请阅读 Passage 2,完成第 26~30小题 。
Passage 2
An article in Scientific America haspointed out that empirical research says that, actually, you think you 're morebeautiful than you are. We have a deep-seated need to feel good about ourselvesand we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing strategies to achieve this.Social psychologists have amassed oceans of research into what they callthe "above average effect ,"or " illusory superiority,"and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average inleadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others-all obviouslystatistical impossibilities.
We rose-tint our memories and put ourselvesinto self-affirming situations. We become defensive when criticized, and applynegative stereotypes to others to boost our own esteem. We stalk aroundthinking we're hot stuff.
Psychologistand behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key study into self-enhancementand attractiveness. Rather than have people simply rate their beauty comparedwith others, he asked them to identify an original photograph of themselvesfrom a lineup including versions that had been altered to appear more and lessattractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is "an automatic psychological process,occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent consciousdeliberation." If the subjects quickly chose a falsely flatteringimage-which most did they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.
Epley found no significant genderdifference in responses. Nor was there any evidence that those who self-enhancedthe, most (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored pictureswere real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities. In fact, thosewho thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directlycorresponded with those who showed othermarkers for having higher self-esteem. "I don't think the findings that wehave are any evidence of personal delusion," says Epley."It's a reflection simply ofpeople generally thinking well of themselves. " If you are depressed, youwon ' t be self-enhancing.
Knowingthe results of Epley's study, it makes sense that many people hate photographsof themselves viscerally -on one level, they don't even recognize theperson in the picture as themselves. Facebook, therefore, is a self-enhancer 's paradise, where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit, style, beauty, intellect and lifestyles. It's not that people's profiles are dishonest,says Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Madison University, "but they portray an idealized versionof themselves."
Visual recognition is believed to be people ' s_______
