TED英语演讲视频：揭露心理学的9个错误观点！
你对心理学的看法有多少实际上是错的？它们有多少是在以讹传讹，又或是被夸大了作用？Ben Ambridge分享了九个关于心理学的流行观点，这些观点被证明是错误的，同时他也揭示了一些关于我们的大脑如何真正起作用的令人惊讶的事实。
演讲者：Ben Ambridge
片长：13:25https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=l0928s1kaeh
TED演讲稿You've heard of your IQ, your general intelligence, but what's your Psy-Q? How much do you know about what makes you tick, and how good are you at predicting other people's behavior or even your own?
你一定听说过智商，也就是你的普通智力，但什么是你的心理商？你对自己的行为和性格了解多少，你能准确地预测他人行为或你自己的行为吗？
And how much of what you think you know about psychology is wrong? Let's find out by counting down the top myths of psychology.
你对心理学的认知有多少是错的？让我们来倒数心理学的几大错误观念。
You've probably heard it said that when it comes to their psychology, it's almost as if men are from Mars and women are from Venus. But how different are men and women really? To find out, let's start by looking at something on which men and women really do differ and plotting some psychological gender differences on the same scale. One thing men and women do really differ on is how far they can throw a ball.
你可能听过这本书，当描述两性心理学时——男人仿佛来自火星，女人来自金星。但男人和女人间究竟有多大的差异？为了找到答案，让我们看看男女在哪些方面存在明显的差别，然后再把这些心理学上的性别差异在同一张图上表现出来。那么男女差异的其中一项是扔球距离的远近。
So if we look at the data for men here, we see what is called a normal distribution curve. A few men can throw a ball really far, and a few men not far at all, but most a kind of average distance. And women share the same distribution as well, but actually there s quite a big difference. In fact, the average man can throw a ball further than about 98 percent of all women.
当我们看男性的数据。我们看到一条所谓的标准分布曲线。有些男性可以把球扔很远，有些男性却稍逊一点，但大多数都在平均距离附近。女性的表现也呈现了 相同的分布曲线，但实际上却存在相当大的差异。事实上，男性平均来说扔球比98%的女性扔得更远。
So now let's look at what some psychological gender differences look like on the same standardized scale. Any psychologist will tell you that men are better at spatial awareness than women -- so things like map-reading, for example -- and it's true, but let s have a look at the size of this difference. It's tiny, the lines are so close together they almost overlap.
那么现在我们来看看男女在心理上的一些差别，还是以同样的标准来比较。任何心理学家都会告诉你男人比女人的空间感更好—— 例如，像阅读地图这样的事 ——这的确是事实，不过让我们看看这种差异到底有多大。差异非常小，线条如此接近，近乎重叠。
In fact, the average woman is better than 33 percent of all men, and of course, if that was 50 percent, then the two genders would be exactly equal. It's worth bearing in mind that this difference and the next one I ll show you are pretty much the biggest psychological gender differences ever discovered in psychology. So here s the next one.
事实上，女性平均来说比 33％的男性的表现要好，当然，如果这百分比是50％， 那么，男性和女性将是完全相同。请记住这种差异，我马上要说的下一个例子，几乎是心理学迄今为止发现的男女心理上的最大差异。那么就是这个。
Any psychologist will tell you that women are better with language and grammar than men. So here's performance on the standardized grammar test. There go the women. There go the men.
任何心理学家都会告诉你女性在语言和语法方面比男性更好。这表现在标准化语法测试上。这是女性曲线（紫色），这是男性曲线（青色）。
Again, yes, women are better on average, but the lines are so close that 33 percent of men are better than the average woman, and again, if it was 50 percent, that would represent complete gender equality.
没错，女性在平均水平上更好，但线条很接近，33％的男性表现超过了女性平均值， 同样，如果这百分比是50％ 这将代表完全的性别无差异。
So it's not really a case of Mars and Venus. It's more a case of, if anything, Mars and Snickers: basically the same, but one's maybe slightly nuttier than the other.
因此，这不是火星和金星的对比，它更像巧克力棒Mars和Snickers的差别，基本相同，但一种可能比另一种稍甜。
When making a cake, do you prefer to -- so hands up for each one again -- do you prefer to use a recipe book with pictures? Yeah, a few people.
