First of all, I'm delighted to be here.

首先，我'很高興來到這裡。

I'm delighted that you're here.

我很高興你在這裡。

Thank you to the people who are joining us

謝謝大家的加入

from outside this room.

從這個房間外。

I do study the brain. I study the brain in love and [unclear] --

我確實在研究大腦。我研究愛情中的大腦和[不清楚]----。

and I put people in brain scanners

我把人送進大腦掃描器

who are madly in love

痴情的人

with my colleagues,

與我的同事。

Art Errand, Lucy Brown and Bianca Acevedo.

Art Errand，Lucy Brown和Bianca Acevedo。

We've now put 17 people

我們現在已經把17人

who've just fallen happily in love

幸福地墜入愛河的人

in the machine fMRI,

在機器fMRI。

15 people who've just been rejected in love,

15個在愛情中剛剛被拒絕的人'。

and 17 people who were in love long term,

和17個長期戀愛的人。

people who were married more than 21 and still in love.

結婚超過21年仍在戀愛的人；

As a matter of fact, I think that right now, actually,

事實上，我認為，現在，其實。

I can put a lot of you in my machine

我的機器裡可以裝很多你的人。

and I would find some of these brain circuits

我會發現其中的一些腦回路

for romantic love become active.

為浪漫的愛情變得活躍。

I'm not going to repeat really what I've said --

我不打算重複我說過的話 --

I've already written four books on romantic love,

我'已經寫了四本關於浪漫愛情的書。

and I want to say something different today.

我今天想說點不一樣的話。

But I do want to say one thing about romantic love.

但我想說的是，關於浪漫的愛情。

It's a powerful brain system.

它'是一個強大的大腦系統。

I think more powerful than the sex drive.

我認為比性慾更強大。

It comes from primordial parts of the brain,

它來自於大腦的原始部分。

way below the cortex,

皮層以下的方式。

and it gives you the energy, the focus, the ecstasy,

它給你能量，專注，狂喜。

the despair and the motivation.

的絕望和動力。

It's a drive, it's a basic mating drive.

它'是一個驅動器，它'是一個基本的配合驅動器。

It's a drive to win life's greatest prize

是贏得人生最大獎賞的動力。

which is a mating partner.

這是一個交配夥伴。

But today, I want to talk about something else. (Laughter)

但今天，我想說的是另一件事。(笑聲)

Why do you fall in love with one person rather than another?

為什麼你會愛上一個人而不是另一個人？

I'd written my fourth book on romantic love and --

我寫了我的第四本關於浪漫愛情的書，並且--。

It was a couple of days before Christmas,

那是聖誕節前幾天的事。

and I got a telephone call from Match.com the Internet dating site,

我接到了Match.com的電話，Match.com是一個互聯網交友網站。

and they asked me to come in and talk to them

他們讓我進去和他們談談。

two days after Christmas.

聖誕節後兩天。

And I -- nothing happens in New York at Christmas, but --

而我... ... 聖誕節在紐約什麼也沒發生，但是... ...

So, I went in and they filed in

所以，我去了，他們提交了

I wasn't even sure who was who --

我甚至不確定誰是誰... ...

And in the middle of the morning they asked me,

而在上午的時候，他們問我。

"Why do you fall in love with one person rather than another?"

"為什麼你會愛上一個人而不是另一個人？

And I said,"I don't know. Nobody knows!"

我說，"我不'不知道。沒有人知道！&quot。

Psychologists certainly know that timing is important,

心理學家當然知道，時機很重要。

proximity is important, we tend to fall in love with somebody

近朱者赤，近墨者黑

from the same socio-economic and ethnic background,

來自相同社會經濟和種族背景的人；

that's changing, by the way,

順便說一句，那'正在改變。

somebody with the same general level of intelligence,

某人與一般的智力水準相同，

and good looks, and education,

和長相，和學歷。

and religious, and social values are important --

和宗教以及社會價值的重要性 -- --

reproductive goals --

生育目標----

and certainly, your childhood experience plays a role.

