A built-in aversion to attractive members of the opposite sex may help cement monogamous relationships

If your loved one claims to “only have eyes for you” this Valentine’s Day, it might be truer than you think. Research shows that people in a committed relationship who have been thinking about their partner actually avert their eyes from attractive members of the opposite sex without even being aware they are doing it.

Psychologist Jon Maner of Florida State University and his colleagues flashed pictures of faces on a computer screen for half a second, following it immediately with a square or circle, which participants had to identify by pushing the correct button. Earlier research using this method has found that it takes longer for viewers to shift their attention away from attractive faces of the opposite sex.

Maner, however, took subjects who were married or living together monogamously and asked half of them to write about feelings of love for their partner and the other half to write about a happy experience. Those who wrote about love actually turned their attention away from attractive members of the opposite sex even more quickly than they looked away from average-looking people. Subjects who wrote about being happy, however, remained as distracted by a pretty face as ever.

This unconscious attentional bias probably evolved to help men and women stay in monogamous relationships, which in humans tend to have a reproductive advantage, Maner explains: “This whole research area is guided largely by an evolutionary perspective. These biases have been built into our psychology to enhance people’s reproductive success.”

一种恋爱后对漂亮异性的天生厌恶可能帮助人们巩固互相之间的独有关系。

如果你的情人在这个情人节对你说“他的眼里只有你”，可别以为他是在哄你。研究发现，那些忠于自己感情，时刻想着自己爱人的人，会下意识的不去看那些吸引人眼球的异性。

佛罗里达州立大学的心理学家乔恩 梅尔和他的同事在电脑显示器上闪现人的脸部照片，每张只有半秒，紧接着把这些照片排成方形或这环形，参与实验者必须按钮识别正确的那个。早期研究发现，人们总是更关注那些漂亮异性的脸蛋。

然而，梅尔选择那些已婚的或者同居的人，然后让其中的一半写他们对爱人的爱，而另一半则写自己一次快乐的经历。那些表达爱意的人在后来的实验中确实是更快的转移了对那些漂亮异性的注意力，甚至比对普通容貌的人注意力转移的还要快。而那些书写自己快乐经历的人，还是会被美色分散注意力。

这种下意识的注意力偏移可能是进化来帮助人们保持一夫一妻的关系，这样人类就有了繁衍优势。梅尔解释说：“整个研究是建立在一个进化观点上的观点。这种观点认为这种潜意识的注意力偏移在我们的心理中，就是为了促使人们繁衍成功。”