研究:做好事,实际上可以减少身体上的痛苦

Be nice — for your own sake.

对人好一点——为了你自己。

A new study has found that doing a good deed not only helps the recipient, but brings the giver physical pleasure and pain relief.

一项新的研究发现，做好事不仅能帮助接受者，还能给施予者带来身体上的愉悦和痛苦的缓解。

“Acting altruistically relieved not only acutely induced physical pain among healthy adults but also chronic pain among cancer patients,” concluded the China-based authors in the study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

这项研究的中国作者总结道:“利他行为不仅可以缓解健康成年人的剧烈生理疼痛，也可以缓解癌症患者的慢性疼痛。”该研究周一发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)杂志上。

The researchers looked at the impact of being a good Samaritan in 280 people through two pilot studies and three experiments.

研究人员通过两项试点研究和三项实验，观察了成为一个乐善好施的人对280人的影响。

MRI scans of patients’ brains found that an act of perceived kindness had an instant, deactivating impact on the portion of the brain that registers painful stimulation — the medial prefrontal cortex.

对病人大脑的核磁共振扫描发现，一个被感知到的善举对大脑中记录痛苦刺激的部分——内侧前额叶皮层产生了瞬间的抑制作用。

In one experiment, volunteers who gave blood following an earthquake were found to experience less pain than those who did it as part of a routine test, despite a larger needle being used for the volunteers, CNN reports.

据美国有线电视新闻网报道，在一项实验中，在地震后献血的志愿者比那些在常规测试中献血的志愿者感到的疼痛更少，尽管志愿者使用了更大的针头。

In a second experiment, cancer patients’ chronic pain was found to be much more significantly reduced when they cooked and cleaned for others at their treatment center, compared to when they cooked and cleaned only for themselves.

在另一项实验中，研究人员发现，癌症患者在治疗中心为他人做饭和清洁时，他们的慢性疼痛感要比只为自己做饭和清洁时要轻得多。

A third experiment found that participants felt less pain when their hands were given an electric shock — if they first gave money to help orphans.

第三个实验发现，当他们的手被电击时，如果他们先给钱帮助孤儿，他们会感到更少的疼痛。

The results of their experiments were so clear, the authors felt that altruism may be used as a supplement to pain medication and behavioral therapies.

他们的实验结果非常清楚，作者认为利他主义可以作为止痛药和行为疗法的补充。

“Our findings suggest that incurring personal costs to help others may buffer the performers from unpleasant conditions,” the study authors conclude.

研究人员得出结论:“我们的研究结果表明，为了帮助他人而付出的个人成本可能会缓解员工的不愉快状况。”