来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2022年2月16日
Men and women are more physically attracted to the faces of people who have higher functioning immune systems that might protect them from diseases over their lifetimes.
男性和女性在生理上更容易被那些免疫系统功能更强的人的脸所吸引，这样的免疫系统可能会在他们一生中保护他们远离疾病。
“There’s nothing inherently special or beautiful about a face that we find attractive, so the theoretical rationale is that there must be something over the thousands of years of evolution that has been consistently rewarded in our mate choice, and that we find these specific traits attractive,” says Summer Mengelkoch at Texas Christian University. “Perhaps it’s a cue to people’s genetic qualities, including their immune function and the capacity to pass on that good immune function down to their children.”
“我们认为有吸引力的面孔本身并没有什么特别或美丽之处，所以理论依据是，在数千年的进化过程中，一定有某种东西在我们的择偶过程中不断得到回报，我们认为这些特定的特征有吸引力。”德克萨斯基督教大学的门格尔科赫说。“也许这是人们基因质量的一个暗示，包括他们的免疫功能，以及将良好的免疫功能遗传给孩子的能力。”
Scientists had already determined that people are more attracted to the body odours of people of the opposite sex who have better health. However, studies that didn’t involve the detection of any bodily chemicals like smells have shown inconsistent links between attractiveness and health or immune function.
科学家已经确定，人们更容易被身体健康的异性的体味所吸引。然而，那些没有检测任何身体化学物质(如气味)的研究表明，吸引力与健康或免疫功能之间的联系并不一致。
To investigate further, Mengelkoch and her colleagues asked 159 men and women, averaging 20 years old, to pose for professional headshots in which they had neutral facial expressions and wore no make-up or jewellery. They asked these participants about their health, and tested their blood to check their immune functions.
为了进一步研究这个问题，门格尔科赫和她的同事让159名平均年龄为20岁的男性和女性拍了一张职业装大头照，要求面部表情平淡，不化妆也不戴首饰。他们询问这些参与者的健康状况，并测试他们的血液以检查他们的免疫功能。
Next, they recruited another 492 men and women, averaging 25 years old, to rate 25 randomly selected photos. Both heterosexual and homosexual participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of people of the opposite sex, and participants weren’t asked about their gender.
接下来，他们又招募了492名平均年龄为25岁的男性和女性，对从上个实验中随机挑选的25张照片进行评分。异性恋和同性恋参与者都被要求给异性的吸引力打分，参与者没有被问及他们的性别。
The team found that people with higher ratings of attractiveness also had higher rates of white blood cells that combat disease-causing bacteria such as Escherichia coli – a measure that was “pretty consistently related to facial attractiveness”, says Mengelkoch.
研究小组发现，魅力评级较高的人的白细胞比率也较高，白细胞可以对抗大肠杆菌等致病细菌——门格尔科赫说，这一指标“与面部吸引力有着非常一致的关系”。
In addition, women found men more attractive when they had higher-functioning natural killer (NK) cells, says Mengelkoch. The opposite, however, was true for men: men preferred women with lower levels of NK cells. These cells can help fight viruses and tumours, but research has also linked women’s NK cell activity with lower fertility and higher rates of miscarriage.
此外，门格尔科赫说，拥有高水平自然杀伤细胞(NK)的男性对女性更有吸引力。然而，男性的情况正好相反：男性更喜欢NK细胞水平较低的女性。NK细胞可以帮助对抗病毒和肿瘤，但研究也发现，女性的NK细胞活性与低生育率和高流产率有关。
Whether people are picking up on specific facial features, such as skin tone, or on an overall picture of the face to subconsciously evaluate immune function remains to be determined, says Mengelkoch.
门格尔科赫说，人们是通过特定的面部特征，如肤色，还是通过面部的整体形象，来下意识地评估免疫功能，这还有待确定。