VOA慢速英語：人們?yōu)槭裁醋耘?

Why do people take "selfies?"

人們?yōu)槭裁醋耘?

Researchers at Syracuse University in New York tried to answer that question. They came up with some surprising answers.

紐約雪城大學(xué)的研究人員試圖解答這一問題。他們得出了一些令人驚訝的答案。

People who post selfies and use editing software to make themselves look better show behavior connected to narcissism, the Syracuse researchers said.

雪城大學(xué)的研究人員表示，發(fā)自拍并使用美圖軟件修圖的人表現(xiàn)出了與自戀相關(guān)的行為。

Narcissists are people who think very highly of themselves, especially how they look.

自戀者是指對自己評價非常高的人，尤其是在外表方面。

Ji Won Kim, a doctoral student at the university's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, worked on the study. She said because social media can be superficial, it is a good place for people to "work towards satisfying their own vanity."

Ji Won Kim是雪城大學(xué)薩繆爾·紐豪斯公共傳播學(xué)院的博士生，她從事了這項研究。她說，因為社交媒體非常膚淺，它是人們“努力滿足自己虛榮心”的好地方。

By superficial, she means social media is mostly used by people to share unimportant information about their lives -- not deeply personal issues.

她說的膚淺是指社交媒體主要被人們用于分享生活中一些不重要的信息，而不是深刻的個人問題。

There are other reasons, besides narcissism, that people post selfies.

除了自戀之外，人們發(fā)自拍還有其它原因。

People who post group selfies show a need for popularity and a need to belong to a group, the Syracuse University research found.

雪城大學(xué)的這項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，發(fā)集體自拍的人表現(xiàn)出了對人氣的需求和對屬于某個集體的需要。

Other findings from the study include:

這項研究獲得的其它研究結(jié)果還包括：

There are no major differences on how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software. But men who post selfies showed more of a need to be seen as popular than women who posted selfies.

男性和女性發(fā)自拍的頻率以及使用美圖軟件的頻率并沒有很大的區(qū)別。但是發(fā)自拍的男性比女性更多地表現(xiàn)出希望被視為受歡迎的需求。

The Newhouse School's Associate Professor Makana Chock worked on the study. She said selfies should not be seen as completely negative.

紐豪斯公共傳播學(xué)院的副教授Makana Chock從事了這項研究。她說，自拍不應(yīng)該完全被視為消極的。

She said some people feel "peer pressure" to post selfies. And some follow the popular belief that if there is no picture of an event or experience, it did not really happen.

她說，有些人受到“同儕壓力”才發(fā)自拍。還有一些人效仿了普遍觀點，認(rèn)為無圖無真相。

Chock said posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years.

Chock表示，在社交媒體上發(fā)自拍跟人們多年來的所作所為并無區(qū)別。

On trips and special events, our parents and grandparents used cameras instead of phones to take photos. Before social media, people would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them.

在旅行和特別活動中，我們的父母和祖父母使用相機拍照而不是手機。在社交媒體之前，人們會帶回照片來展示親朋好友。你別無選擇，只能看照片。

If you are a nice person, you commented about how nice everyone in the photos looked, especially children and the person showing the photos. That was the old way of "clicking" like.

如果你是一個友好的人，你會說照片中每個人都很好看，尤其是兒童以及展示照片的人。這就是老版的點贊。

On social media, it is a different experience. People can decide not to look at photos of their friends and family -- even if they click "like" or even "love" under the Facebook selfie.

在社交媒體上就是另一種的體驗。人們可以選擇不看親朋好友的照片，即使他們在Facebook網(wǎng)站的自拍下點了“喜歡”甚至“超愛。”

Using social media to post photos is pretty new. Facebook did not start until 2004. Instagram started in 2010.

使用社交媒體發(fā)布照片是非常新鮮的事物。直到2004年才有Facebook，直到2010年才有Instagram。

It was not until 2013 that the Oxford English language dictionary added the term "selfies." It defined selfie as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself."

直到2013年，牛津英語詞典才添加了自拍一詞，并定義自拍為“給自己拍的照片。”

Here is how the Syracuse researchers did their study.

以下是雪城大學(xué)研究人員的研究辦法。

They questioned 260 people, aged 18 to 65, and almost evenly divided between men and women.

他們調(diào)查了260位年齡在18歲到65歲的人士，并且男女人數(shù)幾乎相同。

To determine narcissism, people were asked if they agreed with personality traits connected to narcissism. For example, people were asked if they agreed with statements such as, "I like to be the center of attention" and "I like having authority over people."

為了查明自戀，人們被問及是否認(rèn)同一些跟自戀相關(guān)的個性品質(zhì)。例如，人們被問及是否認(rèn)同一些類似“我喜歡成為關(guān)注焦點”或“我喜歡對人有威信”這類表態(tài)。

To determine if those in the study had a need to be seen as popular, people were asked if they agreed with these statements: "It's important that people think I'm popular" and "I often do things just to be popular with people at school."

要查明研究中的這些調(diào)查對象是否存在被視為受歡迎的需求，研究人員會問他們是否認(rèn)同這類表態(tài)：“人們認(rèn)為我受歡迎是很重要的”以及“我做事只是為了取悅學(xué)校里的人。”

I'm Bruce Alpert.

布魯斯·阿爾伯特報道。