Every year the entertainment magazine People publishes a list of who it considers the most beautiful people in the world.
每年娱乐杂志《人物》都会发布该杂志所认为的全球最美之人的名单。
How do the editors choose from the 7 billion people on Earth? What makes a person beautiful or ugly?
编辑们如何从地球上70亿人中选出名单呢？人们因为什么而美或丑？
In the case of People, there is one major factor that comes above all others. What selections will generate the most interest among readers? More readers mean more money for the magazine.
在《人物》杂志这个案例中，有一项主要因素凌驾了其它所有因素之上。这就是：什么样的选择会让读者最感兴趣？因为读者越多意味着杂志收入更多。
This year the magazine named Sandra Bullock the most beautiful person in the world. Many people would agree that she is good looking. However, those same people are likely to differ about how good looking Bullock is.
今年该杂志评选桑德拉·布洛克（Sandra Bullock）为全球最美之人。许多人都会认同她很漂亮。然而，同样是这些人可能会对布洛克如何之美有着不同看法。
But why do some people find Sandra Bullock gorgeous and others think she is just attractive?
但是为什么有些人觉得布洛克美丽动人，而有些人认为她只不过稍有魅力？
A new study suggests that what a person finds good-looking in another person is shaped by the observer's environment and experiences.
一项新的研究表明，人们在他人眼中的美丽是由观察者的环境和经历所塑造的。
Beauty, say experts, is very individual. While Bullock is undeniably good-looking, not everyone agrees to what extent.
专家表示，美丽是非常独特的。虽然布洛克无疑很美丽，但是并非所有人都对美丽的程度认可。
Laura Germine is a researcher in psychiatric genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She co-led the study, published in the journal Current Biology. Over 35,000 people took part by rating the faces of people in photographs posted on the website TestMyBrain.org.
劳拉·杰敏(Laura Germine)是马萨诸塞州总医院和哈佛医学院精神病遗传学方面的一位研究人员。她与人合作领导了这项研究，研究结果发表在《当代生物学》杂志上。超过3.5万人通过给发布在TestMyBrain.org网站上的人物面部照片打分参与了进来。
Ms. Germine said the research centered on the individual judgments of face attractiveness that differ from each other.
杰敏女士表示，这项研究主要集中于面部吸引力个人判断，这点存在个人差异。
"So I think most people agree, for example, that Brad Pitt is better looking than, say, [American presidential candidate] Donald Trump. But when it comes to Brad Pitt versus [actor] George Clooney versus [actor] Ryan Gosling, then reasonable people might disagree."
她说，“所以我认为多数人认同，例如布拉德·皮特（Brad Pitt）比[美国总统候选人]唐纳德·特朗普更帅。但是当谈到皮特与乔治·布鲁尼（George Clooney）以及瑞恩·高斯林（Ryan Gosling）对比时，理智者就不会认同。”
The scientists got a good idea of the uniqueness of individual face preferences from examining the choices made by the online group.
科学家通过对网友所做出的选择的研究，对个人面孔偏好的独特性有了充分了解。
Then the researchers turned to twins. They included 550 sets of identical twins and 214 pairs of same sex, non-identical twins. The two groups of twins rated faces for attractiveness.
然后研究人员转向了双胞胎。他们囊括了550对同卵双胞胎以及214对同性但非同卵双胞胎。这两组双胞胎根据吸引力对面部打分。
Identical twins share 100 percent of their genetic material. Non-identical twins do not. So, the scientists expected that the identical twins would share an identical face preference. The scientists also thought the fraternal twins' preferences would be more diverse like the general population.
同卵双胞胎的遗传物质完全相同，非同卵双胞胎则不是这样。因此，科学家预计，同卵双胞胎会具有相同的面孔偏好。科学家还认为，异卵双胞胎的偏好会像普通人群一样更加多样化。
In fact, the preference for beautiful — or dislike of average — faces agreed only about 50 percent of the time. The findings suggest that environmental experiences have as much influence on people's idea of beauty as genetics.
实际上，对美丽的偏好只有大约50%的时候是相同的。该研究结果表明，环境方面的经历对人们审美的影响等同于遗传学方面的影响。
"So it could be that if a person has a relationship, a romantic or friend relationship, with someone they are very close to and they think of very positively, the characteristics of that person's face will then seem more attractive to them even on other people."
杰敏说，“因此，可能一个人与自己非常亲近的某个人具有浪漫关系或朋友关系，那个人的面部特征就会比其他人看上去更具吸引力。”
In other words, beauty appears very much to be in the eye of the beholder.
换句话说就是情人眼里出西施。
I'm Caty Weaver.
我是卡蒂·韦弗。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)