With some regularity we hear about the latest beauty-pageant contestant who has responded to a softball of a question with an epic fail of a mistake, a bizarre opinion or an incoherent ramble. There's the Panamanian contestant who believed that Confucius invented the philosophy of 'Confusion, ' the Miss Hawaii who described the U.S. only in terms of the 'rocky shores' and 'sandy beaches' of Hawaii, and the Miss South Carolina Teen USA who explained that Americans don't know enough geography because too many people can't afford maps. 每隔一段时间,我们就会听到最近有某某选美大赛选手在回答简单问题时错得离谱、观点离奇或前言不搭后语地闲扯。有位巴拿马的选美选手认为“Confucius”(孔子)开创了“Confusion”(困惑)哲学,夏威夷小姐只用描述夏威夷的“‘多岩石的海岸”和“多沙的沙滩”之类的词汇来形容美国,而南卡罗来纳妙龄小姐则解释说美国人对地理了解不够是因为很多人买不起地图。 Ridiculous. But what's even more ridiculous is that our brains bias us toward believing such people -- just because they're good-looking. 真是可笑。但更荒唐的是,我们的大脑往往会偏向于相信这些人——只是因为她们长相好看。 The German poet Friedrich Schiller wrote, 'Physical beauty is the sign of an interior beauty, a spiritual and moral beauty.' His belief seems odd if you've ever seen a portrait of Schiller: His prominent schnozzola would have knocked him out of the 1788 edition of People Magazine's 'Sexiest Man Alive.' |