一見鍾情的激情 如同吸食毒品
摘錄自：天下雜誌 經濟學人電子報 2014/2/28
2014-02-14 Web
only 作者：經濟學人
 |
| 圖片來源：flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/ |
生物學家相信，愛情的基礎在於生物學而非社會建構，原因在於所有的人類文化中都找得到愛情，部分動物也有類似行為。在人類身上，渴望、痴狂和慾望，都是為了將焦點放在扶養後代；孩童需要極大心力照顧，兩個家長也比一個來得好。愛情是伴侶雙方都作出承諾的訊息，也讓承諾更有機會維持到孩童獨立之時。不過，科學對一見鍾情又有怎麼樣的看法呢？
近年，科技讓人得以觀察腦部的運作，也讓人更加了解愛情的機制。研究者已然證實，人類墜入情網之時，十幾個腦部區域會共同運作，釋放觸發愉快、伴結和興奮情緒的化學物質；此外，母親與小孩間的無條件之愛，其腦部活躍區域與與伴侶之愛不同。
熱情之愛根基於腦部的報償神經迴路──與吸食古柯鹼所刺激的區域相同。事實上，愛情帶來的渴望、動機和戒斷，都與上癮有許多相似之處。最強烈的愛情形式通常出自關係初期，接著便讓路給較為平靜的長期伴侶之愛，但仍舊與報償神經迴路有關。因此，唯有快速觸發長期忠誠機制，才有可能一見鍾情。證據之一在於，人類可以在不到一秒內決定另一個人對自己有多大的吸引力，此決定似乎與臉部吸引力有關，不過男性也會比較偏好胸臀比為0.7的女性，無論她們的體重為何（此比例可能暗示著女性的生育能力）。
另一項證據來自本古里安大學的心理學家派恩思（Ayala Malack-Pines）。她在調查中發現，小部分（11%）處於長期關係的伴侶表示兩人是一見鍾情；換句話說，部分伴侶間的初期良好印象觸發了維持長期關係的愛情，同時也顯示，部分伴侶需要更長的時間才能形成伴結關係。因此，如果尋找伴侶的條件是同情心、智慧、幽默等無法立刻判斷的特質，或許就比較難以一見鐘情作為伴侶關係的基礎；不過，比較在乎外表的人可能就比較容易。由此觀之，一見鍾情確實存在，卻也不是長期關係的常見基礎。（黃維德譯）
©The Economist
Newspaper Limited 2014
The Economist
The Economist explains
The science of
love at first sight
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published:
February 14, 2014
Feb 12th 2014,
23:50 by N.L. | CHICAGO
BIOLOGISTS believe
that love is fundamentally a biological rather than a cultural construct. That
is because the capacity for love is found in all human cultures and similar
behaviour is found in some other animals, such as prairie voles. In humans the
purpose of all the cravings, craziness and desire is to focus attention on the
raising of offspring. Children demand an unusual amount of nurturing, and two
parents are better than one. Love is a signal that both partners are committed,
and makes it more likely that this commitment will continue as long as is
necessary for children to reach independence. But what does science have to say
about the notion of love at first sight?
In recent years
the ability to watch the brain in action has offered a wealth of insight into
the mechanics of love. Researchers have shown that when a person falls in love
a dozen different parts of the brain work together to release chemicals that
trigger feelings of euphoria, bonding and excitement. (These include dopamine,
oxytocin, adrenalin and vasopressin.) It has also been shown that the
unconditional love between a mother and a child is associated with activity in
different regions of the brain from those associated with sexual, pair-bonding
love.
Passionate love is
rooted in the reward circuitry of the brain—the same area that is active when
humans feel a rush from cocaine. In fact, the cravings, motivations and
withdrawals involved in love have a great deal in common with addiction. Its
most intense forms tend to be associated with the early stages of a
relationship, which then give way to a calmer attachment form of love one feels
with a long-term partner. This has a slightly different chemistry but still
involves the reward centres of the brain. What all this means is that one
special person can become chemically rewarding to the brain of another. Love at
first sight, then, is only possible if the mechanism for generating long-term
attachment can be triggered quickly. There are signs that it can be. One line
of evidence is that people are able to decide within a fraction of a secondhow
attractive they find another person. This decision appears to be related to
facial attractiveness, although men also favour women with a waist-to-hip ratio
of 0.7, no matter what their overall weight is. (This ratio may indicate a
woman's reproductive health.)
Another piece of
evidence in Cupid's favour comes from work by Ayala Malack-Pines, a
psychologist at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, who found in a survey that a
small fraction (11%) of people in long-term relationships said that they began
with love at first sight. In other words, in some couples the initial favorable
impressions of attractiveness triggered love which sustained a lengthy bond. It
is also clear that some couples need to form their bonds over a longer period,
and popular culture tells many tales of friends who become lovers. One might
also speculate that if a person is looking for a partner with traits that
cannot be quantified instantly, such as compassion, intellect or a good sense
of humour, then it would be hard form a relationship on the basis of love at
first sight. Those more concerned only with visual appearances, though, might
find this easier. So it appears that love at first sight exists, but is not a
very common basis for long-term relationships.
©The Economist
Newspaper Limited 2014
沒有留言:
張貼留言