“愤怒的小鸟”火爆，在世界范围内受到喜爱。为什么愤怒的小鸟如此吸引人，人们可以从不同角度来解释。最近，WSJ 的 Matt Ridley 写了一篇有趣的文章，从人类进化心理学的角度解释来这个问题。

　　人类似乎沉迷于对抛物线轨迹的预测，否则，你如何解释高尔夫运动？或者我们为何如此尊敬橄榄球运动中的四分卫和板球运动中的出色投球手？我们的身体在对准目标投掷物品上很在行。在投射物离开手指之前，首先在头脑中预测轨道，转动肩膀，活动肩胛骨，扭动屁股，弯曲胳膊，伸展手指。

这是一系列运动的精确配合。发射！当投射物全速冲向目标的时候，会有短暂的焦虑和期待。

　　人类的祖先在早期的狩猎活动中，就已经开始投射标枪，远程制服猎物。这种活动展示了速度和力量，以及对运动轨迹的预测，并且有丰盛的食物作为报酬。

　　对抛物线的利用体现了人类作为高级生物的智慧，因为相比直线投射来说，抛物线投射通过对角度的调节，能够为攻击提供更多的灵活性和准确性。其它动物的捕猎行为更多的是利用直线发射：

　　除了射水鱼 ——它的捕猎行为是针对特定方位喷射水柱，将昆虫打下树叶——没有其它动物使用抛物线。变色龙喷吐舌头（捕食）时是直线，狗能够捕捉球但无法投射。没有其它动物有我们这样善于投射的臂膀……鸟类，无论疯狂与否，唯一接近投射的行为是埃及秃鹰向大致方位投射石头，试图打碎鸵鸟蛋的时候。

　　现代人早已无需通过狩猎获取食物，但是那种原始的快感却一直保留着。也许这就是愤怒的小鸟成功的原因，当弹弓射出小鸟的那一刻，我们原始的欲望得到了满足，而焦虑得到了释放。在忙碌的工作之余，这是一种简单而原始的快乐。

下面一篇英文分析“愤怒的小鸟”热的心理学原因：

Angry Birds popularity blamed on 'arc trajectories'

A science columnist has claimed parabolas are to blame for your Angry Birds' addiction

We like Angry Birds because we like launching things in an arc. Simples.

Published on Jan 26, 2011

Matt Ridley, a human science columnist for The Wall Street Journal, has suggested the popularity of Angry Birds could be attributed to an innate human appreciation for predicting and using arc trajectories, known as parabolas, for thrown or launched objects.

Ridley's theory explains humans have been hard wired to be good at predicting parabolas and actually enjoy the process because it has in the past been part of our evolutionary development for survival.

Ridley also extended his idea to cover modern competetive sports involving parabaolas such as golf, basketball, cricket and baseball.

The theory claims that parabolic throwing is a uniquely human ability, citing evidence that Neanderthal remains are often discovered with wounds implying they got close to the animals they hunted. Meanwhile European Homo Sapien remains display shoulder displacements similar to those found in modern baseball players.

Ridley said: "Until 10,000 years ago, most or even all human beings relied on this talent for gathering at least some of their food — by killing it at a distance.

"With the arrow, the spear thrower, the blowpipe, the boomerang, the sling, the harpoon and the thrown rock, we were killing prey from fish to birds to mammoths. Not to mention each other."

As David Gilson at OVi Gaming observed, Angry Birds isn't the first game to combine our love of parabolas with cute cartoon creatures smashing each other around - the Worms series of games was also very popular in the 90s with parabola-centric gameplay.

Ridley believes that because we might associate parabolas with the reward of food, we get a great deal of satisfaction from using them in other contexts such as sports and video games.

"Imagine how much keener the joy of the throw if the prize was food after a day of hunger. No wonder we still love to experience the thrill of a well-launched parabolic projectile—even a cartoon of an angry bird," Ridley concluded.

For developers seeking to mimic Angry Birds' success this could be a very interesting revelation.