心理学家找到喜极而泣的原因

 　　这貌似是一个奇怪的反应：当你高兴的时候会流泪。不过，一些心理学家称，他们发现了其中的原因，喜极而泣很有可能是身体恢复“情感平衡”的方式。

　　这些心理学家称，通过消极情绪对势不可挡的积极情绪做出回应，人们能够从强烈的情绪中更好地恢复过来。

　　耶鲁大学的心理学家测试受试者对不同场景的情绪反应，包括欢聚和面对可爱孩子的场景。他们发现，用消极反应表达积极消息的人能够更快地缓和其强烈的情感，在孩子毕业典礼上最可能哭的人最可能想捏一个可爱的孩子的脸颊。

　　他们引用了人们用消极情绪回应积极经历的其他例子，包括乐迷在他们的偶像出现时惊恐地尖叫和彩票赢家喜极而泣。

　　心理学家还表示，有一些证据表明强烈的消极情感也可能引起积极的表情。例如，当人们紧张或者面对困难或可怕的境遇时，他们经常会大笑。

　　心理学家找到喜极而泣的原因

　　It may seem like a strange response: to break down in tears when you are happy.

　　But now a group of psychologists say they have found the reason why, and that crying tears of joy may well be the body’s way of restoring “emotional equilibrium¹”.

　　The psychologists say that, by responding to an overwhelmingly positive emotion with a negative one, people are able to recover better from strong emotions.

　　Oriana Aragon, the lead author of the report which will be published in the journal Psychological Science,said: “People may be restoring emotional equilibrium with these expressions.

　　“They seem to take place when people are overwhelmed with strong positive emotions, and people who do this seem to recover better from those strong emotions.”

　　The psychologists from Yale University examined subjects’ emotional responses to different scenarios², including happy reunions and “cute” babies.

　　They found individuals who expressed negative reactions to positive news were able to moderate their intense emotions more quickly.

　　They also found people who are most likely to cry at their child’s graduation are also most likely to want to pinch a cute baby’s cheeks.

　　They cited other examples of where people responded to a positive experience with a negative emotion, including concert goers screaming in horror at the presence of their idol³ and lottery⁴ winners breaking down in tears.

　　The report authors said: "To give an example, upon winning the lottery, one might appraise⁵ the event as an incredibly good thing; feel overwhelmed with happiness, smile and cry.

　　"One’s appraisal⁶ that winning is a good thing, intense happiness and verbal expression would easily be described as positive, yet there is also an expression of crying which normatively expresses sadness.

　　"This expression is not inherent to the situation, the appraisal, or the positive emotions. The negative expression might be merely a facial display, or it might reflect actual negative emotions."

　　Miss Aragon said: "I was surprised no one ever asked why that is."

　　Miss Aragon, a postdoctoral associate at Yale, said the research went some of the way to explaining a common response that most people did not understand.

　　“These insights advance our understanding of how people express and control their emotions, which is importantly related to mental and physical health, the quality of relationships with others, and even how well people work together,” she said.

　　The psychologists claimed that there was also some evidence that the reverse was also true and that strong negative feelings may provoke positive expressions.

　　For example, people often laugh when they are nervous or confronted with a difficult or frightening situations. They cite previous studies where psychologists found some subjects smiled at times of extreme sadness.

　　The study called Dimorphous Expressions of Positive Emotion: Displays of Both Care and Aggression⁷ in Response to Cute Stimuli⁸, will be published this month.

1 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

2 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

3 idol   

n.偶像，红人，宠儿

参考例句：

• As an only child he was the idol of his parents.作为独子，他是父母的宠儿。
• Blind worship of this idol must be ended.对这个偶像的盲目崇拜应该结束了。

4 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

5 appraise   

v.估价，评价，鉴定

参考例句：

• An expert came to appraise the value of my antiques.一位专家来对我的古玩作了估价。
• It is very high that people appraise to his thesis.人们对他的论文评价很高。

6 appraisal   

n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估

参考例句：

• What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
• We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。

7 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

8 stimuli   

n.刺激（物）

参考例句：

• It is necessary to curtail or alter normally coexisting stimuli.必需消除或改变正常时并存的刺激。
• My sweat glands also respond to emotional stimuli.我的汗腺对情绪刺激也能产生反应。