科学美国人60秒：压力大时，不妨来一个真诚的拥抱

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Lucy Huang.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是露西·黄。

When a friend comes to you after a stressful day, how do you comfort them? Do you let them rant? Do you pour them a glass of wine? Those could work. But a new study finds that a very effective technique is also simple and easy. "Hugging."

当你的朋友经历了紧张的一天前来找你，你会怎么安慰TA呢?让TA破口痛骂一番?还是递给TA一杯酒?这些都是可行的，但一项新的研究发现，还有一种非常有效的简单方法：“拥抱”。

Michael Murphy is a psychology postdoc at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He wanted to know if people who received hugs regularly could handle stress and conflict better. "Individuals who report perceiving the availability of a network of supportive individuals tend to show better adaptation when faced with stress."

迈克尔·墨菲是匹兹堡卡内基梅隆大学的心理学博士后。他想知道，经常获得拥抱的人是否能更好地处理压力和冲突。“那些表示身处在具有支持性圈子里的人，会倾向于在面对压力时表现出更好的适应性。”

But just because you have a support network does not mean that you definitely feel that support.

但仅仅因为你有一个具有支持性的交际圈子并不意味着你肯定感觉到这种支持。

So some researchers have argued that many of the behaviors we use to support others who are stressed might actually be counterproductive because these behaviors might unintentionally communicate to others that they're not competent to manage stress. Murphy and his team interviewed 404 men and women every evening for two weeks.

“一些研究人员认为，我们用来支持受压者的许多行为实际上可能会适得其反，因为这些行为可能会在无意中向其他人传递出这样一种信息：他们没有能力调节压力。”墨菲及其团队在两周的时间里每天晚上都会进行采访，他们共采访了404名男性和女性。

During these interviews, the participants were asked a simple yes or no question—whether somebody had hugged them that day—and a simple yes or no question of whether they had experienced conflict or tension with somebody that day. They also were asked questions about their social interactions—how many social interactions they had that day—and responded to questions about negative and positive mood states.

“在采访过程中，参与者被问到一个简单的以‘是’或‘否’作答的问题——当天是否有人拥抱过他们——以及他们当天是否与某人发生过冲突或关系变紧张。他们还被问到他们的社交互动问题——他们当天进行了多少社交互动——并回答有关消极和积极情绪状态的问题。”

And the researchers found that individuals who experienced a conflict were not as negatively affected if they received a hug that day as were participants who experienced conflict and didn't get a hug. Murphy and his team also saw that people who received a hug didn't carry the negative effect to the next day, while those who did not receive a hug would. The findings are in the journal PLOS One.

研究人员发现，经历过矛盾冲突的人，如果在当天得到一个拥抱，那其受到的负面影响会小于那些经历了矛盾冲突但未获得拥抱的人。墨菲及其团队还发现，获得拥抱的人不会把负面影响带到第二天，而那些没有得到拥抱的人则会将负面影响带到第二天。这项研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》期刊上。

Murphy does include this caveat: "So our findings should not be taken as evidence that people should just start hugging anyone and everyone who seems distressed. A hug from one boss at work or a stranger on the street—that could be viewed as neither consensual or positive."

墨菲确实提出了这一警告：“我们的研究结果不应被当做‘人们应该开始拥抱任何看起来很痛苦的人'的证据。来自上司或街头陌生人的拥抱，可能既不真诚，也不积极。”

The idea is to relieve stress. Not add to it.

我们的初衷是为了缓解压力。而不是增加压力。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Lucy Huang.

感谢收听《科学美国人》的60秒科学。露西·黄报道。