盡管流行歌手和詩人總把失戀說的很痛苦，但近日，美國研究人員稱，分手可能沒那么難。

    Despite the laments of pining pop stars and poets, U.S. researchers now think breaking up may not be so hard to do.

    西北大學的心理學副教授埃里 芬克爾說："我們低估了自己承受失戀痛苦的能力。"

    "We underestimate our ability to survive heartbreak," said Eli Finkel, an assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern University,

    該研究結果在《實驗社會心理學期刊》的網站上公布。

    whose study appears online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

    芬克爾與同事鮑爾 伊斯特威克對年輕情侶，尤其是那些自稱愛得很深的情侶進行了調查，以確定他們對失戀后痛苦程度的預測與實際情況是否相符。

    Finkel and colleague Paul Eastwick studied young lovers -- especially those who profess ardent affection -- to see if their predictions of devastation matched their actual angst when that love was los

    芬克爾在接受一個電話采訪時說："平均來看，人們高估了自己失戀后的痛苦。"

    "On average, people overestimate how distressed they will be following a breakup," Finkel said in a telephone interview.

    該項研究歷時九個月，調查對象是談戀愛至少有兩個月的大學生，他們每兩周填寫一次調查問卷。

    The nine-month study involved college students who had been dating at least two months who filled out questionnaires every two weeks.

    研究人員收集了26個調查對象的資料--10名女性、16名男性，他們都在調查期間的頭六個月內就與戀人分手了。

    They gathered data from 26 people -- 10 women and 16 men -- who broke up with their partners during the first six months of the study.

    研究人員將調查對象在分手前兩周對痛苦程度的預測與他們分手后四個不同階段的實際情況進行了對比。

    The participants' forecasts of distress two weeks before the breakup were compared to their actual experience as recorded over four different periods of time.

    不出意料，研究人員發現，愛得越深的人越難承受分手。

    Not surprisingly, they found the more people were in love, the harder they took the breakup.

    芬克爾說："愛得較深的人在分手后確實要更痛苦一些，但他們對自己痛苦的預期與實際情況相比，卻被大大高估了。"

    "People who are more in love really are a little more upset after a breakup, but their perceptions about how distraught they will be are dramatically overstated when compared to reality,"

    "總之，分手沒你想象的那么痛苦。"

    Finkel said. "At the end of the day it, it is just less bad than you thought."