「科研圈」報導·ID keyanquan·
翻譯 阿金
研究發現，保守秘密能讓你感到身負重擔。
你能保密嗎？當提到秘密時，我們總是將其視作有形的真實物體，而一項研究指出，聽說了一個秘密之後，我們會覺得自己身負重擔。
研究人員請自願者描述了一個秘密：或者是重大嚴肅的秘密，比如出軌不忠或者性取向情況；或者是無關緊要的秘密。然後，給他們看一座挺直向上的山峰照片，讓他們評估山的陡峭程度。與寫下普通秘密的人相比，寫下重大秘密的自願者認為山勢更加陡峭。研究發表在《實驗心理學》（Experimental Psychology）雜誌上。
早先的研究則表明，相比不負重的人，身負重物的人也會認為山勢更加陡峭。
在另一項調查中，研究人員發現，判斷同一目標物的距離時，回想重大秘密的受試者要比回想不重要秘密的人認為目標物距離自己更遠。
嗯，所以，也許洩露秘密會讓你如釋重負，但我們最好再等等其他研究，了解一下失去一個信任你的朋友會讓你感到多焦慮。
Keeping Secrets Weighs You Down, Literally
Can you keep a secret? We refer to keeping secrets as if they are material things. And a new study suggests that when we know a secret, we perceive ourselves as being physically burdened.
Researchers recruited participants to write a description of either a serious secret, like a story ofinfidelity or sexual orientation, or a more trivial secret. Then they looked at a hill straight on and were asked to rate the hill’s steepness. Those subjects who wrote about an important secret perceived the hills as steeper than those who wrote about trivial secrets. The research is in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Earlier studies have shown that people who are physically weighted down also perceive hills as steeper than those who are not.
In a separate investigation, researchers found that subjects who recalled a significant secret also judged a target to be further off in the distance than those who remembered a less meaningful secret.
Hmm. So maybe divulging secrets will relieve you of a burden—then again, we better wait for a study on how stressful it is to lose every friend who confides in you.
—Christie Nicholson