撓頭怎么就代表了思考呢？
If you've ever had the distinct pleasure of sourcing stock photos for any reason, you've likely come across a whole lot of laughing women eating salads alone. But you've also probably stumbled upon a truckload of people scratching their heads to symbolize confusion, deep thought and/or perhaps a bad case of seborrheic dermatitis — dandruff. Scalp dryness aside, how exactly did the head scratch come to symbolize intellectual processes?
如果你曾經有過翻閱老舊照片的樂趣，你可能會見到許多女人在一個人笑著在吃沙拉，但你也可能看到許多人在撓著頭。撓頭在我們眼中通常象征著困惑、深思或是頭皮屑過多。拋開頭皮屑過多不談，我們來看看撓頭到底是如何成為思考的象征。
Some people believe that certain automatic gestures are simply natural, expressive motions our caveman predecessors passed down to us. "One popular explanation for any hand-to-head movements is that they're frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our rock-throwing ancestors," wrote San Diego Reader columnist Matthew Alice. "If you watch a small child strike at something, he'll raise an arm over his head and bring it forward in an arc. It's a natural, unstudied movement. Not much finesse, but for a caveman it got the job done."
有些人認為這一手勢僅僅是我們的穴居人前輩們傳遞給我們的自然且富有表現(xiàn)力的動作?！妒サ貋喐缱x者》的專欄作家馬修·艾麗絲寫道：“對于這一動作而言，普遍被接受的解釋是：這是我們從扔石頭的穴居人祖先那里繼承來的。如果你觀察一個小孩敲擊某個東西，他會舉起一只胳膊放在頭上，并以弧線把手向前推進。這是一種自然的、非習得的動作，但對穴居人來說，這就能夠完成許多任務了”。
Alice also pointed to a possible anthropological explanation for head scratching: "When we're wrestling with some knotty problem, we experience feelings of frustration, perhaps some anger, and before we know it, our hand flies up in the air. But hold it. In these modern times, it's not polite to bash the guy who asked the question. So instead we deflect attention from the movement and scratch or rub our head or chin or neck." Interesting ... and kind of a dark interpretation of human behavior.
艾麗絲還指出了另一種可能，用人類學來解釋撓頭：“當我們面對一些棘手的問題時，我們會感到沮喪甚至有些憤怒，我們下意識地就想要攻擊些什么。但在現(xiàn)代社會，抨擊提出問題的人是不禮貌的。所以我們轉移了注意力，開始抓撓或摩擦我們的頭部、下巴或頸部”。這一解釋聽起來很有趣，是對人類行為的一種黑暗解釋。
Recent research seems to back up this stress theory and add another unexpected layer to the story. In a 2017 study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists who observed 45 rhesus macaques found that scratching was more likely to occur in times of heightened stress (like standing in the presence of high-ranking or unfamiliar monkeys). It turns out monkeys who scratched were significantly less likely to be attacked by those threatening strangers.
最近的研究似乎支持了這種壓力理論，并為這個理論增加了另一個意想不到的層面。2017年發(fā)表在《科學報告》雜志上的一項研究中，研究人員在觀察45只恒河猴后發(fā)現(xiàn)，撓頭的行為更有可能發(fā)生在個體高度緊張的時期(比如站在高級別或不熟悉的猴子面前)。而且研究結果表明，那些撓頭的猴子受到陌生對象攻擊的可能性要小得多。
"As scratching can be a sign of social stress, potential attackers might be avoiding attacking obviously stressed individuals because such individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their stress, meaning an attack could be either risky or unnecessary," lead author Jamie Whitehouse said in the study.
該研究的第一作者杰米·懷特豪斯表示：“撓頭可能是社會壓力的一個標志，潛在的攻擊者可能會盡量避免攻擊那些明顯有壓力的個體。因為這些人可能已經被壓力削弱了，也可能會在壓力的作用下做出一些不可預測的行為，這意味著攻擊可能是有風險的也可能是不必要的”。
So while there's no single explanation for this head scratcher (ugh, you knew that was coming — sorry), it appears acting out your anxiousness with this stereotypical tic could keep you in the good graces of others.
