For women, looks may matter more if they live in the city than in rural areas, a new study finds. The results, which are based on body shape rather than overall beauty, showed that in cities the most attractive gals had higher social and psychological well-being.That same link wasn’t found for country residents. The researchers suggest with higher population densities –cities offer more potential friends and sexual partners, allowing city folks to be choosier and so theoretically able to select the cream of the crop to associate with.

　　一项研究发现，对女性来说，外貌在城市里要比在乡村更重要。这项研究更基于体型因素而不是整体美。结论显示，在城市中，最迷人的姑娘其社会幸福感及心理健康状况都很好，但这种关联在乡村居民中并没有被发现。研究员们觉得这和更大的人口密度有关。在城市里，你会有更多的潜在朋友和性伙伴，这会让城市人变得更爱挑剔，在理论上可以去挑选最优秀的人交往。

　　Though the study is based on women, the researchers suspect similar results would hold for men, with their physical appeal also impacting their personal lives more so in cities where a more“free market” of relationships exists.

　　虽然这项研究基于女性，不过研究员们预测，相似的结论也会发生在男性身上——城市中存在“自由市场”般的人际关系，男性身体上的吸引力会更多地影响他们在城市中的个人生活。

　　In rural areas, people don’t tend to handpick their pals. “Rural areas have more embedded networks for relationships, more densely overlapping relationships where you see the same people and are friends with the same people across time,”said study researcher Victoria Plaut, a cultural and social psychologist at the University of Georgia. “If there is more security, then attractiveness is less likely to matter for forming friendships.”

　　在乡村，人们不倾向于亲自结交朋友。“乡村的人际关系网是更加内嵌式的，人与人关系间的交集更加密集。日子一直在过，但你每天见的总是同一些人，朋友也总是同一些朋友。”乔治亚大学文化和社会心理学家、此项研究的研究员维多利亚·普劳特说道，“这种人际关系网更安全，吸引力对交朋友来说也不那么重要了。”

　　Scientists analyzed survey data from women ages 26 to 75 within city and rural communities across the United States. They used waist-to-hip ratios as a proxy for a woman’s physical desirability, comparing that with personal assessments of well-being, such as life satisfaction, self-acceptance,feelings of control, and interaction with and support from friends. “We don’t know how waist-to-hip ratio represents ‘overall’ attractiveness, only that studies have found it to be related to judgments of female attractiveness,” Plaut said. In fact, past research has shown that women with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 –indicating a waist significantly narrower than the hips – are most desirable to men.

　　科学家分析了对美国城市社会及乡村社会26 ～ 75 岁的女性的调查。他们将腰臀比作为女性身体吸引力的替代参数，将其与个人健康状况评估进行对比，其中包括生活满意度、自我接受度、掌控感、与朋友的互动度以及朋友的支持度等。“我们不清楚腰臀比与‘完美女人’之间是何关系，这项研究仅发现腰臀比与女性身体的吸引力有关。”普劳特说。实际上，过去的研究已经得出结论：腰臀比为0.7 的女性——体现为腰部明显比臀部窄——最让男性渴望。

　　Overall, the women who lived in cities were just as happy as their rural counterparts. But the researchers found a stronger correlation between level of desirability and contentment with themselves and their social lives for urbanites than those living in the country.

　　总的来说，住在城市中的女性与住在乡村里与之身份相似的女性同样快乐。但研究者还发现，与生活在乡村的女性相比，城市女性对自身的愿望度、满意度及其都市社会生活间的彼此关联更强。

　　The data also pointed to differences in the structures of the social scenes. Urban residents tended to enjoy more frequent contact with individual friends while rural residents felt a greater sense of belonging within their larger community.

　　数据还将问题关键指向了社会生活结构的不同。城市居民倾向于喜欢与个体友人更频繁地联系，而乡村居民在自己更大的群体当中会感到更强的归属感。

　　In addition to attractiveness,Plaut said other traits such as intelligence and personality might also cement social connections. “I think anything that is typically used to sort as a matter of choice,” she said.

　　普劳特说， 除了吸引力之外，诸如聪慧度和个性等特质可能也能巩固一个人的社会联系。“我觉得在那种只要你愿意就可以与人建立关系的环境中（意指城市），任何被用来将一个人定为有吸引力或无吸引力的典型因素我们都可以加强一下（来巩固社会联系）。”她说。

　　The findings suggest the importance of being attractive to your happiness is not universal, and that its significance is more a matter of culture than human nature.

　　从这些发现中我们了解到，外表的魅力对于你的快乐的重要性并不是通用的， 这其中的意义在于，吸引力与快乐的关系更多的是文化问题，而不是人类的天性问题。