英语听力文摘 English Digest 639 牙医为何令人害怕

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　　Dear A Moment of Science,

　　I hate going to the dentist. In fact, I openly fear it. Yet I’ve never actually had a really bad or painful experience with a dentist. So why do I fear it so much?

　　You’re certainly not alone. Quaking in your boots at the mere¹ thought of a dental check?up–let alone having a cavity taken care of–is a time?honored tradition.

　　Fear Of Dentists

　　And it doesn’t necessarily derive² from a bad dental experience. New research shows that fear of the dentist is often passed down from parents to their children.

　　Fathers are especially involved. Previous studies found a link between parents’ attitudes toward the dentist and kids’ fear. But the new study reveals that kids pay even closer attention to how their fathers react when the dentist is involved. Apparently³, when fathers display fear and anxiety, kids are most likely to pick up those cues and see dental visits as something to fear.

　　Fathers Play A Role

　　Why fathers carry so much weight in influencing how their kids think about the dentist is not clear. At least the study doesn’t really offer an explanation. But it does suggest that fathers can play an important role in what psychologists called positive emotional contagion⁴.

　　If fathers’ fear of the dentist can contaminate their kids, the opposite might also be true. In other words, dads behaving positively⁵ and not displaying fear could orient their kids towards not fearing the dentist.

　　So the researchers call for parents, and fathers in particular, to be involved in dentist fear prevention campaigns.

　　为何我会对牙医感到恐惧

　　亲爱的的《科学一刻》栏目组，

　　我很讨厌看牙医。真的，我对此感到很恐惧。可是我实际上并没有看牙医的糟糕经历。那我为什么会对此感到如此恐惧呢？

　　有此感受的不仅仅是你一个人。一想到要检查牙齿，腿脚就哆嗦，更别说补牙洞了。这种感受由来已久。

　　牙医恐惧症

　　对牙医的害怕不一定来自您糟糕的看病经历。如今有研究表明，对牙医的恐惧感常常可以通过父母传递给子女。

　　父亲们的因素很关键。过去的研究表明，父母对牙医的态度和子女对看牙医的恐惧感有关联。不过现在有研究发现子女们会密切关注父亲看牙医的反应。明显的例子是，当父亲表现出恐惧和焦虑的时候，子女很可能受到这些心理暗示，把看牙医当作恐怖的事情对待。

　　父亲们举足轻重

　　父亲们为何会如此大程度地影响子女对牙医的看法，原因尚不可知。至少这项研究没有给出合理解释。不过研究指出，父亲在被心理学家称为“积极情绪传导”的过程中举足轻重。

　　如果父亲们对牙医的恐惧会传染给他们的子女，那么反之亦然。换句话说，父亲们正面的言行，不带恐惧的表现可以引导他们的子女不再害怕牙医。

　　因此研究人员呼吁父母们，尤其是父亲们，行动起来，帮助子女防治牙医恐惧症。

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