If you want to impress a date, win over a large group of people or charm a colleague, don't worry about saying something smart, just say something quickly.
如果你想在約會(huì)中給對(duì)方留下完美的印象或者在眾人中脫穎而出，魅力十足，不用擔(dān)心自己表現(xiàn)的不夠聰明， 只要反應(yīng)快就足夠了。

Psychologists from Australia have found that people who are quicker at answering general knowledge questions come across as more charismatic.
澳大利亞的心理學(xué)家研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在普通的知識(shí)問(wèn)答中反應(yīng)較快的人看上去更有魅力。

Other factors, such as IQ and emotional intelligence, are not as important as the ability to think and respond swiftly.
其他因素，如智商、情商也沒(méi)有快速思考，敏捷作答的能力重要。

The researchers set out to unveil the psychological bases of charisma, and whether this quality depends on specific traits.
研究人員想要揭開(kāi)這種神奇魅力的神秘面紗，探究其背后的心理基礎(chǔ)，研究這種特質(zhì)是否需要某些具體品質(zhì)做支撐。

One thing they noticed was that celebrities and other public figures deemed very charismatic were all typically sharp-witted.
他們發(fā)現(xiàn)很多名人和公眾人物都頗具魅力的一個(gè)典型的共同特征就是反應(yīng)敏捷。

In order to test how mental speed contributes to charisma, they carried out a study involving 417 subjects. All the subjects underwent personality and intelligence tests.
為了測(cè)驗(yàn)反應(yīng)速度與這種魅力的關(guān)系，研究人員進(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)涉及417個(gè)主題的研究。所有主題都包含人格測(cè)驗(yàn)和智力測(cè)驗(yàn)。

The researchers asked the participants' friends to rate how 'charismatic,' 'funny,' and 'quick-witted' they were.
研究人員請(qǐng)參與者的朋友們來(lái)對(duì)他們的 “魅力”、“有趣” 及 “反應(yīng)敏捷” 程度做出評(píng)價(jià)。

All of the subjects were then quizzed with 30 simple general knowledge questions, such as 'Name a precious gem', which they had to answer as quickly as they could.
所有研究主題都會(huì)包含一次30題的普通知識(shí)問(wèn)答小測(cè)，會(huì)問(wèn)諸如 “說(shuō)出一種珍稀寶石的名字” 的問(wèn)題， 參與測(cè)驗(yàn)者必須盡快作答。

The subjects also completed another mental speed test based on visual tasks, including spotting a dot on a screen as quickly as possible.
每個(gè)研究主題還會(huì)完成一項(xiàng)反應(yīng)速度測(cè)試，這是一項(xiàng)視覺(jué)任務(wù)，測(cè)驗(yàn)者需要以最快速度定位到屏幕上的點(diǎn)。

By cross-referencing the tests' results with the friends' answers, the team found that people who were faster in the mental speed tasks were also rated as more charismatic by their peers.
通過(guò)交叉對(duì)比測(cè)驗(yàn)結(jié)果，并結(jié)合參與者朋友們的評(píng)價(jià)，研究團(tuán)隊(duì)發(fā)現(xiàn)反應(yīng)速度越快的人，在朋友們眼中越有魅力。

Intelligence and personality turned out to play a smaller role than sheer speed.
與反應(yīng)速度相比，智力和人格對(duì)個(gè)人魅力的影響并沒(méi)有那么大。

Also, against the researchers' predictions, mental speed was not associated with social skills such as conflict management or understanding other people's feelings.
同樣，與研究人員預(yù)測(cè)的相反， 反應(yīng)速度與社會(huì)技能無(wú)關(guān)，如矛盾處理能力和善解人意能力和反應(yīng)速度并無(wú)關(guān)系。

'Although we expected mental speed to predict charisma, we thought it would be less important than IQ,' researcher William von Hippel said.
“盡管我們預(yù)料到反應(yīng)速度與個(gè)人魅力有關(guān)系， 但我們沒(méi)想到反應(yīng)速度竟然比智力起的作用還要大?！?研究員威廉·馮希佩爾說(shuō)。

'Instead, we found that how smart people were was less important than how quick they were. “相反，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)反應(yīng)快比聰明更重要。因此在短時(shí)間內(nèi)能考慮到廣泛的社會(huì)反響比答對(duì)一個(gè)很難的問(wèn)題更重要?！?/p>

In their study, published in Psychological Science, the researchers also hypothesised that people who think more quickly could be better at masking a fudged reply by ad-libbing humorous associations.
這項(xiàng)研究被刊登在《心理科學(xué)》雜志上。 研究人員還假設(shè)能夠快速思考的人或許也善于用即興幽默的方式掩蓋不實(shí)的回答。

'Our findings show that social intelligence is more than just knowing the right thing to do,' von Hippel added.
“我們的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)表明社交智力并不是只需要知道正確的事情。 ” 威廉·馮希佩爾補(bǔ)充說(shuō)。

'Social intelligence also requires an ability to execute, and the quickness of our mind is an important component of that ability.'
“社交智力同樣需要執(zhí)行力，而反應(yīng)速度快正是這種能力所需的關(guān)鍵一環(huán)?！?/p>

Vocabulary

hypothesise: 假設(shè)
fudge: 捏造
ad-lib: 隨口說(shuō)出（俏皮話）；即興創(chuàng)作

英文來(lái)源：每日郵報(bào)
譯者：劉麗麗
審校&編輯：丹妮