Just watching another person shiver can cause our own temperature to drop, scientists have found.

科学家发现，看着别人发抖，我们自己的体温也会下降。

Volunteers who viewed videos of actors plunging their hands into ice-cold water, experienced a simultaneous drop in the temperature of their own hands.

当视频中的演员将手放入冰冷的水中时，观看视频的志愿者们自己的手部温度也会同时下降。

Neuroscientist Neil Harrison, from the University of Sussex said: ‘We believe that this mimicry of people’s bodily response helps us understand how they are feeling.

苏塞克斯大学（The University of Sussex）的神经系统科学家尼尔·哈里森（Neil Harrison）说，“我们认为这种人体反应的模拟行为可以帮助我们理解他人的感受。

‘Humans are profoundly social creatures and much of humans’ success results from our ability to work together in complex communities – this would be hard to do if we were not able to rapidly empathise with each other and predict one another’s thoughts, feelings and motivations.’

“人类是极度社会化的生物，我们所获得的很多成功都来源于在复杂社会中的相互合作，如果无法快速理解他人的感受或是预测他人的想法、感受和动机，我们将难以合作。”

It’s believed that ‘mirror neurons’ in the brain are behind the phenomenon.

科学家认为，这种现象的背后是大脑中的“镜像神经元”在起作用。

Dr Harrison explained: ‘Mirror neurons found in very specific parts of the brain are known to fire when we perform an action or observe a similar action in others – it has been proposed that more general mirror properties may also exist across many other brain areas.'

哈里森博士解释道，“仅在大脑特定部分存在的镜像神经元在我们完成一个动作或是观察到他人做出相似动作时会发挥作用，有人提出，大脑其他区域可能存在更多的镜像特质。”

And the more naturally empathetic the person, the more likely they are to mimic another person’s responses, he added.

他补充道，“一个人越容易与他人产生同感，就越有可能模仿他人的反应。”