当你做蛋糕的时候，还是请大家举手示意，你更习惯使用带图片的食谱书吗？好的，有一些人举手了。
Have a friend talk you through? Or have a go, making it up as you go along? Quite a few people there. Okay, so if you said A, then this means that you are a visual learner and you learn best when information is presented in a visual style.
需要一个朋友在这个过程中指导你吗？还是你会自己尝试去凑合做一个？还有不少人举手了。好的，如果你选了A，这意味着你是一个视觉学习者，当信息以视觉的形式表现出来的时候，你的学习效果最好。
If you said B, it means you're an auditory learner, that you learn best when information is presented to you in an auditory format. And if you said C, it means that you're a kinesthetic learner, that you learn best when you get stuck in and do things with your hands.
如果你选B，说明你是一个听觉学习者，通过听觉信息可以达到最好的学习效果。如果你选C，这意味你是一个动觉学习者，用双手亲自实践会学得最快。
Except, of course, as you ve probably guessed, that it doesn't, because the whole thing is a complete myth. Learning styles are made up and are not supported by scientific evidence.
当然你可能已经猜到，这样的结论不太可靠，因为整个学习过程要比这复杂得多。这种学习方式只是人为定义的，并没有科学证据的支持。
So we know this because in tightly controlled experimental studies, when learners are given material to learn either in their preferred style or an opposite style, it makes no difference at all to the amount of information that they retain. And if you think about it for just a second, it's just obvious that this has to be true.
我们了解到这些，是因为在严格对照的实验研究里，给学习者提供的学习资料要么是他们喜欢的学习方式，要么就是他们不喜欢的，事实证明他们所掌握的信息数量完全没有区别。如果你仔细思考一下，很明显，这是真实的。
It's obvious that the best presentation format depends not on you, but on what you re trying to learn. Could you learn to drive a car, for example, just by listening to someone telling you what to do with no kinesthetic experience?
最好的呈现方式不取决于你，而取决于你尝试学习的东西。例如，你学开车的时候，只是通过听别人口头传授，而不需要任何动觉的经验吗？
Could you solve simultaneous equations by talking them through in your head and without writing them down? Could you revise for your architecture exams using interpretive dance if you're a kinesthetic learner?
你在解联立方程的时候，只是通过单纯的大脑思考，而不用把它们写下来吗？如果你是一个动觉学习者，在复习建筑学考试的时候能使用诠释性的舞蹈吗？
No. What you need to do is match the material to be learned to the presentation format, not you.
当然不行，你需要做的是要将需要学习的材料与它表现的形式相匹配，而不是与你习惯的方式。
I know many of you are A-level students that will have recently gotten your GCSE results. And if you didn't quite get what you were hoping for, then you can t really blame your learning style, but one thing that you might want to think about blaming is your genes.
我知道许多在座的人是优等生，最近刚拿到你的GCSE（中等教育普通证书）的结果。如果你没有完全得到你预期的成绩，你真的不能责怪你的学习方式，但你也许可以考虑责怪一下你的基因。
So what this is all about is a recent study at University College London found that 58 percent of the variation between different students and their GCSE results was down to genetic factors. That sounds like a very precise figure, so how can we tell? Well, when we want to unpack the relative contributions of genes and the environment, what we can do is do a twin study.
这里有伦敦大学学院最近做的一项研究，里面发现在不同学生和他们的GCSE成绩之间 有58%的差异来自遗传因素。这听起来是一个精确的数字，我们是怎么确定它的？当我们想解开关于基因和环境相互作用的问题时，我们可以做双胞胎研究。
So identical twins share 100 percent of their environment and 100 percent of their genes, whereas non-identical twins share 100 percent of their environment, but just like any brother and sister, share only 50 percent of their genes.
同卵双胞胎有100%相同的环境以及100%相同的基因，然而，异卵双胞胎有100％相同的环境，但像任何兄弟姐妹一样，只有一半相同的基因。
So by comparing how similar GCSE results are in identical twins versus non-identical twins, and doing some clever math, we can an idea of how much variation and performance is due to the environment and how much is due to genes. And it turns out that it s about 58 percent due to genes.
