胖子眼中的世界：山更高路更遠

Eating too much doesn’t just make your waistline expand, it also makes distances seem bigger.
暴飲暴食不僅會導致腰圍暴漲，還會讓你覺得山高路遠。

Research shows that being overweight distorts perception.
研究表明，過度肥胖會影響感知功能。

As a result, fat people see distances as being further and slopes as being steeper.
因此，在胖子眼中，坡更陡，路更遠。

This could put them off exercising and so leave them trapped in a vicious circle, where the fatter they get, the less activity they want to do.
也難怪胖子們對鍛煉敬而遠之了。這就是個惡性循環，人越胖，便越不愿運動。

Researcher Jessica Witt said, of Colorado State University, said it is wrong to assume that we all perceive the world in the same way.
科羅拉多州立大學的研究員杰西卡·威特稱，不應盲目認為所有人感知到的世界都是相同的。

In one study, she asked 66 people of different shapes and sizes to estimate how far away a traffic cone was.
在一項研究中，她詢問身形體態各異的66人：他們距前方的路障有多遠。

The cone was actually 25m away.
正確答案是25米。

Those who were a slim nine stone saw it as being just 15m from them, but those who weighed in at 23 stone judged it to be 30m away - or twice as far.
身形纖瘦、體重9英石（約合57公斤）的采訪對象表示，他們離路障15米遠。而重達23英石（約合146公斤）的人則稱，他們離路障有30米遠——是前者數據的足足兩倍。

Dr Witt’s research, which involved hundreds of people overall, also showed that the overweight perceive slopes as being steeper.
威特博士在研究中共采訪了數百人，她還得出另一個結論：同一個斜坡，在胖子眼中更加陡峭。

She believes these calculations are done unconsciously and are the body’s way of saving it from the extra effort needed to exercise when overweight.
她認為，人腦會在無意識中判斷距離。由于胖子不愿運動，預估出較遠的距離便成了絕佳“借口”。

Importantly, they have no control over this.
重點是，整個判斷過程未受主觀控制。

So, far from being lazy when they baulk at the thought of exercise, the overweight are simply being seeing the world differently.
因此，胖子們或許并不是因為懶而不愿運動，而是因為世界在他們眼中的樣子的確不同于其他人。

And if they want to exercise away their flab they should start small.
如果他們想下定決心甩掉贅肉，則需要一步一步來。

She told the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual conference: ‘Someone trying to help a client with obesity become more active needs to understand the tasks they are asking their client to perform don’t look as easy to them.
威特在美國科學促進會年會上發言道：“在指導肥胖人士鍛煉時，教練需心中有數，一些看起來簡單的動作對胖子而言，并非易事。”

‘So the client is going to see these tasks as being daunting or even impossible.
“不少肥胖人士會認為，那根本是可怕的‘不可能任務’。”

‘And they might be considered to be lazy but maybe lots of us wouldn’t walk a distance that looked twice as far.’
“不少人會覺得，胖子們就是懶惰成性。但我們不妨捫心自問，讓自己多走一個來回，你會愿意嗎？”

The researcher said that alternatively, the obese could try wearing telescopic glasses, to change their perception.
威特稱，肥胖人士不妨嘗試佩戴遠視眼鏡，強化感知功能。

Dr Witt concluded: ‘We think that these perceptual biases can create a vicious cycle for people with obesity where they see the world as impossible to navigate.
她總結道：“我們認為，感知缺陷會導致肥胖人士陷入惡性循環，仿佛萬事萬物都離他們千里之遠。”

‘They will be less likely to choose to be active – and that’s going to continue this unhealthy lifestyle.’
“如此一來，肥胖人士就更不愿挪動腳步了，生活也變得越來越不健康。”

Vocabulary
traffic cone：錐形交通路標
flab：松弛的肌肉
telescopic：遠視的

英文來源：每日郵報
譯者：garywguo
審校&編輯：杜娟