Where Does The Brain Process Moral Decisions?
大脑的哪个部分与做道德决策有关呢？
Yaël And Don Try An Experiment…
雅艾尔和唐在做实验……
Don: Yaël, suppose there’s a trolley that’s about to run over five people. Do you flip the switch that will steer the trolley onto a different track if that means only one person will die?
唐：雅艾尔,假设一辆有轨电车将要撞上五个人。这时扳动转辙器让电车行驶到另一条轨道上，但这意味着只会有一人丧命。你会这么做吗？
Yaël: I sure would.
雅艾尔:我会这么做。
Don: Okay, now what if the only way you can save those five people is by pushing the stranger next to you into the trolley’s path?
唐:好，那么如果拯救这五个人的唯一办法是把你身边的陌生人推到电车的轨道上，你觉得怎么样呢？
Yaël: Yuck, Don. That would be wrong.
雅艾尔: 令人恶心, 唐。这是不对的。
Don: You know, Yaël, most people, when asked this question, answered the same way. And moral philosophers and psychologists have been trying to figure out why. After all, in both cases, one person dies to save five.
唐: 雅艾尔，大多数人被问到这个问题的时候，都会这么回答。伦理学家和心理学家一直在尝试弄清为什么会这样。毕竟，在这两种情况下，都是牺牲一人保全五人。
Inside The Science
走进科学
In one study, scientists discovered that these two scenarios are processed by different parts of the brain. Flipping a switch, because it’s more impersonal, activates the part of the brain associated with memory. But the more personal scenario that requires actively killing a person activates the part of the brain associated with emotions.
在一项研究中，科学家们发现这两种场景是由大脑的不同部分处理的。扳动转辙器，因为这是非人性的动作，所以它只激活大脑中和记忆有关的那部分。而杀人这个场景更具人性色彩，所以会激活大脑中和感情有关的那部分。
Scientists speculate that a lot of our gut reactions to moral dilemmas may be affected by our upbringing. After all, as children we internalize the emotional reactions of those around us and store them in emotional brain circuits. Then, later, when we encounter a moral problem, these automatic gut feelings guide our decision-making.
科学家们推断，我们面对道德两难处境时的许多本能反应可能与我们受到的教育有关。毕竟，在儿童时代，我们把身边人的情感反应内化并储存在情感大脑回路里。然后，当我们遇到道德问题时，直觉就会自动指导我们做出决断。
Scientists hope that by figuring out how the brain behaves when people wrestle with difficult issues, we’ll be able to understand how people with different backgrounds reach different conclusions on when it’s okay to take a life. And everyone knows we could use a little more understanding.
科学家们希望通过弄清人们思考困难问题时大脑的运转方式，来帮助理解为什么不同背景的人在面对“可以取人性命”的问题时会得出不同的结论。并且，每一个人都知道我们可以多一些理解。 |