Your Brain Lies to You 你的大脑对你说谎
译者: dancefree

FALSE beliefs are everywhere. Eighteen percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth, one poll has found. Thus it seems slightly less egregious that, according to another poll, 10 percent of us think that Senator Barack Obama, a Christian, is instead a Muslim. The Obama campaign has created a Web site to dispel misinformation. But this effort may be more difficult than it seems, thanks to the quirky way in which our brains store memories — and mislead us along the way.
错误的观念俯拾即是。有一项调查表明，有18%的美国人认为太阳绕着地球转，相比之下，另一项调查所显示的，即有10%的美国人认为参议员巴拉克•奥巴马是穆斯林（实际上他信奉基督教）这一情况就不会那么让人瞠目结舌了。奥巴马的竞选班子为此专门制作了一个网站来澄清事实，但是难度要比他们想象的要大得多，这是因为人类大脑独特的记忆方式决定了我们的认知错误是在所难免的。
The brain does not simply gather and stockpile information as a computer’s hard drive does. Facts are stored first in the hippocampus, a structure deep in the brain about the size and shape of a fat man’s curled pinkie finger. But the information does not rest there. Every time we recall it, our brain writes it down again, and during this re-storage, it is also reprocessed. In time, the fact is gradually transferred to the cerebral cortex and is separated from the context in which it was originally learned. For example, you know that the capital of California is Sacramento, but you probably don’t remember how you learned it.
大脑采集、存储信息的方式和电脑硬盘有很大不同，而且要复杂得多。信息首先存放在大脑的海马体中。海马体位于大脑深处，大小、形状与一个肥胖男子弯曲的小指相仿。但是信息不是永远就待在那里了。每次我们想起它的时候，我们的大脑都要把它重新输入一遍，而在这个重新存入的过程也是信息被重新处理的过程，处理的结果就是信息被逐步转入大脑皮层，与它所从获得的环境隔绝开来。举例来说，你知道加州首府是萨克拉门托市，但是你可能不记得你最初是如何获知这一事实的。
This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, can also lead people to forget whether a statement is true. Even when a lie is presented with a disclaimer, people often later remember it as true.
这一现象被称为源头性失忆，它也会导致人们忘记一项判断是否正确。一个谎言即使当时确证为伪，也会有人之后认为它是真话。
With time, this misremembering only gets worse. A false statement from a noncredible source that is at first not believed can gain credibility during the months it takes to reprocess memories from short-term hippocampal storage to longer-term cortical storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications gain strength. This could explain why, during the 2004 presidential campaign, it took some weeks for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Senator John Kerry to have an effect on his standing in the polls.
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随着时间的变化，错误的记忆只能变得更糟。一个从一个不可思议的源头来的错误宣布最初不能被相信但是随着时间的推移可以获得可信性。它能够从短期海马储存器到长期皮层存储器中来对记忆进行再加工。当这来源被遗忘的时候，信息和它的暗示变得更有效力。这能够解释为什么，在2004年总统竞选中，快艇老兵花了几周的时间来为真理参加竞选来对抗约翰参议院来对他在民意调查中的地位产生影响。

而且随着时间的流逝，这种记忆失准的情况会逐渐加重。无凭无据的一句虚言妄说，虽然一开始到处碰壁，如过街老鼠，但如假以时日，为人们的大脑对它进行处理留出足够的时间，使它能够从其临时存储地海马体最终转移到长期存储它的大脑皮层，到时候，一些人恐怕会变得倾向于相信它并非全然空穴来风。谎言的来由无迹可寻之后，其影响力势必会增强。这一理论或许能够解释2004年总统大选期间探求真相快艇退伍军人会（Swift Boat Veterans for Truth）发起的反对参议员约翰•凯利的运动对后者民意支持率的影响何以在数周之后才显现出来。
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Even if they do not understand the neuroscience behind source amnesia, campaign strategists can exploit it to spread misinformation. They know that if their message is initially memorable, its impression will persist long after it is debunked. In repeating a falsehood, someone may back it up with an opening line like “I think I read somewhere” or even with a reference to a specific source.
竞选班子里的军师们即便不懂得源头性失忆背后的神经学原理，也完全可以利用源头性失忆来混淆民众视听。这些人知道，如果他们散播的谎言一开始就被公众记住的话，那么即使谎言被戳穿，公众依然会对错误的观念有持久的印象。为达到强调假象的目的，一个人可以上来就说“我想我曾在什么地方读到过它”，甚至干脆指出一个具体的出处。
In one study, a group of Stanford students was exposed repeatedly to an unsubstantiated claim taken from a Web site that Coca-Cola is an effective paint thinner. Students who read the statement five times were nearly one-third more likely than those who read it only twice to attribute it to Consumer Reports (rather than The National Enquirer, their other choice), giving it a gloss of credibility.
