2018年经济学人 合理的怀疑:只见部分,不辩总体(1)

 

The importance of context also arose in Mr Thaler's work on “mental accounting”.

背景的重要性还出现在了赛勒有关“心理演算”（mental accounting）的研究中。

In thinking about money, people tend to compartmentalise, grouping certain types of spending or income together.

在考虑钱的时候，人们往往会区别对待，将某类开支和收入归总起来。

In some cases this might amount to a strategy for managing imperfect self-control (as in the credit-card debt example).

在有些情况下，这或许相当于为了管理不完全的自我控制的一种策略（就像在信用卡债务的例子中那样）。

More broadly, it reflects the human tendency to tackle cognitive¹ problems in pieces, rather than as a whole.

推而广之，这反映的人类那种只见部分、不辩总体的解决认知问题的倾向。

When petrol prices fall, for example, drivers sometimes switch from regular-grade petrol to premium² (rather than use savings³ out of the “petrol” category somewhere else).

例如，当油价下降时，司机常常是从常用等级的汽油换到高等级的汽油（而不是使用从别处的汽油分类中省下来的钱）。

Because of this mental pigeonholing⁴, taxi drivers who aim to earn a certain amount each day may stop work early on busy days and later on slow ones, though the opposite approach would maximise earnings⁵ per hour.

由于这种心理上的分门别类，目标是每天挣一定数量的钱的出租车司机有可能在繁忙的日子早早收工、在清闲的日子晚收工，尽管相反的策略会让每小时的收入最大化。

Mr Thaler, with his colleague Hersh Shefrin, understood choices as battles between two competing cognitive forces: a “doer” part of the brain focused on short-term rewards, and a “planner” focused on the long term.

赛勒和他的同事赫什·舍夫林把选择理解为两种相互竞争的认知力量之间的战斗：大脑中“做事”的那一部分关注的是短期回报；“计划”那一部分关注的是长期回报。

Willpower can help suppress the doer's urges, but exercising restraint is costly⁶.

意志力可能有助于抑制做事的冲动，但是，践行约束花费不菲。

This internal struggle is continuous, so individual preferences are not constant over time (whether you have another beer may depend on the state of the brain at a given moment).

这种内部战斗连续不断，因而，个人喜好不是长时间不变的（是否再来一杯可能取决于大脑在某一特定时刻的状态）。

It also means that presenting people with a “choice architecture” which favours the planner over the doer can have big effects on behaviour.

这也表明，给人们提供一种厚计划薄干事的“选择架构”可能对行为产生重大影响。

That insight became the basis for “nudging”.

这种深刻见解成为了“助推行为”的基础。

1 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

2 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

3 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

4 pigeonholing   

v.把…搁在分类架上( pigeonhole的现在分词 )；把…留在记忆中；缓办；把…隔成小格

参考例句：

• Assist operation department for document processing and pigeonholing and some basal data entry. 负责协助业务部门进行文件处理和归档，及业务数据方面的处理。 来自互联网

5 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

6 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。