你屬於內向或外向 用檸檬來判斷(上)

Do you think you’re an extravert or anintrovert? To answer, you might immediately ponder how much you like going toparties and talking to strangers, or perhaps you’ve already got an answer givento you by one of those online quizzes that prompt such self-reflection. The trouble with these approaches of course is that they rely on honest insight and a heftydose of subjectivity. Maybe you quite like parties, for instance, but nowherenear as much your best friend –does that make you an extravert or not?

你認爲你是外向還是內向的人？要回答這個問題，你或許會馬上想到自己是否熱衷於去派對和與陌生人聊天，或者你已經從那些自我評估的在線心理測試中得到了答案。這些方法的問題在於它們依賴於誠實的自省和大量的主觀動因。也許你也很喜歡聚會，但是程度遠不及你的閨蜜，那麼你到底是不是外向型人格呢？

A completely different approach that getsround these problems involves using a lemon – more specifically, concentratedlemon juice. This is a test with a long history in personality psychology andit’s really easy to try out at home. You’ll need a cotton bud (or what’s calleda cotton swab or Q-tip in the US) with a short piece of thread tied exactly inthe middle of it. Now place one end of the cotton bud on your tongue for 20seconds. Next, put five drops of concentrated lemon juice onto your tongue,swallow, and then put the other end of the cotton bud onto your tongue for 20seconds. Finally, take the end of the cotton bud out of your mouth and hold thecotton bud dangling by the thread. The idea is to see whether it hangshorizontally, or whether the end that you used after the lemon juice hangslower because it is heavier.

使用檸檬，更具體的說是使用檸檬汁，來進行測試是一種完全不同的測試方法，或許可以繞過這些問題。這是一個具有悠久歷史的人格心理學測試，在家裏很容易嘗試。你需要一個棉籤（棉花棒），中間系一根短線。現在把棉籤的一段放在舌頭上保持20秒，下一步，滴5滴濃縮檸檬汁在你的舌頭上，做吞嚥動作，然後把棉籤的另一端放在你的舌頭上保持20秒。最後，把棉籤從嘴裏拿出來，用線拎起來並看棉籤是否能夠保持水平，或者在吞嚥檸檬汁之後放入的一端由於重量加重而更低一些。

If your reaction to the lemon juice madeone end heavier this suggests that the juice caused you to salivate more thannormal, which is a sign that – at a physiological level – you are an the cotton bud is horizontal, this suggests you didn’t react much to thelemon juice and that you are probably an extravert.

如果測試結果顯示其中一端更重，那麼這意味着檸檬汁使你分泌了更多的唾液，從生理學上，這樣的現象可以解讀爲你是內向型人格，如果棉籤保持水平，那麼這說明你對檸檬汁反應不強烈，你可能是個外向的人。

How come? This is a version of a testdescribed way back in the 1960s by one of the pioneers of personalitypsychology, Hans Eysenck, and his wife and fellow personality researcher SybilEysenck. In the original experiment, they used sensitive weighing equipment tomeasure how much saliva was absorbed into a cotton bud before and after people wereexposed to the juice. (The simplified DIY version described here comes from thecontemporary personality expert Brian Little in his 2014 book Me, Myself andUs.)

原因呢？這個測試早在上世紀60年代由人格心理學先驅，漢斯·艾森克（Hans Eysenck），和他的妻子，同爲人格學研究員的西比爾·艾森克（Sybil Eysenck）共同發明。在最初的實驗中，他們使用了精密的稱重裝置來測量人們接觸到果汁前後，吸收到棉籤裏的唾液量。（這裏描述的簡化DIY版本來自當代人格專家布瑞恩·力拓（Brian Little）2014一書《我，我自己和我們》（Me, Myself and Us）。

The Eysencks wanted to test Hans Eysenck’sown “cortical arousal” theory of extraversion and introversion. He proposedthat this aspect of personality has a physiological basis and that introvertshave higher baseline cortical arousal, which makes them react more strongly tostimulation; essentially, they feel things more intensely, perhaps causing themto shy away from certain situations. The Eysencks claimed that the lemon testsupported the theory because people who score higher on questionnaire measuresof introversion tend to salivate more in response to lemon juice.

艾森剋夫婦當時在測試漢斯艾森克獨創的有關外向性與內向性的“大腦皮層興奮”理論。他提出人格學的這個方面可以從生理學上找到原因，內向的人有更高的大腦皮質興奮的水準，使他們對感官刺激反應更爲強烈；從本質上講，內向型人感情強烈，會主動遠離某些情況。艾森剋夫婦聲稱檸檬測試支持了他們的理論，因爲在內向型性格測試問卷中，那些得高分的人往往會在檸檬測試中分泌更多的唾液。