We all know the saying 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', and the fact that there are a whole lot of strange-looking people out there happily loved up would suggest that it's true. But scientists have now performed the biggest test so far, analysing the preferences of more than 35,000 people, and have shown that we really do all have a unique 'type'。

　　我们都听过“情人眼里出西施”，你身边肯定也有长相怪异的人觅得真爱，所以这个说法很可能是真的。现在，科学家做了空前规模的实验，分析了35,000人的审美倾向，实验得出每个人的审美都很独特!

　　In fact, the study showed that even identical twins - who share nearly 100 percent of their DNA - aren't attracted to the same people, suggesting that it's our experiences, more than our genes, that determine whether we find someone hot or not。

　　研究证明即便拥有100%相同基因的同卵双胞胎也不会喜欢同一人，这说明我们的经历决定审美，多过基因作用。

　　"We estimate that an individual's aesthetic preferences for faces agree about 50 percent, and disagree about 50 percent, with others," lead researchers of the project, Laura Germine from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, and Jeremy Wilmer of Wellesley College, explain in a press release。

　　“我们估计一个人的审美有50%与他人相同，有50%不同，”来自麻省综合医院和哈佛大学的Laura Germine和来自威尔斯利学院的Jeremy Wilmer在一次发布会中解释：

　　"This fits with the common intuition that on the one hand, fashion models can make a fortune with their good looks, while on the other hand, friends can endlessly debate about who is attractive and who is not," they add。“

　　这可以解释为什么一方面时尚模特因公认的美丽赚大钱，一方面朋友之前为谁更漂亮争论不休。”

　　Of course, there are some things that people seem to find pretty much universally pleasant to look at, and researchers believe these things may be coded into our genes. For example, studies have shown that most people prefer faces that are symmetric and also features that suggest fertility, such as large breasts and hips on women。

　　自然，有些特征是所有人都认为十分赏心悦目的，研究人员认为这些是被编写进我们基因的。举个栗子：研究显示大部分人都喜欢轮廓对称的脸，还有代表生育能力的特征，比如女性丰满的乳房和臀部。

　　But after analysing the facial preferences of more than 35,000 volunteers, the researchers found that, beyond that, people have very different ideas about what makes someone hot. To work out what was driving those differences, the team asked 547 pairs of identical twins and 214 pairs of non-identical twins to rate the attractiveness of 200 different faces。

　　然而在分析了超过35,000位志愿者的脸庞审美偏好后，研究人员发现除上述之外，人们对于性感的观点非常不同。为了探究原因，研究团队要求547对同卵双胞胎和214对异卵双胞胎对200张不同的脸进行吸引程度的评分。

　　If the non-identical twins had vastly different preferences compared to the identical twins, it would suggest that genes were shaping their 'type'. But this isn't what they found. Instead, it was experiences that seemed to be what shape the "eye of the beholder". And those experiences are highly specific to each individual。

　　如果比起同卵双胞胎，异卵双胞胎的审美偏好差异更大，那么说明基因塑造了人们的“菜”。但结果并非如此，是经历决定着“情人的眼睛”，而这些经历对不同个体而言是非常独特的。

　　"The types of environments that are important are not those that are shared by those who grow up in the same family, but are much more subtle and individual, potentially including things such as one's unique, highly personal experiences with friends or peers, as well as social and popular media," said Germine。

　　起重要作用的环境类型并非家庭，而是更为微妙、私人的经历，例如和朋友、同龄人之间的独特个人经历，社会和大众媒体等。

　　So in other words, it's not your family, where you grew up, or how much money your parents make that shape who you're attracted to, it's things like the magazines you read, the social interactions you've had, and even your first boyfriend or girlfriend, that determine these preferences。

　　换句话说，塑造审美偏好的不是你的家庭、成长环境或父母收入，而是你阅读的杂志、经历的社会互动，甚至你的初恋对象。

　　The research has been published in Current Biology, and "provides a novel window into the evolution and architecture of the social brain", according to the authors. They're now interested in finding out more about which personal experiences in particular influence our preferences, and how these experiences influence other things, like our feelings about art and pets。

　　该研究发表于《现代生物学》，作者表示，它为人们提供了全新的视角来看待社会大脑的进化和构造。他们现在有兴趣做进一步的研究，例如什么样独特的个人经历在影响审美、这些经历如何影响其他事物(如对艺术和宠物的感受)。

　　For now, take comfort knowing that even if your crush isn't that into you, someone out there will have had the perfect combination of experiences to find you adorable。

　　目前我们能从该研究中获取的安慰就是：不要紧，即便你的TA不中意你，你也总会是某人的菜。

 

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