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The Power Of Cute
It’s time to go again to the A Moment of Science mailbag. A listener writes:
Dear A Moment of Science,
I’ve heard that owning a dog or cat can be a good way to deal with stress and ward off depression. So I was wondering–is it interacting with actual pets that’s beneficial, or would just looking at pictures of cats and dogs work to curb stress?
Interesting Question
Actually owning a pet is different from merely looking at pictures of cute puppies and kittens, certainly. Stress relief has a lot to do with the companionship that real pets provide.
Watching Videos
But one study showed that watching videos of animals can help reduce stress. And according to the study by researchers in Japan, looking at pictures of cute animals does appear to help us focus and concentrate. The researchers divided around 130 students into two groups and assigned each a task.
One group played an Operation like game that involved removing small objects from a hole without touching the sides. A second group was tasked with finding a number in a random sequence.
The Study
Within each group, participants were shown pictures either of puppies and kittens or of grown cats and dogs. A subset of participants in one of the groups was also shown pictures of appealing foods. The participants that saw the puppies and kittens consistently performed better than the others.
As for why viewing these cute images resulted in improved performance, the study doesn’t say. It seems reasonable to speculate, though, that feelings of happiness or warmth elicited by cute pictures helps relieve stress, thereby enabling the brain to focus and concentrate with greater power.可爱的威力
又到阅读《科学一刻》栏目来信的时间了。其中一个听众来信说：
亲爱的《科学一刻》栏目组，
我听说养狗或养猫是对待压力和预防抑郁的好方法。所以我一直想知道，有益的是与真实的宠物互动吗？或是只是看看猫猫狗狗的图片就可以减少压力呢？
很有意思的一个问题
实际上，拥有宠物当然有别于只是看看可爱小狗或猫咪的图片。减压与真实宠物给我们的陪伴有很大关联。
观看视频
但是，一项研究显示观看动物视频可以帮助人们减压。而且根据日本学者的这项研究，看可爱动物的图片似乎可以帮助我们集中精神。研究者们将130名左右的学生分成两组，每组分配一项任务。
其中一组进行一种操作类的游戏，在不接触孔洞侧面的条件下将小物件从洞中移出。另一组则是要求在随机序列中找到一个数字。
这项研究
在每一组里，研究者给参与者展示小狗小猫或是成年猫狗的照片。而在其中一个实验组里的一小组参与者面前展示的是诱人食物的图片。结果是，看到小狗小猫图片的参与者们一致表现得优于其他人。
至于为何观看这些可爱的图像能够得到更好的表现，这项研究并没有给出原因。尽管如此，我们可以合理地猜测，由可爱的图片所激发的开心和温暖的感觉有助于舒缓压力，由此使得大脑以更高的效率集中精神。