女生在一起久了 大姨妈真的会同步？
Do women's periods REALLY become synced when they spend lots of time together?
It's a belief touted in chick flicks and in university dorm rooms. But the idea that women's menstrual cycles become synchronised when they spend time together is a myth, one expert has claimed.
"女生在一起待久了,经期会同步"这个看法经常出现在年轻女性电影中和大学宿舍里.但有专家说这个看法是错误的.
Dr Alexandra Alvergne, associate professor in biocultural anthropology at the University of Oxford, says this theory is flawed, and women's periods overlapping is more likely down to chance than an evolutionary adaptation.
牛津大学生物文化人类学副教授亚历山德拉•埃尔沃格尼博士说这个理论是错误的,并且女性经期重叠现象更可能只是巧合而非进化过程中的适应性变化.
It is a popular belief that women who live together synchronise their menstrual cycles, and that it's mediated by their pheromones.
大多数人认为住在一起的女性经期会同步,并且这是由她们的信息素调节的.
These are the airborne molecules that enable members of the same species to communicate non-verbally.
信息素是由空气传播的分子,使得相同物种能够进行非言语交流.
The idea originated in a study published in the journal Nature in 1971, which looked at 135 American college students living in a dormitory and recorded data on when their periods began.
这种想法来自《自然》杂志在1971年发布的一项研究.研究观察了住在宿舍的135名美国大学生,并且记录了她们经期开始的时间.
The dorm had four corridors each with around 25 girls living in single and double rooms.
宿舍有四条走廊,各有约25名女生分别住在单人或双人宿舍.
Based on the analysis of around eight menstrual cycles per woman, the study reported an increase in synchronisation - that is, a decrease in the difference between the date their period began for room mates and among closest friends.
研究分析了每个女生的大约八个月经周期,随之发现同步率的升高.也就是说他们发现室友之间或者好朋友之间月经开始时间的差异越来越小.
But among random pairings in the dormitory, there was no decrease.
但是在那些随意配对的宿舍里,没有发现差异的减少.
The author hypothesised so-called synchronisation was driven by the amount of time that women spent together, as this would allow for pheromone communication.
于是作者就假设这所谓的同步与女性相处时间的长短有关.时间越长,越有利于信息素的传递.
Since then, so-called 'socially mediated synchrony' has been intensely studied in various groups of women, such as room mates, co-workers, lesbian couples and women from high fertility populations – and in a number of animal species, including rats, baboons and chimpanzees.