在一项研究中，一群来自斯坦福大学的学生要把一条来自互联网的、未经证实的消息读很多遍：可口可乐是一种有效的油漆稀释剂。读过五遍的学生比只读过两遍的学生在把这条消息投给《消费者报告》（而不是他们的另一个选择，《国家询问报》）的几率上高了将近三分之一，也就是说，他们认为这条消息相当可靠。（译者按：《消费者报告》是美国百姓购买各种消费品时经常参考的一本杂志，有一定的权威性，而《国家询问报》是一种地摊小报，专门刊登各种八卦消息）
Adding to this innate tendency to mold information we recall is the way our brains fit facts into established mental frameworks. We tend to remember news that accords with our worldview, and discount statements that contradict it.
我们的大脑在回忆信息的时候所伴随的这种本能倾向改造了信息，而这就是大脑为使外界信息变得适合于我们脑部神经结构所采取的方式。那些与我们的世界观相一致的消息变得更容易被记住，而与我们世界观相抵牾的消息则更容易被忘记。
In another Stanford study, 48 students, half of whom said they favored capital punishment and half of whom said they opposed it, were presented with two pieces of evidence, one supporting and one contradicting the claim that capital punishment deters crime. Both groups were more convinced by the evidence that supported their initial position.
在另一项斯坦福大学开展的研究中，有48个学生，其中半数支持死刑，半数反对，这里有两宗案件向他们展示，一宗可用来佐证死刑遏制犯罪，而另一宗则能证明死刑助长犯罪。双方学生都更相信支持他们最初观点的案件是真的。
Psychologists have suggested that legends propagate by striking an emotional chord. In the same way, ideas can spread by emotional selection, rather than by their factual merits, encouraging the persistence of falsehoods about Coke — or about a presidential candidate.
心理学家指出，英雄传奇故事之所以能广为流传，是因为这些故事都能做到扣人心弦，引人入胜。同样，一个理念要实现其传播，也可以采用打动心弦的方式，而不是告诉别人这个理念到底有多好。惟其如此，有关可口可乐——或某总统候选人——的错误观念才可能大行其道，长盛不衰。
Journalists and campaign workers may think they are acting to counter misinformation by pointing out that it is not true. But by repeating a false rumor, they may inadvertently make it stronger. In its concerted effort to “stop the smears,” the Obama campaign may want to keep this in mind. Rather than emphasize that Mr. Obama is not a Muslim, for instance, it may be more effective to stress that he embraced Christianity as a young man.
新闻记者和竞选班子里的工作人员或许会认为他们既然戳穿了谣言，曝光了假象，因而也就等于是在呈清事实真相。然而，他们反复提到谣言，反而会不自觉使谣言变得更有影响力。奥巴马的竞选班子如今上下一心，努力“清除污点”。欲达此目的，他们有必要意识到这一点，与其强调奥巴马先生不是穆斯林，倒不如，比如说吧，倒不如强调他作为一个年轻人加入了基督教大家庭来得更有效。
Consumers of news, for their part, are prone to selectively accept and remember statements that reinforce beliefs they already hold. In a replication of the study of students’ impressions of evidence about the death penalty, researchers found that even when subjects were given a specific instruction to be objective, they were still inclined to reject evidence that disagreed with their beliefs.
对于新闻读者而言，他们倾向于选择性地接受并记住那些能够强化他们已有观念的言论。经过重复研究学生对能够用来判定被告犯有死罪的证词的态度，学者发现，虽然已有明确声明，要求受测人要做到客观公正，可他们依然固执地摒弃那些与自己理念不符的证词。
In the same study, however, when subjects were asked to imagine their reaction if the evidence had pointed to the opposite conclusion, they were more open-minded to information that contradicted their beliefs. Apparently, it pays for consumers of controversial news to take a moment and consider that the opposite interpretation may be true.
然而，在上述研究中，当受测人被要求想象一下，如果证词能够证明被告无罪，他们会作何种反应，他们就都变得能心胸开阔地接受那些与自己理念不符的证词了。显然，当读者读到有争议的新闻消息的时候，停下来花几分钟时间思考一下：或许相反的解释不无道理，这样才是更明智的做法。
In 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes of the Supreme Court wrote that “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.” Holmes erroneously assumed that ideas are more likely to spread if they are honest. Our brains do not naturally obey this admirable dictum, but by better understanding the mechanisms of memory perhaps we can move closer to Holmes’s ideal.
1919年，最高法院法官奥利弗•温德尔•霍姆斯写道：“证明真相的最好办法，就是让它在社会上和谎话一起竞争，因为真相总是有能力被人们所接受。” 霍姆斯认为，如果一种言论是符合实情，那么它就更容易被人所接受。这显然是错误的。他的想法虽然值得称赞，只可惜我们的大脑从来就没有遵照执行过，不过，对于他的理念，通过更好地了解人的记忆机能，我们或许多少能够接近一下。