Fear of dying alone isn’t what’s keeping you desperately clutching your failed relationship. You can blame altruism for that.

　　害怕孤独死去并不是你绝望地紧抓着失败的感情不放的原因。你可以归咎于是利他主义。

　　A surprising new study has found that a person is more likely to stay in a relationship if they think leaving would harm their partner.

　　一项令人惊讶的新研究发现，如果一个人认为分手会伤害他们的伴侣，那么他很可能继续维持这段感情。

　　Previous research has found that couples end up staying in relationships because they lack better dating options, or they feel like they’ve invested too much time and money into their partner to break up.

　　之前的研究发现，情侣们会因为缺乏更好的约会对象，或者他们觉得自己已经在对方身上投入了太多的时间和金钱，从而舍不得分手，最终保持恋爱关系。

　　But Samantha Joel, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and author of the study, told The Post that according to her research, most people stay in relationships for selfless reasons.

　　但这项研究的作者、犹他大学的心理学教授萨曼莎.乔尔告诉《华盛顿邮报》，根据她的研究，大多数人保持恋爱关系是出于无私的原因。

　　“Even if I don’t have a lot of self-interested reasons to stay — maybe I’m not that invested in the relationship anymore and maybe my alternative [dating] options are good, I might think that if my partner is dependent on the relationship and would be devastated if we broke up, that might make me stay in the relationship,” Joel told The Post about her subjects’ rationale.

　　乔尔告诉《华盛顿邮报》关于她的研究对象的逻辑依据：“即使我留下来并不是因为有很多自私的理由，也许我不再对这段感情那么投入，也许我其他可选的约会对象都很好,我可能会想,如果对方对这段感情很依赖的话,分手了会很打击人,这可能使得我继续维持这段感情。”

　　Researchers interviewed 500 people who were in new relationships (an average of two years) and were thinking about breaking up. Over the course of two months, the participants were asked about their rationale for sticking around. The study found that people who thought their partners were highly committed were less likely to initiate a breakup.

　　研究人员采访了500名处于新恋情中，(平均两年)正考虑分手的人。在两个月的时间里，研究人员询问了参与者没有分手的理由。研究发现，那些认为对方非常忠诚的人不太可能主动提分手。

　　“So those people who are concerned about their partners have a really adaptive [trait] that work in an ongoing healthy relationship, but it might also trap people who are in unhappy relationships,” Joel said. “It’s a double-edged sword.”

　　乔尔说:“所以那些在乎伴侣的人有一种很好的适应能力，这种适应能力在一段健康的关系中起作用，但也会让那些感情不好的人陷入困境。这就像是一把双刃剑。”

　　“People are inherently pro-social, and they care about their partner’s feelings,” she said.

　　她说：“人是天生亲社会的，他们关心伴侣的感受。”

　　But she also questions people who stay in these types of relationships.

　　但她也质疑那些保持这种关系的人。

　　“Who wants a partner who doesn’t really want to be in the relationship?” Joel wrote in a press release.

　　乔尔在一份新闻稿中写道：“谁想要一个‘身在曹营心在汉’的伴侣?”