因此，通过比较同卵双胞胎与异卵双胞胎的GCSE的成绩，做一些巧妙的计算后，我们就可以知道有多少表现和差异来自环境，有多少是来自于基因。而结果证明，约58％的差异是基因导致的。
So this isn t to undermine the hard work that you and your teachers here put in. If you didn t quite get the GCSE results that you were hoping for, then you can always try blaming your parents, or at least their genes.
所以，并不是说你和你老师们的辛苦付出没起到什么作用。如果你没有得到你预期的 GCSE成绩，那么你可以尝试去埋怨你的父母，或者至少是他们的基因。
One thing that you shouldn t blame is being a left-brained or right-brained learner, because again, this is a myth. So the myth here is that the left brain is logical, it s good with equations like this, and the right brain is more creative, so the right brain is better at music.
有一件你不应该去埋怨的事情，是关于左脑学习者或右脑学习者，因为，这同样也是个错误观念。它描述的是左脑是主管逻辑，它擅于解方程式，而右脑更富有创意，在音乐方面表现更佳。
But again, this is a myth because nearly everything that you do involves nearly all parts of your brain talking together, even just the most mundane thing like having a normal conversation. However, perhaps one reason why this myth has survived is that there is a slight grain of truth to it.
但同样，这是一个错误观念，因为几乎你所做的每件事情都牵涉你大脑所有部位的相互沟通联系，就算是最平凡的日常对话都如此。然而，这个错误观念至今仍然存在的一个原因可能是，它其实是有点道理的。
So a related version of the myth is that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people, which kind of makes sense because your brain controls the opposite hands, so left-handed people, the right side of the brain is slightly more active than the left-hand side of the brain, and the idea is the right-hand side is more creative.
它的另一个说法是说左撇子比右撇子更有创造力，这种说法有点道理，因为你的大脑控制相反的手，因此，左撇子的人，他的右脑比右撇子的人更加活跃一点，而共识恰恰是右脑更有创造力。
Now, it isn t true per se that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. What is true that ambidextrous people, or people who use both hands for different tasks, are more creative thinkers than one-handed people, because being ambidextrous involves having both sides of the brain talk to each other a lot, which seems to be involved in creating flexible thinking.
但这个左撇子比右撇子更有创造力的观念，本身并不太站得住脚。事实上，双手灵巧的人或两手可以处理不同事情的人，比单手使用者更富有创意，因为双手使用者需要让大脑两侧进行大量的互动和沟通，这似乎与创造灵活的思维相关。
The myth of the creative left-hander arises from the fact that being ambidextrous is more common amongst left-handers than right-handers, so a grain of truth in the idea of the creative left-hander, but not much.
左撇子更有创意的错误观念源自善用双手者在左撇子中比右撇子中，更常见这一事实， 所以说，左撇子更有创意这个说法有些道理，但并不完全正确。
A related myth that you ve probably heard of is that we only use 10 percent of our brains. This is, again, a complete myth. Nearly everything that we do, even the most mundane thing, uses nearly all of our brains.
另一个相关的错误观念，你或许听过，我们只用到了我们大脑的10％。这也是一个完全错误的观念。我们所做的每件事情，即使是最平凡的小事，都会使用到几乎整个大脑。
That said, it is of course true that most of us don t use our brainpower quite as well as we could. So what could we do to boost our brainpower? Maybe we could listen to a nice bit of Mozart. Have you heard of the idea of the Mozart effect? So the idea is that listening to Mozart makes you smarter and improves your performance on I.Q. tests.
我们大多数人不能有效地运用我们的大脑，这种说法当然是真的。那么我们要怎样充分调动我们大脑的潜能呢？或许我们可以听一段莫扎特的音乐。你们听说过莫扎特效应吗？它说的是听莫扎特的音乐会使你更聪明，并能提升你在智商测验中的表现。
Now again, what s interesting about this myth is that although it s basically a myth, there is a grain of truth to it. So the original study found that participants who were played Mozart music for a few minutes did better on a subsequent I.Q. test than participants who simply sat in silence.
