国家地理 我们为什么说谎(9)

A recent study led by Briony Swire-Thompson, a doctoral candidate in cognitive¹ psychology² at the University of Western Australia, documents the ineffectiveness of evidence-based information in refuting incorrect beliefs. In 2015 Swire-Thompson and her colleagues presented about 2,000 adult Americans with one of two statements: "Vaccines³ cause autism" or "Donald Trump⁴ said that vaccines cause autism." (Trump has repeatedly suggested there's a link, despite the lack of scientific evidence for it.)

西澳大学的认知心理学博士候选人布里奥妮·施怀雅-汤普森领衔的最近一项研究表明，循证信息在驳斥不正确信仰方面无效。2015年，施怀雅-汤普森及其同事向两千名成年美国人提供了两项声明之一：“疫苗引起自闭症”或“唐纳德·特朗普说疫苗引起自闭症”（特朗普多次表示两者存在关联，尽管缺乏科学证据。）

Not surprisingly, participants who were Trump supporters showed a decidedly stronger belief in the misinformation when it had Trump's name attached to it. Afterward⁵ the participants were given a short explanation—citing a large-scale study—for why the vaccine-autism link was false, and they were asked to reevaluate their belief in it. The participants—across the political spectrum—now accepted that the statements claiming the link were untrue, but testing them again a week later showed that their belief in the misinformation had bounced back to nearly the same level.

不足为奇的是，如果虚假信息与特朗普的名字有关联时，那些支持特朗普的选民们会对此深信不疑。测试之后，被试得到了一个在引用大规模研究“为什么自闭症和疫苗的联系是错的”后的简短的解释，他们被要求重新评估他们的信念。在政治层面，被试现在已经接受了两者有关的言论是错的，但是在一个星期后再次进行的测试表明，他们对错误信息的信念已经反弹到几乎相同的水平。

Other studies have shown that evidence undermining lies may in fact strengthen belief in them. "People are likely to think that familiar information is true. So any time you retract⁶ it, you run the risk of making it more familiar, which makes that retraction⁷ actually less effective, ironically, over the long term," says Swire-Thompson.

其他研究表明，揭穿谎言的证据实际上可能增强了对它们的信念。“人们很可能认为熟悉的信息是真实的。所以不论何时你收回谎言，都将冒着使其变得更加熟悉的风险。讽刺的是，从长期来看，这使撤销不那么有效。”施怀雅-汤普森说。

I experienced this phenomenon firsthand not long after I spoke⁸ to Swire-Thompson. When a friend sent me a link to an article ranking the 10 most corrupt⁹ political parties in the world, I promptly¹⁰ posted it to a WhatsApp group of about a hundred high school friends from India. The reason for my enthusiasm was that the fourth spot in the ranking was held by India's Congress Party, which in recent decades has been implicated¹¹ in numerous corruption¹² scandals. I chortled with glee because I'm not a fan of the party.

在我和施怀雅-汤普森谈话不久后，我经历了这个现象。当一个朋友发给我“世界上最腐败的十个政党的排名”的文章链接时，我立即把它发布到一个大约一百名印度的高中朋友的WhatsApp群中。我如此热情的原因是，排名第四的是印度国会党，近几十年来，该党牵连着许多腐败丑闻。我欢呼雀跃，因为我不是它的拥护者。

But shortly after sharing the article, I discovered that the ranking, which included parties from Russia, Pakistan, China, and Uganda, wasn't based on any metrics. It had been done by a site called BBC Newspoint, which sounded like a credible¹³ source. But I found out that it had no connection to the British Broadcasting Corporation. I posted an apology to the group, noting that the article was in all likelihood fake news.

但在分享文章后不久，我发现这份包括俄罗斯、巴基斯坦和乌干达的政党的排名，并没有任何指标作为依据。这篇文章来自一个名为BBC Newspoint的网站，听起来像一个可靠的信源，但我发现其与英国广播公司并没有任何联系。于是我向群里的成员道歉，指出这篇文章很可能是一则假消息。

That didn't stop others from reposting the article to the group several times over the next day. I realized that the correction I'd posted had not had any effect. Many of my friends—because they shared my antipathy¹⁴ toward the Congress Party—were convinced the ranking was true, and every time they shared it, they were unwittingly, or perhaps knowingly, nudging it toward legitimacy¹⁵. Countering it with fact would be in vain.

然而，这并没有阻止他人在第二天多次将文章转发给其他小组。我意识到我发布的更正没有任何效果。我的许多朋友，因为他们对国会党的反感，都相信这个排名是真实的。每次他们分享这个消息，他们就在不知不觉地，或者明知道是假新闻的情况下，把它推向合法性。打击事实将是徒劳的。

What then might be the best way to impede¹⁶ the fleet-footed advance of untruths into our collective lives? The answer isn't clear. Technology has opened up a new frontier for deceit, adding a 21st-century twist to the age-old conflict between our lying and trusting selves.

阻碍谎言快速进入生活的最好方法是什么呢？答案并不明了。科技的发展在信任与谎言中将旧时代的冲突与21世纪扭曲相结合，为谎言开辟了一个新的边境。

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 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。

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

6 retract   

vt.缩回，撤回收回，取消

参考例句：

• The criminals should stop on the precipice, retract from the wrong path and not go any further.犯罪分子应当迷途知返，悬崖勒马，不要在错误的道路上继续走下去。
• I don't want to speak rashly now and later have to retract my statements.我不想现在说些轻率的话，然后又要收回自己说过的话。

7 retraction   

n.撤消；收回

参考例句：

• He demanded a full retraction of the allegations against him.他要求完全收回针对他的言论。
• The newspaper published a retraction of the erroneous report.那家报纸声明撤回那篇错误的报道。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

10 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

11 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

13 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

14 antipathy   

n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物

参考例句：

• I feel an antipathy against their behaviour.我对他们的行为很反感。
• Some people have an antipathy to cats.有的人讨厌猫。

15 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

16 impede   

v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止

参考例句：

• One shouldn't impede other's progress.一个人不应该妨碍他人进步。
• The muddy roads impede our journey.我们的旅游被泥泞的道路阻挠了。