挠头怎么就代表了思考呢？
If you've ever had the distinct pleasure of sourcing stock photos for any reason, you've likely come across a whole lot of laughing women eating salads alone. But you've also probably stumbled upon a truckload of people scratching their heads to symbolize confusion, deep thought and/or perhaps a bad case of seborrheic dermatitis — dandruff. Scalp dryness aside, how exactly did the head scratch come to symbolize intellectual processes?
如果你曾经有过翻阅老旧照片的乐趣，你可能会见到许多女人在一个人笑着在吃沙拉，但你也可能看到许多人在挠着头。挠头在我们眼中通常象征着困惑、深思或是头皮屑过多。抛开头皮屑过多不谈，我们来看看挠头到底是如何成为思考的象征。
Some people believe that certain automatic gestures are simply natural, expressive motions our caveman predecessors passed down to us. "One popular explanation for any hand-to-head movements is that they're frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our rock-throwing ancestors," wrote San Diego Reader columnist Matthew Alice. "If you watch a small child strike at something, he'll raise an arm over his head and bring it forward in an arc. It's a natural, unstudied movement. Not much finesse, but for a caveman it got the job done."
有些人认为这一手势仅仅是我们的穴居人前辈们传递给我们的自然且富有表现力的动作。《圣地亚哥读者》的专栏作家马修·艾丽丝写道：“对于这一动作而言，普遍被接受的解释是：这是我们从扔石头的穴居人祖先那里继承来的。如果你观察一个小孩敲击某个东西，他会举起一只胳膊放在头上，并以弧线把手向前推进。这是一种自然的、非习得的动作，但对穴居人来说，这就能够完成许多任务了”。
Alice also pointed to a possible anthropological explanation for head scratching: "When we're wrestling with some knotty problem, we experience feelings of frustration, perhaps some anger, and before we know it, our hand flies up in the air. But hold it. In these modern times, it's not polite to bash the guy who asked the question. So instead we deflect attention from the movement and scratch or rub our head or chin or neck." Interesting ... and kind of a dark interpretation of human behavior.
艾丽丝还指出了另一种可能，用人类学来解释挠头：“当我们面对一些棘手的问题时，我们会感到沮丧甚至有些愤怒，我们下意识地就想要攻击些什么。但在现代社会，抨击提出问题的人是不礼貌的。所以我们转移了注意力，开始抓挠或摩擦我们的头部、下巴或颈部”。这一解释听起来很有趣，是对人类行为的一种黑暗解释。
Recent research seems to back up this stress theory and add another unexpected layer to the story. In a 2017 study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists who observed 45 rhesus macaques found that scratching was more likely to occur in times of heightened stress (like standing in the presence of high-ranking or unfamiliar monkeys). It turns out monkeys who scratched were significantly less likely to be attacked by those threatening strangers.
最近的研究似乎支持了这种压力理论，并为这个理论增加了另一个意想不到的层面。2017年发表在《科学报告》杂志上的一项研究中，研究人员在观察45只恒河猴后发现，挠头的行为更有可能发生在个体高度紧张的时期(比如站在高级别或不熟悉的猴子面前)。而且研究结果表明，那些挠头的猴子受到陌生对象攻击的可能性要小得多。
"As scratching can be a sign of social stress, potential attackers might be avoiding attacking obviously stressed individuals because such individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their stress, meaning an attack could be either risky or unnecessary," lead author Jamie Whitehouse said in the study.
该研究的第一作者杰米·怀特豪斯表示：“挠头可能是社会压力的一个标志，潜在的攻击者可能会尽量避免攻击那些明显有压力的个体。因为这些人可能已经被压力削弱了，也可能会在压力的作用下做出一些不可预测的行为，这意味着攻击可能是有风险的也可能是不必要的”。
So while there's no single explanation for this head scratcher (ugh, you knew that was coming — sorry), it appears acting out your anxiousness with this stereotypical tic could keep you in the good graces of others.