當然，你的童年經歷也起到了一定的作用。

But, you know, you can walk into a room

但是，你知道，你可以走進一個房間。

and everybody is from your background,

而每個人都是你的背景。

and same level of intelligence,

和同樣的智力水準。

and same level of good looks,

和同樣水準的好感度。

and there's a lot of the same childhood

和有很多相同的童年。

and you don't fall in love with all of them.

而你並沒有愛上所有的人。

Something else is missing --

還少了點什麼 -- --

something is missing here.

這裡少了點什麼。

So, I began to decide that I would study personality.

於是，我開始決定要研究個性。

There are two basic aspects of personality,

性格有兩個基本方面。

of course, with epigenetics now

當然，隨著表觀遺傳學的發展

we know that these are constantly in connection with one another.

我們知道，這些都是不斷地相互聯繫的。

But there certainly are traits that you've acquired.

但肯定有你獲得的特質'。

through your childhood, and your education,

通過你的童年，和你的教育。

and your experiences.

和你的經驗。

And also, there's great many traits

而且，還有很多的特點。

that come straight out of your biology.

直接從你的生物學中走出來的。

They now estimate that 40 to 60 percent of who you are comes out of your DNA

他們現在估計，你是誰的40%到60%來自你的DNA。

or at least it plays an enormous role in it.

或者至少它在其中起到了巨大的作用。

So, I decided what I would do

所以，我決定要做什麼

is take a look at the second aspect of this --

是看看這個第二方面 -- --

your temperament, your predispositions --

你的氣質，你的傾向 --

and see, if somehow, your basic body chemistry

看看，如果不知何故，你的基本身體化學反應

drives you to some people rather than other.

驅使你去找一些人，而不是其他。

So, I began to go through all of the academic literature

於是，我開始翻閱所有的學術文獻。

looking for traits that are linked with biology

that may play a role in mate choice.

And I would generally go into a lot of this --

but bottom line is,

there is a lot of chemicals in the brain

and most of them keep the eyes blinking or the heart beating,

they are are not linked with personality traits.

Indeed, these four brain systems are

the dopamine, serotonin, testosterone and estrogen-oxytocin systems.

And each one of them is linked

with a constellation of personality traits.

So, I decided what I would do is try to make a questionnaire

that measured the traits

linked with each one of these brain systems.

And then, put this questionnaire onto a dating site,

Match.com internationally and Chemistry.com,

the site that I started with Match.com locally, in the United States.

And then, see if I could watch

who is naturally drawn to whom.

Whether these traits of biology

naturally draw you to some people rather than others.

I just want to say before a begin that --

I am not talking about types --

these are not cubbyholes, these are brain systems

and we all respond to all of them.

As a matter of fact, I'm working now with a geneticist

from Princeton University, Lee Silver,

and we just studied 100,000 people on Chemistry.com --

10 million people have taken the questionnaire,

30 thousand take it every week --

So, I study them regularly.

It's all anonymous but anyway, I study the numbers.

In this study of 100,000 people,

no two people took this 56-question questionnaire the same way.

I've never met two people who were this similar or alike.

However, there's patterns to nature,

there's patterns to personality,

and I wanted to find out,

if there's also patterns to mate choice.

So, I'm going to go very rapidly

through these four broad styles of thinking and behaving,

through the genetics that is linked

with each one of these constellation of personality traits,

and then wind up with telling you

the patterns of mate choice.

The dopamine system -- these are the traits --

people tend to be very expressive --

there are certain genes in the dopamine system --

they're novelty seeking, risk taking,

it's "cold sensation seeking" in the academic literature.

They're curious, they've got great many interests,

they make more money than any other personality style,

but they also loose more money than any personality style.

They're vigorous takers, energetic, restless --

not just jumping out of airplanes --

I had a wonderful friend in my life, who died recently,

but he lived in The Village in New York

and he really read 10 hours a day.

He was very much of an explorer,

he just wasn't doing physical exploration.

Enthusiasm, optimism, independence,

self-reliance, impulsivity --

These are the people who would walk into a bar and buy everybody a drink,

mental flexibility, and idea generation -- that's really important.

