【卫报】你说谎了？！丨第一期

小编说

今天没有看到我们的《经济学人》文章有没有感到很奇怪呢？哈哈，首先欢迎亲爱的M社读者来到我们新增的《卫报》栏目~不知道大家的第一感觉怎么样呢？我们暂定每周日推送一篇哟~《卫报》与《经济学人》都是考研中很重要的一部分呢，甚至四六级都是相关的，希望大家多多给予我们意见哟，我们积极改进呀 ^.^ 哈特，比心~

The study suggests that telling small, insignificant lies desensitises the brain to dishonesty, meaning that lying gradually feels more comfortable over time.

研究表明，经常撒小谎会减少大脑对不诚实产生的罪恶感，即谎言会逐渐麻痹大脑使说谎变成更为驾轻就熟。

• Necessitate：vt. 迫使

American fraudster Frank Abagnale, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Catch Me If You Can, started out swindling his father out of small change for date money and ended up impersonating an airline pilot, despite the admission that he "couldn't fly a kite".

在《泰坦尼克号》男主角莱昂那多参演的另一部电影《逍遥法外》中，他饰演的美国诈骗犯Frank Abagnale从最初欺骗爸爸零花钱到最后假扮航空公司飞行员，尽管最后他承认自己“连风筝都不会放”。

注：

Catch Me If You Can，中文译名为《逍遥法外》，这是由斯蒂文·斯皮尔伯格执导，莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥，汤姆·汉克斯，克里斯托弗·沃肯等主演的犯罪电影，梦工场电影公司出品。该影片讲述了FBI探员卡尔（汤姆·汉克斯）与擅长伪造文件的罪犯弗兰克（莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥饰）之间进行的一场场猫抓老鼠的较量的故事。

《泰坦尼克号》男主莱昂那多

Now scientists have uncovered an explanation for why telling a few porkies has the tendency to spiral out of control. The study suggests that telling small, insignificant lies desensitises the brain to dishonesty, meaning that lying gradually feels more comfortable over time.

而今，科学家对“为何撒一些小谎最后会变得一发不可收拾”提出了一种解释。该研究表明，说一些无关紧要的谎言会减少大脑对不诚实的罪恶感，这意味着撒谎会渐渐地麻痹大脑对撒谎的不舒适感。

Tali Sharot, a neuroscientist at University College London and senior author, said: "Whether it's evading tax, infidelity , doping in sports, making up data in science or financial fraud , deceivers often recall how small acts of dishonesty snowballed over time and they suddenly found themselves committing quite large crimes."

这份研究的第一作者Tali Sharot是一名来自英国伦敦大学学院的神经系统科学家，他说：“无论是逃税、出轨，在体育比赛中服用兴奋剂，或者是在科研中伪造数据或金融诈骗，骗子们会醒悟到随着时间的推移，最初的小谎言会像滚雪球一样越滚越大，最后会突然发现变成了弥天大谎。”

• evading tax：逃税

• infidelity：n. 不忠诚

• financial fraud：金融诈骗

Sharot and colleagues suspected that this phenomenon was due to changes in the brain's response to lying, rather than simply being a case of one lie necessitating another to maintain a story.

Sharot和他的同事们怀疑，这个现象是由于大脑对谎言作出的反应发生改变导致的，而不是简单地为了圆谎而去继续撒谎。

In the study, published on Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, 80 volunteers played a game in which they estimated the value of pennies in a jar and sent their guess to an unseen partner. Sometimes participants were told they would secretly benefit at their partner's expense if they overestimated the cash in the jar, incentivising them to lie.

该研究已经于周一在《自然精神科学》一杂志中发表。该研究中，80名志愿者共同参加了一个游戏---猜一猜瓶子里的便士数额多少，然后将他们的猜测告诉另一位看不到瓶子的搭档，并在一些时候为了激发参与者撒谎，秘密告知其如果对数额虚报就会从他们搭档的损失中得到好处。

• Penny：n. 便士，英国的货币辅币单位，相当于中国的“分”

• Jar：n. 罐；广口瓶

• Expense：n. 损失，代价

Neil Garrett, also of UCL and a co-author, said: "We knew by how many British pounds they lied on each trial. The amount by which participants lied got larger and larger."

