There have been precious few positives during the Covid pandemic, but British academics may have unearthed one: People look more attractive in protective masks.

新冠疫情期间的正面新闻少之又少，然而英国学者们却给我们带来了一则积极的讯息，那就是戴口罩会让人看起来更有魅力。

Researchers at Cardiff University were surprised to find that both men and women were judged to look better with a face covering obscuring the lower half of their faces.
卡迪夫大学的研究人员惊讶地发现，在脸的下半部分被遮住时，男性和女性看上去都更有魅力了。

In what may be a blow for producers of fashionable coverings – and the environment – they also discovered that a face covered with a disposable-type surgical mask was likely to be deemed the most appealing.
研究人员还发现，戴一次性外科口罩的脸被认为最有吸引力，这也许对时尚口罩的生产商和环境都是一个打击。

The first part of the research was carried out in February 2021, by which time the British population had become used to wearing masks in some circumstances.
研究的第一部分是在2021年2月开展的，当时英国人已经习惯在某些情况下佩戴口罩。

Forty-three women were asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 the attractiveness of images of male faces without a mask, wearing a plain cloth mask, a blue medical face mask, and holding a plain black book covering the area a face mask would hide.
研究人员让43名女性分别给不戴口罩、戴棉布口罩、戴蓝色医用口罩或用黑色书盖住下半部分脸的男性颜值打分，最低1分，最高10分。

The participants said those wearing a cloth mask were significantly more attractive than the ones with no masks or whose faces were partly obscured by the book.
参与者表示，戴棉布口罩的人比不戴口罩或一部分脸被书遮住的人看起来有魅力得多。

But the surgical mask – which was just a normal, disposable kind – made the wearer look even better.
但是戴一次性普通外科口罩的人看起来最有魅力。