2019年12月六级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 1 原文翻译及答案解析

"The dangerous thing about lying is people don't understand how the act changes us." says Dan Ariely, behavioural psychologist at Duke University. Psychologists have documented children lying as early as the age of two. Some experts even consider lying a developmental milestone, like crawling and walking, because it requires sophisticated planning, attention and the ability to see a situation from someone else's perspective to manipulate them. But, for most people, lying gets limited as we develop a sense of morality and the ability to self-regulate.

"谎言的危险之处在于，人们不了解这种行为如何改变我们。"杜克大学行为心理学家丹·阿里利说。心理学家记录到儿童早在两岁时就会说谎。一些专家甚至认为说谎是一个发展里程碑，就像爬行和走路一样，因为它需要复杂的计划、注意力以及从他人视角看待情境以操纵他们的能力。但是，对大多数人来说，随着我们发展出道德感和自我调节能力，说谎行为会受到限制。

Harvard cognitive neuroscientist Joshua Greene says, for most of us, lying takes work. In studies, he gave subjects a chance to deceive for monetary gain while examining their brains in a functional MRI machine, which maps blood flow to active parts of the brain. Some people told the truth instantly and instinctively. But others opted to lie, and they showed increased activity in their frontal parietal (颅腔壁的) control network, which is involved in difficult or complex thinking. This suggests that they were deciding between truth and dishonesty and ultimately opting for the letter. For a follow-up analysis, he found that people whose neural (神经的) reward centers were more active when they won money were also more likely to be among the group of liars suggesting that lying may have to do with the inability to resist temptation.

哈佛大学认知神经科学家约书亚·格林说，对我们大多数人来说，说谎需要付出努力。在研究中，他给受试者一个为金钱收益而欺骗的机会，同时使用功能性磁共振成像机检查他们的大脑，该机器能绘制大脑活跃部位的血流图。有些人立即本能地说了实话。但另一些人选择说谎，他们显示前顶叶（颅腔壁的）控制网络的活动增加，这与困难或复杂的思维有关。这表明他们在诚实与不诚实之间做决定，最终选择了后者。在后续分析中，他发现那些在赢钱时神经奖励中心更活跃的人，也更可能属于说谎者群体，这表明说谎可能与无法抵抗诱惑有关。

External conditions also matter in terms of when and how often we lie. We are more likely to lie, when we are able to rationalise it, when we are stressed and fatigued or see others being dishonest. And we are less likely to lie when we have moral reminders or when we think others are watching. "We as a society need to understand that, when we don't punish lying, we increase the probability it will happen again." Ariely says.

外部条件在说谎的时间和频率方面也很重要。当我们能够合理化说谎时，当我们感到压力和疲劳或看到他人不诚实时，我们更可能说谎。而当我们有道德提醒或认为别人在看着时，我们更不可能说谎。"作为一个社会，我们需要明白，当我们不惩罚说谎时，我们增加了它再次发生的概率。"阿里利说。

In a 2016 study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Ariely and colleagues showed how dishonesty alters people's brains, making it easier to tell ties in the future. When people uttered a falsehood, the scientists noticed a burst of activity in their amygdala. The amygdala is a crucial part of the brain that produces fear, anxiety and emotional responses— including that sinking, guilty feeling you get when you lie. But when scientists had their subjects play a game in which they won money by deceiving their partner, they noticed the negative signals from the amygdala began to decrease. Not only that, but when people faced no consequences for dishonesty, their falsehood tended to get even more sensational. This means that if you give people multiple opportunities to lie for their own benefit, they start with little lies which get bigger over time.

在2016年发表于《自然·神经科学》期刊的一项研究中，阿里利及其同事展示了不诚实如何改变人们的大脑，使未来更容易说谎。当人们说出谎言时，科学家注意到他们杏仁核的活动爆发。杏仁核是大脑的一个关键部分，产生恐惧、焦虑和情绪反应——包括说谎时那种下沉的、内疚的感觉。但当科学家让受试者玩一个通过欺骗伙伴赢钱的游戏时，他们注意到杏仁核的负面信号开始减少。不仅如此，当人们为不诚实行为不面临任何后果时，他们的谎言往往变得更加耸人听闻。这意味着，如果你给人们多次为自身利益说谎的机会，他们会从小谎言开始，随着时间的推移，谎言会越来越大。