Creativity seems to be linked with the dopamine system in the brain.

In fact, if you give L-Dopa to a Parkinson's patient

their creativity will actually go up.

Some people turn into great poets or artists.

On the down side they tend to be susceptible to boredom.

I'm one of them --

I'm going to Ethiopia tomorrow morning --

I have now packed one pair of blue jeans and about ten books --

you know, in case I'm in that tarmac for 30 days,

I got something to do.

They all tend to be reckless, unreflective,

they look out not in, more manic, insincere, they can be glib,

opportunistic, and unpredictable.

These are traits that are, in one way or another,

linked with the dopamine system in the brain.

I did a study of 178,000 people on Chemistry.com

The top words they use are: adventure, venture,

spontaneous, energy, fun, traveling, outgoing, passion, active.

It's called the lexical hypotheses,

it came out in the 1930s and --

so, you should really --

when you're talking to somebody and trying to size him up --

not only, sort of watch to their body posture and all of this --

but listen to the words they choose to use --

because it actually comes out of their biology,

it says a lot about them.

I think Regina Dugan is a perfect example, head of DARPA

creation, surprise, change -- you can't loose your nerves.

A woman who really lives in a high dopamine world

and is high dopamine herself.

Richard Branson is a great example,

"I've always thought the rules are made to be broken."

Lang Lang a wonderful pianist, flare, dazzling, charisma,

super-star, conqueror, bravado, daredevil tendencies

ebullient, fun to watch high dopamine kind of guy.

I did a study of half a million people.

I've got all these zip codes to see where "explorers" are.

I call them that -- because I was working with a dating site

I needed to name these people.

So, if you're expressive of the dopamine system

I call you an "explorer."

They live in New York, they live in the big cities where the action is.

They aren't down in Dallas --

they are not in Phoenix -- (Laughter)

They are not even in Las Vegas --

they're doing something else -- (Laughter)

Those people [unclear]

expressive of the serotonin system

they observe social norms, enjoy familiar,

they are the ones that will go to Martha's vineyard every summer,

instead of around the world doing different things.

Harm avoidant - they're not scared, but they're cautious,

calm, controlled, stoic --

this is why you take a Prozac or Paxil to drive up the serotonin system

so you are calmer.

Plans, routines, orderly -- they are orderly.

As a matter of fact, I have a friend who goes annually

to his accountant with his wife and about 10 years ago

by chance, he leaned on the accountant's desk

and he moved the guy's pencil sharpener just a tiny little bit

and immediately, the guy moved it back. (Laughter)

And now, every single year

he goes and, at some point, he moves the pencil sharpener

and every year, the guys moves it back. (Laughter)

Literal, precise, sustained attention,

real good with numbers, want to belong, respect --

Religiosity is in the serotonin system. At least part of it is.

And this is one of the reason that if you take LSD or something

you can have a religious experience.

So I'm told. (Laughter)

Loyalty is very interesting.

One of my most interesting questions on the questionnaire is something like --

I can't quite remember the name of it, but it says something like,

"Would you rather have interesting friends or loyal friends?"

Now, we all want interesting friends

and we all want loyal friends,

but this type must have loyal friends. Must have them.

And the other three types cannot tolerate friends

that are uninteresting.

On the down side they're close-minded, controlling, rigid,

stubborn and moralistic.

Top words they use is "family,"

they use trust and trustworthy they got that one twice.

Values! Big time on values, respect, morals.

I think Ben Bernanke is a very good example --

details, data, looking in the past, frugal.

I think the president of China, Hu Jintao -- he's a perfect example.

He's low key, preserved, very modest

Modesty seems to be in this system,

consensus building, dislike the extravagant.

One thing that is interesting is -- one of the genes in the serotonin system

is associated with this consensus building, low key --

and that gene is most common in China and Japan.

Washington --

I've gotten terribly interested in American history, world history

and indeed, this guy -- the high [serotonin],

he was just perfect for being our first President.