所以，目前對撓頭這個動作還沒有十分明確且唯一的解釋。不過你至少知道了用這種刻板的方式來表達你的焦慮可能會使你收獲他人的好感。
如果你曾經有過翻閱老舊照片的樂趣，你可能會見到許多女人在一個人笑著在吃沙拉，但你也可能看到許多人在撓著頭。撓頭在我們眼中通常象征著困惑、深思或是頭皮屑過多。拋開頭皮屑過多不談，我們來看看撓頭到底是如何成為思考的象征。
Some people believe that certain automatic gestures are simply natural, expressive motions our caveman predecessors passed down to us. "One popular explanation for any hand-to-head movements is that they're frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our rock-throwing ancestors," wrote San Diego Reader columnist Matthew Alice. "If you watch a small child strike at something, he'll raise an arm over his head and bring it forward in an arc. It's a natural, unstudied movement. Not much finesse, but for a caveman it got the job done."
有些人認為這一手勢僅僅是我們的穴居人前輩們傳遞給我們的自然且富有表現(xiàn)力的動作?！妒サ貋喐缱x者》的專欄作家馬修·艾麗絲寫道：“對于這一動作而言，普遍被接受的解釋是：這是我們從扔石頭的穴居人祖先那里繼承來的。如果你觀察一個小孩敲擊某個東西，他會舉起一只胳膊放在頭上，并以弧線把手向前推進。這是一種自然的、非習得的動作，但對穴居人來說，這就能夠完成許多任務了”。
Alice also pointed to a possible anthropological explanation for head scratching: "When we're wrestling with some knotty problem, we experience feelings of frustration, perhaps some anger, and before we know it, our hand flies up in the air. But hold it. In these modern times, it's not polite to bash the guy who asked the question. So instead we deflect attention from the movement and scratch or rub our head or chin or neck." Interesting ... and kind of a dark interpretation of human behavior.
艾麗絲還指出了另一種可能，用人類學來解釋撓頭：“當我們面對一些棘手的問題時，我們會感到沮喪甚至有些憤怒，我們下意識地就想要攻擊些什么。但在現(xiàn)代社會，抨擊提出問題的人是不禮貌的。所以我們轉移了注意力，開始抓撓或摩擦我們的頭部、下巴或頸部”。這一解釋聽起來很有趣，是對人類行為的一種黑暗解釋。
Recent research seems to back up this stress theory and add another unexpected layer to the story. In a 2017 study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists who observed 45 rhesus macaques found that scratching was more likely to occur in times of heightened stress (like standing in the presence of high-ranking or unfamiliar monkeys). It turns out monkeys who scratched were significantly less likely to be attacked by those threatening strangers.
最近的研究似乎支持了這種壓力理論，并為這個理論增加了另一個意想不到的層面。2017年發(fā)表在《科學報告》雜志上的一項研究中，研究人員在觀察45只恒河猴后發(fā)現(xiàn)，撓頭的行為更有可能發(fā)生在個體高度緊張的時期(比如站在高級別或不熟悉的猴子面前)。而且研究結果表明，那些撓頭的猴子受到陌生對象攻擊的可能性要小得多。
"As scratching can be a sign of social stress, potential attackers might be avoiding attacking obviously stressed individuals because such individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their stress, meaning an attack could be either risky or unnecessary," lead author Jamie Whitehouse said in the study.
該研究的第一作者杰米·懷特豪斯表示：“撓頭可能是社會壓力的一個標志，潛在的攻擊者可能會盡量避免攻擊那些明顯有壓力的個體。因為這些人可能已經被壓力削弱了，也可能會在壓力的作用下做出一些不可預測的行為，這意味著攻擊可能是有風險的也可能是不必要的”。
So while there's no single explanation for this head scratcher (ugh, you knew that was coming — sorry), it appears acting out your anxiousness with this stereotypical tic could keep you in the good graces of others.
所以，目前對撓頭這個動作還沒有十分明確且唯一的解釋。不過你至少知道了用這種刻板的方式來表達你的焦慮可能會使你收獲他人的好感。
