Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll have noticed that beards have come sprouting back into fashion, at least in the UK and US. To psychologists, this phenomenon raises several inter-related questions, such as – are these men just copying each other; what does a beard do to a man’s attractiveness; does it make him look more macho; and given the answers to the previous, should I grow one too? Well, that last question might apply only to male psychologists. Anyhow, here to help you untangle these issues, we present the latest in our world-famous series of special features: the psychology of beards, digested.
除非你一直躲在岩石下面,否则你会注意到胡子已经重新流行起来了,至少在英国和美国是这样。对心理学家来说,这一现象引发了几个相互关联的问题,例如:这些男人只是互相模仿吗?胡子对男人的吸引力有什么作用?这是否会使他看起来更具男子气概?为了回答前面的问题,我是否也应该留胡子?那么,最后一个问题可能只适用于男性心理学家。总之,来帮助你解决这些问题,在我们的举世闻名的最新特刊中,向大家呈现了研究精华:胡子心理学.
Beards make men look more attractive (except when they don’t)
胡子使男人看起来更有魅力(除非他们不留胡子)
One influential theory is that men’s beards are an adornment, like a peacock’s tail, which make them more attractive, especially to the opposite sex. Yet the research on whether men with beards are more attractive is contradictory.
一个有影响的理论是,男人的胡须是一种装饰物,就像是孔雀的尾巴,使它们更具吸引力,尤其是对于异性。然而,留胡子的男人真的更具吸引力么?对于这个话题的研究是矛盾的。
This paper from 1973 that involved undergrads rating men’s faces found that bearded men were considered better-looking (not to mention more masculine, mature, dominant, self-confident, courageous, liberal, nonconforming, industrious, and older). That was the hairy 70s you say, but this study published this very month in Archives of Sexual Behaviour also found that hundreds of women recruited online consistently rated bearded men, regardless of amount of beard growth, as more sexually attractive than their clean-shaven counterparts.
一项涉及了1973年的大学生对男性的脸的调查研究发现,那时认为,留胡子的男人是更好看的(更不用说更阳刚,成熟,优越性,自信,勇敢,自由,不同流合污,勤劳,以及老迈)。这是你说的70年代的毛发,但这项发表在本月《性行为研究》的研究还发现,数百名网上招聘的女性一致认为有胡子的男人更具吸引力,无论胡须长多长,因为,他们比胡子刮得干干净净的同行更有性吸引力。
But male readers, before you bin your razor, consider that another study from 1991, involving undergrads doing the rating, found that clean-shaven men were seen as “younger, more attractive, and more sociable” than the beardies, while another paper out this year found that “there was no main effect of facial hair growth on ratings of attractiveness”.
但男性读者们,在你扔掉你的剃须刀之前,应该考虑来自于1991年的另一项研究,这项涉及本科生的研究测评发现,胡子刮得很干净的男人比蓄须者“更年轻,更有吸引力,更善于交际”,而另一个今年的研究发现:“面部毛发生长对吸引力的比率没有主要的影响”。
We may have hit peak beard
我们可能已经到了蓄须巅峰的年代
Part of the reason for these mixed findings is likely that when beards are in vogue, as they are today, a man with a beard no longer stands out from the crowd. Researchers tested this idea a couple of years ago by presenting participants with either lots of pictures of bearded men, or lots of pictures of clean-shaven men, or a mix, before then having them rate the attractiveness of a bunch more men, bearded and non-bearded.
这些发现混杂不清的部分原因可能是,就像如今的胡子流行一样,留胡子的人不再鹤立鸡群了。研究人员验证了这个想法,他们在几年前向参与者呈现了许多有胡子的男人的照片,或者是胡子刮得很干净的人的照片,或者兼而有之,然后让他们给一大堆男人的吸引力打分,留胡子的和不留胡子的。
The revealing finding was that bearded men were seen as relatively more attractive after the researchers had created a clean-shaven background context. This supports the idea that beards boost attractiveness when they help make a man distinctive from his peers. The result also complements historical research showing that hair length, side-burns, and beards tend to follow the same cyclical pattern, increasing in popularity and length until they reach a peak and then subsiding again. All of which prompted the researchers to suggest that in current times we may well be close to reaching “peak beard“.
显而易见的发现是,在研究者创造了一个清爽干净的照片背景后,有胡子的男人被认为是较有吸引力的,这就支持了胡子让人与众不同的想法。这一结果也补充了历史研究所说明的:毛发长度、侧面烧伤和胡须的周期性模式倾向趋于同步,它们随着流行的程度也越来越受欢迎,直到达到峰值,然后再次下沉。所有这些都促使研究人员指出,在当前的时代,我们很可能接近了“蓄须的巅峰”。
Bearded men look more macho
有胡子的男人看起来更有男子气概。
A rival evolutionary theory for men’s beards suggests that they aren’t so much about attracting women, but more about frightening other men by helping their owners to look aggressive and dominant. The findings here are more consistent. For example, this cross-cultural study from 2012 found that European women from New Zealand and Polynesian women from Samoa rated bearded men’s faces as older and higher social status (but not more attractive) and they perceived bearded men pulling an aggressive face as more aggressive than clean-shaven men doing the same.
一个关于男性胡须的竞争演化理论表明,它们对女性的吸引力并没有那么多,而是更多地通过帮助她们的主人看起来好斗和有优势地位,以此来吓唬其他男人。这个结论更加一致。例如,2012年的跨文化研究发现,来自新西兰的欧洲妇女和萨摩亚的波利尼西亚妇女,对有胡子男性的脸的评价是,认为他们年龄较大、有较高的社会地位(而不是更具吸引力),他们认为,有胡子的男人扯出一脸的凶相,比没胡子的男人做同样的更具侵略性。
Similarly, this recent study found that men with beards were perceived as more dominant. And another paper that’s consistent with the idea of men using their beards to compete found that moustaches have historically been more common in eras when there are lots of eligible men competing for partners.
同样,最近的一项研究发现,有胡子的男人被认为更具统治力。另一篇文章的发现一致于以下的观点:男人用他们的胡子来竞争,文章发现,在男性有很多男性竞争伙伴的时代,胡子向来都是很寻常的。