If you want to impress a date, win over a large group of people or charm a colleague, don't worry about saying something smart, just say something quickly.

如果你想在约会中给对方留下完美的印象或者在众人中脱颖而出，魅力十足，不用担心自己表现的不够聪明， 只要反应快就足够了。

Psychologists from Australia have found that people who are quicker at answering general knowledge questions come across as more charismatic.

澳大利亚的心理学家研究发现，在普通的知识问答中反应较快的人看上去更有魅力。

Other factors, such as IQ and emotional intelligence, are not as important as the ability to think and respond swiftly.

其他因素，如智商、情商也没有快速思考，敏捷作答的能力重要。

The researchers set out to unveil the psychological bases of charisma¹, and whether this quality depends on specific traits.

研究人员想要揭开这种神奇魅力的神秘面纱，探究其背后的心理基础，研究这种特质是否需要某些具体品质做支撑。

One thing they noticed was that celebrities² and other public figures deemed very charismatic were all typically sharp-witted.

他们发现很多名人和公众人物都颇具魅力的一个典型的共同特征就是反应敏捷。

In order to test how mental speed contributes to charisma, they carried out a study involving 417 subjects. All the subjects underwent personality and intelligence tests.

为了测验反应速度与这种魅力的关系，研究人员进行了一项涉及417个主题的研究。所有主题都包含人格测验和智力测验。

The researchers asked the participants' friends to rate how 'charismatic,' 'funny,' and 'quick-witted' they were.

研究人员请参与者的朋友们来对他们的 “魅力”、“有趣” 及 “反应敏捷” 程度做出评价。

All of the subjects were then quizzed with 30 simple general knowledge questions, such as 'Name a precious gem³', which they had to answer as quickly as they could.

所有研究主题都会包含一次30题的普通知识问答小测，会问诸如 “说出一种珍稀宝石的名字” 的问题， 参与测验者必须尽快作答。

The subjects also completed another mental speed test based on visual tasks, including spotting a dot on a screen as quickly as possible.

每个研究主题还会完成一项反应速度测试，这是一项视觉任务，测验者需要以最快速度定位到屏幕上的点。

By cross-referencing the tests' results with the friends' answers, the team found that people who were faster in the mental speed tasks were also rated as more charismatic by their peers.

通过交叉对比测验结果，并结合参与者朋友们的评价，研究团队发现反应速度越快的人，在朋友们眼中越有魅力。

Intelligence and personality turned out to play a smaller role than sheer speed.

与反应速度相比，智力和人格对个人魅力的影响并没有那么大。

Also, against the researchers' predictions, mental speed was not associated with social skills such as conflict management or understanding other people's feelings.

同样，与研究人员预测的相反， 反应速度与社会技能无关，如矛盾处理能力和善解人意能力和反应速度并无关系。

'Although we expected mental speed to predict charisma, we thought it would be less important than IQ,' researcher William von Hippel said.

“尽管我们预料到反应速度与个人魅力有关系， 但我们没想到反应速度竟然比智力起的作用还要大。” 研究员威廉·冯希佩尔说。

'Instead, we found that how smart people were was less important than how quick they were. “相反，我们发现反应快比聪明更重要。因此在短时间内能考虑到广泛的社会反响比答对一个很难的问题更重要。”

In their study, published in Psychological Science, the researchers also hypothesised that people who think more quickly could be better at masking a fudged reply by ad-libbing humorous associations.

这项研究被刊登在《心理科学》杂志上。 研究人员还假设能够快速思考的人或许也善于用即兴幽默的方式掩盖不实的回答。

'Our findings show that social intelligence is more than just knowing the right thing to do,' von Hippel added.

“我们的研究发现表明社交智力并不是只需要知道正确的事情。 ” 威廉·冯希佩尔补充说。

'Social intelligence also requires an ability to execute, and the quickness of our mind is an important component⁴ of that ability.'

“社交智力同样需要执行力，而反应速度快正是这种能力所需的关键一环。”