Ever wonder if that whiskery fellow walking his jowly Scottish terrier or that leggy, long-haired blonde jogging with her Afghan hound were just flukes? Science has stepped in to prove the conventional wisdom really does hold true: pooches do indeed resemble the people who own them, according to research presented this week at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton.

你有否覺得，那個長著山羊胡子的家伙遛著他那只皺皮疙瘩的蘇格蘭梗，或者那個長腿的金色長發美女跟她的阿富汗獵犬一起慢跑的時候，他們簡直就是一對？科學正在證明，常識確實是正確的：根據英國心理學會本周在布萊頓年會上發表的一項研究，狗狗們確實和他們的主人長得像。

To test the truism, researchers at Bath Spa University in the U.K. asked 70 people who didn't have dogs to match pictures of 41 canine keepers to one of three breeds of dogs: poodle, labrador or Staffordshire bull terrier. The guessers correctly matched dog breeds to owners 50 to 60 percent of the time, according to a report in the London Telegraph. (Random guesses would have only succeeded about a third of the time, noted the article.)

為了檢驗這個老說法，英國Bath Spa大學的研究者讓70個沒有養狗的人給41個養狗者的圖片與下列三個品種之一的狗配對：貴賓犬、拉布拉多犬和斯塔福斗牛梗。根據倫敦電訊報的一份報告，這些人以50%～60%的正確率配對了養狗者和他們的狗。（文章指出，隨機猜測只能達到每次三分之一的正確率。）

But do the similarities extend beyond looks? "Non dog owners considered the owners of each breed to share certain personality traits," study co-leader Lance Workman, who heads the Biopsychology Research Unit at Bath Spa University said in a statement. After assessing the owners' personalities, however, Workman and his colleagues didn't find strong correlations between the humans and preconceived notions about their pups. "So any shared qualities," said Workman, "are only skin deep."

但是，存在著除了外貌以外的相似處嗎？“沒有養狗人認為某種品種狗的主人有類似的人格特征，”研究領導者Lance Workman說，他是Bath Spa大學生物心理學研究中心的主任。在測量主人的人格之后，Workman和他的同事還是沒有發現人與他們狗之間任何預想特質之間的強相關。“所以說，任何共同的特質，”Workman說，“都只有一層皮那么厚。”

（來源：網絡 實習生許雅寧 英語點津Jennifer編輯）

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