◎羅彥傑

A British psychologist said his study indicates the revving of a luxury car’s engine tends to have a sexually arousing effect in women.

英國一位心理學家說，他的研究顯示，豪華車引擎轉速拉高，往往會對女性產生性興奮的效應。

Psychologist David Moxon said his study, which was commissioned by auto insurer Hiscox, involved 40 adults listening to recordings of engines from a Maserati, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari along with the more pedestrian Volkswagen Polo, The Daily Telegraph reported last week.

心理學家大衛莫克森說，他的研究接受車險業者Hiscox的委託，找來40名成人聆聽瑪莎拉帝、林寶堅尼與法拉利及較乏味的福斯Polo的引擎聲錄音，「每日電訊報」上週報導說。

He said his team took saliva samples from the study participants to measure levels of testosterone, a hormone that indicates sexual arousal, before and after they listened to recordings of the cars.

他說，他的團隊在研究參與者聆聽汽車錄音的之前與之後分別取出其唾液樣本，以測量睪固酮濃度，這是一種能顯示性興奮的荷爾蒙。

Moxon said a full 100 percent of the women involved in the study had a significant increase in testosterone levels after listening to the Maserati engine, while only half of the men marked an increase.

莫克森說，參與本研究的女性在聽完瑪莎拉帝引擎後，所有人的睪固酮濃度都顯著增加，而男性僅有半數增加。

However, 60 percent of the men showed an increase in testosterone after listening to the Lamborghini.

然而，六成男性在聽完林寶堅尼後，出現睪固酮增加的情形。

Moxon also noted the sound of the more common Volkswagen Polo led to a decrease in testosterone for some participants.

莫克森也注意，較常見的福斯Polo聲音讓若干參與者有睪固酮減少的情況。

新聞辭典

tend to：片語，往往會、易於。例句：Does he tend to lose?（他常常輸嗎？）

rev：動詞，指引擎轉速加快，或加快車速。例句：He revved up the motor and then roared off.（他拉高汽車轉速，然後呼嘯駛去。）

pedestrian：當名詞用居多，指行人，這裡當形容詞用，指平淡無奇或乏味的。例句：Twice I took pedestrian jobs to keep us going.（我有兩次找了份乏味的差事來維持我們的生計。）