你可能就在借用进化的魔力，让你把下一个任务做得更好。
Thanks watching this episode of scishow psych, especially to our patrons on patreon.
感谢收看这一集的心理科学秀，特别感谢patreon上的赞助商。
We're thankful for your support and your curiosity about the world.
谢谢你的支持，也感谢你对世界抱持的好奇心。
If you want to help us keep making content like this you can go to patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想帮助我们继续制作这样的节目，请访问patreon.com/scishow。
