Weak Have Stronger Hearing

    If you ever got picked on in the schoolyard, you might have wished for some sort of superpower: like unbeatable speed or maybe just the ability to completely disappear. Now scientists at the College of Wooster in Ohio say that you might have had a skill you didn't realize: the uncanny ability to hear a bully coming.

    An earlier study found that women hear approaching noises sooner than their bigger, brawnier male counterparts. Perhaps, the scientists thought, the same would hold true for scrawny specimens versus the truly buff. So they had 50 volunteers listen to a tone that sounds like it's moving toward them. The listeners pressed a button when it sounded like the tone arrived. The scientists then assessed each subject's strength and cardiovascular fitness.

    And they found that the 98-pound weaklings banged their buttons quicker than the well-muscled, because they perceived the threatening sound as being closer than it actually was. The finding got a hearing May 21st at the meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Portland, Oregon.

    Such auditory overreacting, the scientists say, could be a survival mechanism. So that the meek, while waiting to inherit the earth, can avoid getting knocked onto it.

    瘦小的人听力更加敏锐

    如果你曾经在校园里被欺负过，你可能希望你具有一些超常的力量：比如无与伦比的速度或者只要有完全消失的能力也行。现在俄亥俄州伍斯特学院College of Wooster科学家们报道说，你可能没有意识到你或许具有一种奇特的能力：你能听到恃强凌弱者向你走来。

    早些的一项研究发现，与那些大块头的健壮男性相比，女性能更早听到噪音的临近。科学家们想，或许对于瘦小的人，他们的听力比那些真正的大个子要灵敏。因此 科学家们让50名志愿者听一个声音，这个声音听起来好像在向他们移动。当声音到达后，听者们就按一下键。科学家们然后评价了每个受试者的力量和心血管健康 情况。

    他们发现，与那些肌肉健壮的人相比，体重为98磅的瘦小个子敲击键更快些，这是因为他们认为那些有威胁的声音离他们更近，而实际并非如此。在5月21日的 《美国声学会》（Acoustical Society of America）会议上（会议在俄勒冈州的波特兰市举行）,这项研究引起了人们的兴趣。

    科学家们说，这种听觉上的过度反应可能是一种生存机制。这样那些为了在地球上延续下来但性格温顺的人就可以避免被打倒在地了。