If you feel a pang of guilty pleasure when you read celebrity tittle-tattle, don’t be too hard on yourself。

如果你每次看到明星小道消息都會(huì)感到一陣自責(zé)，不必如此為難自己。

Hearing juicy gossip about famous people apparently fires up the brain’s pleasure centre in the same way as eating the finest food or even winning the lottery。

聽(tīng)到關(guān)于明星的勁爆八卦消息會(huì)明顯刺激人大[微博]腦中的愉快中樞，其效果就想吃到最美味的食物或者中了彩票一樣。

And it’s not good news that gives us the biggest buzz. Tales about stars’ troubles are what we crave, with affairs, drink-driving and other misdemeanours stirring up feel-good chemicals in the brain。

最讓我們感到興奮的不是好消息，我們渴求的是關(guān)于明星的各種囧事，緋聞、醉駕等各種不斷行為都會(huì)刺激我們大腦中產(chǎn)生愉悅感的化學(xué)成分。

Most of us would never admit that we enjoy such tales but brain scans carried out during a study show that deep down, we find them highly amusing。

大多數(shù)人絕不會(huì)主動(dòng)承認(rèn)我們喜歡那些負(fù)面故事，可是通過(guò)掃描大腦進(jìn)行相關(guān)研究，結(jié)果證實(shí)，我們對(duì)負(fù)面故事有著很濃厚的興趣。

Researchers scanned the brains of a group of students while a person read out snippets of gossip about them, their best friends and a host of movie stars. Some of the gossip was designed to put the person in a bad light, such as having an affair or walking out on their family。

研究者們對(duì)一組學(xué)生進(jìn)行了腦部掃描，同時(shí)讓人把一些八卦新聞念給他們聽(tīng)，其中有關(guān)于他們密友的，也有關(guān)于若干電影明星的。部分消息是可以從負(fù)面角度設(shè)計(jì)的，例如報(bào)道當(dāng)事人的婚外戀請(qǐng)或者拋棄家庭等等。

They may have been the victim of bad luck, such as being in a hit and run accident. Other gossip included heartwarming tales of caring for the sick and helping parents track down missing children。

還有一些新聞是關(guān)于當(dāng)事人罹受不幸的，例如深陷肇事逃逸的案件之中;另一類(lèi)新聞則是溫暖人心的故事，例如當(dāng)事人看護(hù)病人或者幫助失蹤兒童的父母尋找孩子等等。

The volunteers were also asked how amusing they found each piece of information。

然后研究者向參與實(shí)驗(yàn)的學(xué)生提問(wèn)，問(wèn)他們覺(jué)得每條新聞是否有趣。

The most interesting results related to the negative stories about the celebrities. These stirred up dopamine and other feel-good chemicals in the brain’s ‘reward region’。

結(jié)果顯示，最有趣的新聞是關(guān)于名人的負(fù)面報(bào)道，這些報(bào)道會(huì)刺激大腦中“獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)區(qū)域”釋放多巴胺等產(chǎn)生愉悅感的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。

The scans, carried out at Shenzhen University in China, revealed that the students were particularly tickled by tales of stars’ misfortune, with a celebrity scandal exciting the brain more than news of a friend in trouble。

這項(xiàng)深圳大學(xué)主持的研究項(xiàng)目表明，參與研究的學(xué)生們對(duì)明星的不幸事件尤為感興趣，大腦對(duì)名人八卦的興奮程度要高于比朋友患難消息的興奮程度。

Adam Perkins, neurobiologist from King’s College, London, was fascinated by the findings. ‘Celebrities are particularly likely to be envied, and when they fall from grace we therefore are likely to feel particularly happy,’ he said。

倫敦大學(xué)國(guó)王學(xué)院的神經(jīng)生物學(xué)家亞當(dāng)·帕金斯對(duì)這項(xiàng)研究成果非常感興趣。他說(shuō)：“人們很容易對(duì)名人產(chǎn)生嫉妒心理，因此，當(dāng)我們聽(tīng)說(shuō)他們遇到囧事時(shí)很可能產(chǎn)生一種特殊的與快感。”