2013年经济学人 欺骗的重要 The importance of trickery

 

Books and Arts;Book Review;Deceit and self-deception¹；Suspicious minds

文艺；书评；欺人与自欺；疑心病

The Folly² of Fools：The Logic³ of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life. By Robert Trivers.

《傻瓜的傻事儿》，罗伯特·特里沃斯著。

Deceiving others has its advantages. Camouflage⁴ in nature is useful to the hunter and the hunted.The smarter the animal,the more likely it is to use (and detect) deception to its benefit. Humans are particularly good at exploiting trickery to get ahead—for more money, more power or a desired mate. Yet deception is difficult, regardless of intelligence. Lying often leaves us nervous and twitchy, and complicated fictions can lead to depression and poor immune function. And then there are the ethical⁵ implications.

欺骗他人是有好处的。自然界的伪装对猎手和猎物都有用。动物越聪明，越有可能利用（察觉）欺骗为自己谋利。人类尤其善于利用欺骗以获得成功——为了更多的钱财，更大的权力，亦或理想的伴侣。可是不管你多聪明，欺骗都没那么容易。撒谎让我们神经紧张，焦虑不安，复杂的谎言还导致抑郁及免疫力下降。其次还会牵涉到道德问题。

In “The Folly of Fools” Robert Trivers, an American evolutionary⁶ biologist, explains that the most effectively devious⁷ people are often unaware⁸ of their deceit. Self-deception makes it easier to manipulate others to get ahead. Particularly intelligent people can be especially good at deceiving themselves.

美国进化论生物学家罗伯特·特里沃斯在《愚妄人的愚昧》一书中解释道，最狡诈的人通常都意识不到他们在欺骗。用自欺操纵别人，成功更显轻而易举。特别聪明的人可能也会特别善于欺骗自己。

Mining research in biology, neurophysiology, immunology and psychology⁹, Mr Trivers delivers a swift tour of links between deception and evolutionary progress. Some of it is intuitive. The grey squirrel, for example, cleverly builds false caches to discourage others from raiding its acorns¹⁰. Placebos¹¹ are sometimes as effective as medication without the nasty side effects. Other illustrations require more head-scratching. Mr Trivers argues that competition between our maternal¹² and paternal¹³ genes¹⁴ can create “split selves”, which try to fool each other on a biological level. Human memory often involves an unconscious process of selection and distortion, the better to believe the stories we tell others.

搜寻了生物学，神经生理学，免疫学和心理学的研究后，特里沃斯先生简要说明了欺骗和进化过程间的各种关系。有些关系是天生的。比如，灰松鼠会造假窝，以防止别人偷抢它的橡木果实；安慰剂有时和药一样有效，但却没有令人难受的副作用。其他的例子则相对费解。特里沃斯先生声称，从生物学角度，母体和父体遗传基因间的竞争会引起“自我分裂”的说法欺骗了大家。人类记忆常常会有一个无意识的选择与扭曲的过程，促使我们相信讲给他人的假话。

All of this deceit comes at a price. Mr Trivers suggests that the most cunning people (whether conscious fibbers or not) tend to benefit at the expense of everyone else. He highlights the way overconfident Wall Street traders may hurt investors¹⁵ and taxpayers¹⁶ at little personal risk. Then there are politicians who spin stories of national greatness to bolster¹⁷ support for costly¹⁸ wars in which they will not be fighting.

欺骗都要一定的代价。特里沃斯先生指出，最狡猾的人（不管是不是睁眼说瞎话）往往会在其他所有人的代价之上得益。他强调过分自信的华尔街商人冒很小的个人风险就可能会伤害投资者和纳税人的利益。此外，也有政治家编造“国家伟大”的故事，大力支持他们不会参与但却花费高昂的战争。

There is certainly no shortage of human folly to consider. Mr Trivers offers some fascinating evidence of our biological cunning, yet the science of self-deception often takes a back seat to his political views and scepticism of the social sciences. This book could probably do without his long digressions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq war. But by the time readers reach these last few chapters, they will be wary¹⁹ of taking any story at face value anyway.

书里当然还讲了其他的人类蠢事。有关我们生物学上的狡猾，特里沃斯先生给出了一些很棒的证据，然而一谈到政治见解和社会科学怀疑论，自欺科学就退而其次了。以色列-巴勒斯坦冲突和伊拉克战争的冗长讲述有偏题之嫌，删去也未尝不可。但是等读者读到最后几章，他们将变得谨慎，绝不再轻信谎言。

1 deception   

n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计

参考例句：

• He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
• He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。

2 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。

3 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

4 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

5 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

6 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

7 devious   

adj.不坦率的，狡猾的；迂回的，曲折的

参考例句：

• Susan is a devious person and we can't depend on her.苏姗是个狡猾的人，我们不能依赖她。
• He is a man who achieves success by devious means.他这个人通过不正当手段获取成功。

8 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

9 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

10 acorns   

n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Great oaks from little acorns grow. 万丈高楼平地起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Welcome to my new website!It may not look much at the moment, but great oaks from little acorns grow! 欢迎来到我的新网站。它现在可能微不足道，不过万丈高楼平地起嘛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 placebos   

n.（给无实际治疗需要者的）安慰剂( placebo的名词复数 )；安慰物；宽心话；（试验药物用的）无效对照剂

参考例句：

• But, eventually, I think they were just kind of like placebos. 但是后来，我想它们只是安慰剂（安慰剂：没有任何药效的药） 来自电影对白
• But comparable numbers of those who received placebos also improved. 但是吃安慰剂的人的病情也改善了。 来自互联网

12 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

13 paternal   

adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的

参考例句：

• I was brought up by my paternal aunt.我是姑姑扶养大的。
• My father wrote me a letter full of his paternal love for me.我父亲给我写了一封充满父爱的信。

14 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

15 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

16 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

17 bolster   

n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The high interest rates helped to bolster up the economy.高利率使经济更稳健。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

18 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

19 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。