同样来自伦敦大学学院，与Sharot 是合作作者的Neil Garrett说：“我们是知道实验中钱的数量的。试验中参与者们撒谎的数额越来越大。”

At first, volunteers tended to alter the jar's value by around £1, but this typically ramped up to about £8 by the end of the session.

一开始，志愿者往往会虚报约一英镑左右，但最后虚报价值会升至约八英镑。

Twenty-five of the volunteers played the game while having their brain activity monitored by an MRI scanner . This showed that the amygdala, a part of the brain linked with emotion, was most active when people told their first lie. But while the untruths escalated in magnitude, the amygdala's response gradually declined - and larger drops in brain activity predicted bigger lies in future.

参与这个游戏的24名志愿者都的大脑活动区域都由核磁共振扫描仪所监视。其表明了大脑连接情感的一部分杏仁核在人们撒第一个谎的时候活动最为强烈。不过随着谎言离事实越来越远，杏仁核的响应也逐渐减弱——杏仁核响应的减弱也反应了大脑已经预计了接下来会有更大的谎言。

• MRI scanner：核磁共振扫描仪

注：

杏仁体，附着在海马的末端，呈杏仁状，是边缘系统的一部分。是产生情绪，识别情绪和调节情绪，控制学习和记忆的脑部组织，而且研究发现，幼儿自闭症似乎也与扩大的杏仁核有关。

The researchers said this adaptation effect was similar to those seen in basic sensory experiences. A scent becomes less potent when smelt repeatedly, for instance.

研究人员认为，这种适应现象与一般感官体验类似，如同“入芝兰之室，久而不闻其香；入鲍鱼之肆，久而不闻其臭”一个道理。

"You can imagine cheating a bit like perfume," said Sharot. The first time you cheat on your taxes you feel quite bad, she added, but if you get away with it and benefit this bad behaviour is reinforced and the next time it doesn't feel quite so bad, leading you to cheat even more.

“期待您的翻译，把您的理解留言在文章下方，第二天将会有读者试译详解哒~” Sharot说，“第一次为了税金而撒谎的时候你或许感觉很糟，”她补充，“但是未受惩罚，反而还从中受益，那么下一次撒谎的感觉就变得没那么糟了，这将诱发更多的谎言。”

Professor Marcus Raichle, a neurologist of the Washington School of Medicine in St Louis who was not involved in the work, said that lying was probably a learnt behaviour. "It's a nice study... It seems reasonable that if you develop a pattern of behaviour and it's reinforced that you would return to that habit," he said. "An interesting question is whether there would be interventions to un-train somebody. If you're a chronic liar that's really a problem for society."

Marcus Raichle教授是圣路易斯华盛顿医学院的精神学家。虽然并没有参与上述报告的发布，但他提出说谎很可能是一个习得行为。“这是一项很好的习得过程……如果将这一模仿行为继续发展、强化，就会变成习惯，”他说，“有趣的是，这是否能帮助我们制止尚未习惯撒谎的人陷入这种恶性循环？一个撒谎惯犯绝对是社会的麻烦。”

• Intervention：n 介入；调停；妨碍

• Chronic：a. 长期的

He added that there was little prospect of converting the findings into a more accurate lie detection test - in fact, the variation over time in the brain's response to lying demonstrates how difficult it would be to come up with a universal test. "Lie detection using fMRI isn't ready for prime time," he said.

他还补充说，发展该研究并开发出更精准的测谎测试几乎不可能——事实上，大脑对谎言响应发生的改变就证明，普适的测谎测试开发无疑难上加难。 “用功能磁共振成像来测谎并不是首选。”他说。

• Prospect：n. 前途

• Accurate：a. 精确的

• come up with：提出；想出；敢上