所以，目前对挠头这个动作还没有十分明确且唯一的解释。不过你至少知道了用这种刻板的方式来表达你的焦虑可能会使你收获他人的好感。
如果你曾经有过翻阅老旧照片的乐趣，你可能会见到许多女人在一个人笑着在吃沙拉，但你也可能看到许多人在挠着头。挠头在我们眼中通常象征着困惑、深思或是头皮屑过多。抛开头皮屑过多不谈，我们来看看挠头到底是如何成为思考的象征。
Some people believe that certain automatic gestures are simply natural, expressive motions our caveman predecessors passed down to us. "One popular explanation for any hand-to-head movements is that they're frustrated aggression — a reversion to the natural movements of our rock-throwing ancestors," wrote San Diego Reader columnist Matthew Alice. "If you watch a small child strike at something, he'll raise an arm over his head and bring it forward in an arc. It's a natural, unstudied movement. Not much finesse, but for a caveman it got the job done."
有些人认为这一手势仅仅是我们的穴居人前辈们传递给我们的自然且富有表现力的动作。《圣地亚哥读者》的专栏作家马修·艾丽丝写道：“对于这一动作而言，普遍被接受的解释是：这是我们从扔石头的穴居人祖先那里继承来的。如果你观察一个小孩敲击某个东西，他会举起一只胳膊放在头上，并以弧线把手向前推进。这是一种自然的、非习得的动作，但对穴居人来说，这就能够完成许多任务了”。
Alice also pointed to a possible anthropological explanation for head scratching: "When we're wrestling with some knotty problem, we experience feelings of frustration, perhaps some anger, and before we know it, our hand flies up in the air. But hold it. In these modern times, it's not polite to bash the guy who asked the question. So instead we deflect attention from the movement and scratch or rub our head or chin or neck." Interesting ... and kind of a dark interpretation of human behavior.
艾丽丝还指出了另一种可能，用人类学来解释挠头：“当我们面对一些棘手的问题时，我们会感到沮丧甚至有些愤怒，我们下意识地就想要攻击些什么。但在现代社会，抨击提出问题的人是不礼貌的。所以我们转移了注意力，开始抓挠或摩擦我们的头部、下巴或颈部”。这一解释听起来很有趣，是对人类行为的一种黑暗解释。
Recent research seems to back up this stress theory and add another unexpected layer to the story. In a 2017 study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists who observed 45 rhesus macaques found that scratching was more likely to occur in times of heightened stress (like standing in the presence of high-ranking or unfamiliar monkeys). It turns out monkeys who scratched were significantly less likely to be attacked by those threatening strangers.
最近的研究似乎支持了这种压力理论，并为这个理论增加了另一个意想不到的层面。2017年发表在《科学报告》杂志上的一项研究中，研究人员在观察45只恒河猴后发现，挠头的行为更有可能发生在个体高度紧张的时期(比如站在高级别或不熟悉的猴子面前)。而且研究结果表明，那些挠头的猴子受到陌生对象攻击的可能性要小得多。
"As scratching can be a sign of social stress, potential attackers might be avoiding attacking obviously stressed individuals because such individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their stress, meaning an attack could be either risky or unnecessary," lead author Jamie Whitehouse said in the study.
该研究的第一作者杰米·怀特豪斯表示：“挠头可能是社会压力的一个标志，潜在的攻击者可能会尽量避免攻击那些明显有压力的个体。因为这些人可能已经被压力削弱了，也可能会在压力的作用下做出一些不可预测的行为，这意味着攻击可能是有风险的也可能是不必要的”。
So while there's no single explanation for this head scratcher (ugh, you knew that was coming — sorry), it appears acting out your anxiousness with this stereotypical tic could keep you in the good graces of others.
所以，目前对挠头这个动作还没有十分明确且唯一的解释。不过你至少知道了用这种刻板的方式来表达你的焦虑可能会使你收获他人的好感。
