If you feel a pang of guilty pleasure when you read celebrity tittle-tattle, don’t be too hard on yourself.

　　如果你每次看到明星小道消息都会感到一阵自责，不必如此为难自己。

　　Hearing juicy gossip about famous people apparently fires up the brain’s pleasure centre in the same way as eating the finest food or even winning the lottery.

　　听到关于明星的劲爆八卦消息会明显刺激人大脑中的愉快中枢，其效果就想吃到最美味的食物或者中了彩票一样。

　　And it’s not good news that gives us the biggest buzz. Tales about stars’ troubles are what we crave, with affairs, drink-driving and other misdemeanours stirring up feel-good chemicals in the brain.

　　最让我们感到兴奋的不是好消息，我们渴求的是关于明星的各种囧事，绯闻、醉驾等各种不断行为都会刺激我们大脑中产生愉悦感的化学成分。

　　Most of us would never admit that we enjoy such tales but brain scans carried out during a study show that deep down, we find them highly amusing.

　　大多数人绝不会主动承认我们喜欢那些负面故事，可是通过扫描大脑进行相关研究，结果证实，我们对负面故事有着很浓厚的兴趣。

　　Researchers scanned the brains of a group of students while a person read out snippets of gossip about them, their best friends and a host of movie stars. Some of the gossip was designed to put the person in a bad light, such as having an affair or walking out on their family.

　　研究者们对一组学生进行了脑部扫描，同时让人把一些八卦新闻念给他们听，其中有关于他们密友的，也有关于若干电影明星的。部分消息是可以从负面角度设计的，例如报道当事人的婚外恋请或者抛弃家庭等等。

　　They may have been the victim of bad luck, such as being in a hit and run accident. Other gossip included heartwarming tales of caring for the sick and helping parents track down missing children.

　　还有一些新闻是关于当事人罹受不幸的，例如深陷肇事逃逸的案件之中；另一类新闻则是温暖人心的故事，例如当事人看护病人或者帮助失踪儿童的父母寻找孩子等等。

　　The volunteers were also asked how amusing they found each piece of information.

　　然后研究者向参与实验的学生提问，问他们觉得每条新闻是否有趣。

　　The most interesting results related to the negative stories about the celebrities. These stirred up dopamine and other feel-good chemicals in the brain’s ‘reward region’.

　　结果显示，最有趣的新闻是关于名人的负面报道，这些报道会刺激大脑中“奖励区域”释放多巴胺等产生愉悦感的化学物质。

　　The scans, carried out at Shenzhen University in China, revealed that the students were particularly tickled by tales of stars’ misfortune, with a celebrity scandal exciting the brain more than news of a friend in trouble.

　　这项深圳大学主持的研究项目表明，参与研究的学生们对明星的不幸事件尤为感兴趣，大脑对名人八卦的兴奋程度要高于比朋友患难消息的兴奋程度。

　　Adam Perkins, neurobiologist from King’s College, London, was fascinated by the findings. ‘Celebrities are particularly likely to be envied, and when they fall from grace we therefore are likely to feel particularly happy,’ he said.

　　伦敦大学国王学院的神经生物学家亚当·帕金斯对这项研究成果非常感兴趣。他说：“人们很容易对名人产生嫉妒心理，因此，当我们听说他们遇到囧事时很可能产生一种特殊的与快感。”