Most millennials hate the thought of leaving a voicemail, especially when it's to a love interest. Now, scientists say they have good reason.
大多數千禧一代不喜歡語音留言，尤其不喜歡給喜歡的人發語音。現在，科學家說這的確有些道理。

A new study has found Facebook messages and emails are more likely to get you a date than a simple phone call. This contradicts previous research that claims email and text messages can lack emotion.
一項新的研究表明，與一個普通電話相比，在Facebook發信息或發郵件更可能給你帶來一場約會。這種觀點與之前一項研究結果相悖，該研究認為郵件和短信缺少人情味。

'The bottom line is that email is much better when you want to convey some information that you want someone to think about,' said one of the authors, Alan Dennis from Indiana University. Dennis and co-author Taylor Wells, an assistant professor at California State University-Sacramento, wanted to learn more about how we respond emotionally to emails.
印第安納大學（Indiana University）的艾倫?丹尼斯（Alan Dennis）是該研究的一位作者。他說，“最重要的是，當你想表達一些希望引起別人思考的信息時，發郵件會更適合。”另一位作者是來自加州州立大學-薩克拉門托分校（California State University-Sacramento）的助理教授泰勒?韋爾斯（Taylor Wells），他和丹尼斯想深入了解人們對于郵件情緒上的反應。

In a study of 72 teenagers, scientists found that people who sent romantic emails were more emotionally aroused and used stronger and more thoughtful language than those who left voicemails.
在一項針對72個青少年的研究中，科學家發現，與語音留言的人相比，發送浪漫郵件的人會投入更多感情，使用更加強烈、意味深長的語言。

The research was conducted by placing skin sensors on the subjects' faces to measure muscle movement associated with positive and negative emotion, and on their feet to measure arousal. Subjects were randomly chosen to do voicemail or email and to either produce a practical or a romantic message.
研究通過在研究對象的臉上放置皮膚傳感器檢測其對于積極、消極情感的肌肉反應，在腳上放置皮膚傳感器測量其興奮度。該研究隨機挑選研究對象，讓他們發送實用或是浪漫的語音信息或郵件。

'When writing romantic emails, senders consciously or subconsciously added more positive content to their messages, perhaps to compensate for the medium's inability to convey vocal tone,' Dennis and Wells wrote in the paper. 'Email enables senders to modify the content as messages are composed to ensure they are crafted to the needs of the situation. Voicemail lacks this feature,' they added. 'A sender records a voicemail in a single take, and it can be sent or discarded and re-recorded, but not edited. [This means] senders engage with email messages longer and may think about the task more deeply than when leaving voicemails. This extra processing may increase arousal.'
兩位作者在研究報告中寫道，“寫浪漫郵件時，發件人有意識或下意識地在信息里添加積極的內容，或許是彌補無法傳遞聲音的不足。”他們補充道，“發郵件時可以修改內容，保證內容符合情境。而語音信息做不到這一點，發語音時，一次只能一口氣說完，語音內容只能發送、舍棄或是重錄，無法修改。這也意味著發郵件時投入的精力更多，相較于發語音，他們會思考得深入，這種額外的加工處理或許增加情感。”

The use of email induced more arousing psychophysiological responses than voicemail, regardless of whether the message was practical or romantic. The study found the results held true for both men and women.
無論是實用信息還是浪漫信息，發郵件都比發語音信息更能引起生理和心理上的反應。研究結果對男女同樣適用。

The findings run counter to something known as 'media naturalness theory', a commonly held evolutionary standard suggesting that the further we get away from face-to-face communications, the less natural and less effective it becomes.
這些發現與所謂的“媒介自然性理論”相悖。“媒介自然性理論”是一種通常認可的發展標準，該標準認為與人交流時隔得距離越遠，交流越不自然且越低效。

The researchers, however, did not see much use of emoticons and emojis in their emails. Rather, they found that when writing emails, subjects took more time to choose their words carefully to make sure the language conveyed the full meaning.
但是，研究者發現郵件中并沒有使用太多情感符號與表情文字。他們發現實驗對象會花更多時間斟酌用詞，確保言盡其意。

Dennis warns people against misinterpreting these findings to suggest that face-to-face meetings, personal phone calls and other direct forms of communications aren't as useful.
丹尼斯告誡人們不要理解錯誤研究發現，并不是說面對面的交流，打電話等直接溝通方式沒有用。

'If something isn't really clear and you want to make sure that everyone has the same understanding of what something means, that's best done in phone calls, face-to-face meetings or video conferencing,' Dennis said.
丹尼斯說，“如果有些事不清楚，而你希望確保大家都理解你想表達的意思，最好還是打電話、面對面交流，或是視頻通話。”

The study has been accepted for publication in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.
這項研究已經獲準在期刊《計算機與人類行為》（Computers in Human Behavior）發表。

Vocabulary
arousal: 興奮
emoticon: 情感符

英文來源：每日郵報
譯者：there0900
審校&編輯：許晶晶