Tis the season to be jolly – but not if you receive a Christmas present that, with the best will in the world, you don’t really like.
这是个快乐的节日——除非你无论如何都不喜欢自己收到的圣诞礼物。
It’s also not much fun giving someone a present and suspecting that they’re not overly keen on it.
送出礼物后担心别人不喜欢,也是一件令人头疼的事。
But just how do you tell if someone genuinely likes their gift, or is masking disappointment?
那么,你要如何知道别人是真心实意地喜欢礼物,还是虚情假意地掩饰失望呢?
MailOnline met Dr Simon Moore, a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society, to discover the verbal and physical signs that reveal what people really think of their present.
《每日邮报》网站(Mail Online)采访了英国心理学会(British Psychological Society)的特许心理学家西蒙·摩尔(Simon Moore)博士,他发现一些语言和肢体信号,可以暴露出人们对于礼物的真实想法。
A survey by eBay revealed that 59% of people are steeling themselves to feign delight if they unwrap presents they don’t want this today .The good news for those worried about their acting skills, said Dr Moore, is that spotting fake happiness is quite hard, with the detection rate for the average person being around 40 to 50 per cent.
据eBay的一项调查显示,有59%的人在拆开自己不喜欢的礼物时会假装高兴。摩尔博士说:“有一个好消息要告诉那些担心自己演技的人,假装高兴是很难被别人发觉的,一般人被看穿的机率约为40%-50%。
A select few, he says, will be able to correctly see through around seven or eight out of 10 attempts to fake joy.
他说,只有少数人能有七、八成的把握看穿别人是在假装高兴。
The trick to up your detection rate, said Dr Moore, is never to look for one or two signals, but a cluster of them.
摩尔博士表示,要识破一个人是否在假装开心,永远不要只看一个或两个信号,而是要从几个方面结合起来观察。
And here are the major clues:
下面就是一些主要线索:
THE FACE FREEZES
面部僵硬
The first signs of feigning delight occur as the present is pulled out of the box, according to Dr Moore – and it’s a momentary facial freeze as the receiver tries to work out how they’re going to pull the wool over the eyes of the giver.
摩尔博士说,第一个说谎的迹象是在拆开礼物的时候,收到礼物的人面部表情会短暂地僵硬,因为他们在思考着如何才能蒙蔽送礼者的眼睛。
Dr Moore said: ‘It’s the microseconds of you trying to find that template – if you want to be happy, it’s you trying to work out what you need to look like.
他说:“你有几微秒的时间发现此迹象,也只有几微秒的时间想好你如何去装模作样。”
‘If you’re good, you’ll pick up on those things. It’s very quick. It happens over a few hundredths of a second. The quick search you do when you need to project happiness. It’s like a car going into neutral, then all of a sudden you find the gear. You’ve got to find that gear. If you’re tuned into it, you’ll pick it up.’
“如果你能力很强,就能捕捉这些迹象。它在很短时间内发生,一般只有百分之几秒。当你试图假装高兴时也需要快速地完成。就像你开车时挂入空挡,然后突然间发现齿轮组转动。你一定要发现这种迹象,并且捕捉它。”