Why Showing Stress Can Make People More Likeable为什么表露紧张让人更讨喜

Like many people， public speaking once filled me with a sense of dread. As a writer I felt much more comfortable expressing myself on the page， rather than from centre stage.

与很多人一样，在公众面前演讲一度让我充满恐惧感。我是个作家，比起站在舞台中央，在纸上表达自己更轻松舒适。

Strangely， I found that the feelings of anxiety themselves were perfectly tolerable; instead， I was preoccupied with the ways that others would perceive my nervous energy. A slight wobble of the voice， the unconscious biting of my lip—I assumed that I’d be judged harshly for any non-verbal signal that betrayed my lack of confidence. I was experiencing anxiety about my anxiety—a double whammy of worry that made the whole task feel much more daunting.

奇怪的是，我发现焦虑感本身完全可以忍受；相反，我过于关注他人如何看待我的焦虑感。一丝声音的微微颤抖、一个不经意的咬唇——我想，如果这些非语言信号暴露出了我的信心不足，我将受到严厉的批评。我感受到了因自身焦虑而带来的焦虑，这种双重的焦虑让整个演讲任务变得更加艰难。

You might have noticed this yourself before a job interview or important work meeting in front of senior colleagues. And the more you try to suppress your feelings， the harder they bounce back.

在面临求职面试或参加职场前辈在场的重要工作会议时，你可能也有过这种体验。你越想抑制自己的焦虑，焦虑就越发强烈。

According to a striking new study， however， these concerns may be unwarranted. Jamie Whitehouse， a research fellow at Nottingham Trent University in the UK， has shown that visible signs of stress are often appealing， leaving others predisposed to like us and treat us warmly. If so， we need not try so hard to maintain a calm-and-collected poker face—safe in the knowledge that people will relate well to our emotional authenticity.

然而，根据一项引人注目的新研究，这些担心可能是不必要的。英国诺丁汉特伦特大学的研究员杰米·怀特豪斯解释道，明显的紧张表现常常很有吸引力，会让其他人倾向于喜爱我们并热情对待我们。果真如此的话，我们就不必那么努力地绷着一副扑克脸、摆出镇定自若的神情了——因为我们知道，人们会对我们的真情实感产生很好的共鸣。

Magnanimous monkeys

宽宏大量的猴子

Whitehouse’s interest in stress is rooted in evolutionary theory. Stress is typically accompanied by many internal physiological changes which help us to prepare the body for a challenge. A racing heart， for example， helps to deliver oxygen to the brain and body， which will mean we can react with greater speed.

怀特豪斯对压力的研究兴趣基于进化论。通常，压力的产生会伴随许多内部的生理变化，这些变化会帮助我们的身体应对挑战。例如，心跳加速有助于给大脑和身体输送氧气，进而会让我们的反应速度更快。

It is easy to see why these changes are adaptive. Yet many primates， when they are stressed， also reveal characteristic ‘displacement’ behaviours—such as nervous scratching of the skin—which don’t seem to serve any obvious purpose in handling the situation causing their discomfort. So why would they evolve？

显而易见，这些生理变化是适应性的。迄今为止，很多灵长类动物在感受到压力时也会表现出一些特有的“替代”行为——比如紧张地抓挠皮肤——这些行为似乎对处理那些引起不安的情况并没有任何明显的作用。那么它们为什么会进化出这样的行为呢？

One possibility is that these behaviours help smooth over social interactions within the group. Primate groups are often complex， with alliances between members and established hierarchies， and meeting a potentially hostile individual could be an important source of stress. The displacement behaviours may act as a subtle signal that shows this discomfort and reduces the risk of a needless confrontation. For the higher-ranking individual， it could be the cockier rivals who would most need taking down a peg or two， after all—not necessarily those who are already nervy.

一个可能的原因是，这些行为会帮助缓和种群内的社交互动。灵长类动物群通常很复杂，成员之间有各种同盟关系和既定等级，遇到一个潜在的敌意个体可能是一个重要的压力源。替代行为或许会释放微妙信号来展示不安，进而减少不必要的冲突。对于种群中地位较高的个体而言，毕竟最需要摆平的是那些趾高气扬的对手，而不一定是那些已经很紧张的家伙。

In the spotlight

聚光灯下

Inspired by this finding， Whitehouse decided to test whether humans’ displays of stress might also alter individuals’ responses to us—perhaps through an empathic response.

受到这一研究发现的启发，怀特豪斯决定去测试人类展示压力的举动是否会改变他人对我们的反应——或许是通过共情反应改变的。

In addition to the skin scratching seen in other primates， humans have many subtle behaviours associated with anxiety， including touching our face and hair， twisting the mouth， licking lips and biting nails—all of which might signal our sense of vulnerability and evoke a warmer reaction in others.

除了其他灵长类动物抓挠皮肤的行为，人类还有许多微妙举止与焦虑有关，包括摸脸弄发、歪嘴、舔嘴唇和咬指甲——所有这些信号都可能表现出我们的脆弱感，并在其他人那里引起更温情的反应。

To find out if this was true， Whitehouse’s team first asked 23 participants to undergo the “Trier Social Stress Test”—an anxiety-inducing routine in which the participants must undergo a fake job interview， with a three-minute speech about why they are the ideal candidate and an on-the-spot mental arithmetic test.

为了验证这一说法是否正确，怀特豪斯团队首先对23名参与者进行了“特里尔社会压力测试”——一项诱发焦虑的测试，有固定流程：参与者须参加一场假的求职面试，做3分钟演讲陈述为何自己是最理想的应聘者，此外还有一场现场心算测验。

A further 133 participants were then asked to rate videos of the fake interviews—with questions about how stressed the person appeared to be， and how much they liked the person they saw. Psychologists， meanwhile， counted how many times the participants showed non-verbal signs of stress.

接着，另外133名参与者被要求对这场假面试的视频进行评分——评分的问题包括“面试者看起来压力有多大”和“对于该面试者的喜爱程度”。同时，心理学家统计了视频中参与者表现出非语言压力迹象的次数。

As he had expected， the people rating the videos were able to predict how stressed the interviewees felt， and this seemed to come from those characteristic non-verbal signals. Most importantly， those perceptions then influenced the raters’ judgements of the interviewees’ likeability—for the better. The more the interviewees showed signs of stress， the more appealing they were to the people watching their videos.