它的有趣之处在于虽然这基本上也是个错误观念，但也并不是完全错误。最初的研究发现，听过几分钟莫扎特音乐的参与者，在随后的智商测验中的表现比只是静静坐着的参与者要好。
But a follow-up study recruited some people who liked Mozart music and then another group of people who were fans of the horror stories of Stephen King. And they played the people the music or the stories. The people who preferred Mozart music to the stories got a bigger I.Q. boost from the Mozart than the stories,
但一项后续研究，招募了一些喜欢莫扎特音乐的人以及另外一组人，他们喜欢Stephen King的恐怖故事。参与者都需要听音乐或听故事。更喜欢听莫扎特音乐的人比爱听故事的人在听过莫扎特音乐后表现出了更高的智商，
but the people who preferred the stories to the Mozart music got a bigger I.Q. boost from listening to the Stephen King stories than the Mozart music. So the truth is that listening to something that you enjoy perks you up a bit and gives you a temporary I.Q. boost on a narrow range of tasks. There s no suggestion that listening to Mozart, or indeed Stephen King stories, is going to make you any smarter in the long run.
但对于更喜欢听故事的人来说，听Stephen King的故事，相比听莫扎特的音乐，会让他们的智商呈现更显著的增长。那么事实就是，当你在听喜欢的东西时，会使你振作一点，让你在有限的工作中会表现出暂时的智商增长。不过并没有证据表明听莫扎特音乐，或听Stephen King的故事会让你彻底变得更聪明。
Another version of the Mozart myth is that listening to Mozart can make you not only cleverer but healthier, too. Unfortunately, this doesn t seem to be true of someone who listened to the music of Mozart almost every day, Mozart himself, who suffered from gonorrhea, smallpox, arthritis, and, what most people think eventually killed him in the end, syphilis. This suggests that Mozart should have bit more careful, perhaps, when choosing his sexual partners. But how do we choose a partner?
另一个关于莫扎特的错误观念是听莫扎特音乐，不仅让你变聪明，而且会更健康。可惜的是，这对于几乎每天听莫扎特音乐的人来说，并不是那么回事儿。莫扎特本身就曾饱受疾病的折磨，淋病，天花，关节炎，不过人们认为最终导致他死亡的是梅毒。这表示，也许莫扎特在 选择他的性伴侣时应该要更小心。但是，我们该如何选择另一半呢？
So a myth that I have to say is sometimes spread a bit by sociologists is that our preferences in a romantic partner are a product of our culture, that they re very culturally specific. But in fact, the data don t back this up. A famous study surveyed people from [37] different cultures across the globe, from Americans to Zulus, on what they look for in a partner.
还有一个时常被社会学家提到的观念，那就是我们对于恋爱对象的偏好是一种文化下的产物，具有文化特定性。但实际上，数据分析的结果并不支持这种看法。有一项知名的研究，对来自全球37个不同文化背景的人进行了调查，从美洲人到南非祖鲁部落人，关于他们如何择偶。
And in every single culture across the globe, men placed more value on physical attractiveness in a partner than did women, and in every single culture, too, women placed more importance than did men on ambition and high earning power. In every culture, too, men preferred women who were younger than themselves, an average of, I think it was 2.66 years, and in every culture, too, women preferred men who were older than them, so an average of 3.42 years, which is why we ve got here "Everybody needs a Sugar Daddy."
而在全世界任何一个文化中，男性都会比女性更多的注重另一半的外表，同样在任何一个文化中，女性都比男性更重视另一半的事业心和经济能力。另外，在任何一个文化中，男性更喜欢比自己年轻的女性，我记得平均要年轻2.66岁，同样在任何文化中，女性都更喜欢比她们年纪大的男性，平均年长3.42岁，这就是为什么人们常说 “每个人（女性）都需要傍大款。“
So moving on from trying to score with a partner to trying to score in basketball or football or whatever your sport is. The myth here is that sportsmen go through hot-hand streaks, Americans call them, or purple patches, we sometimes say in England, where they just can t miss, like this guy here.
那么，把话题从找到理想伴侣转到如何在篮球或足球等运动中得分吧。这个说法是，运动员会经历美国人称为的热手时期，或英国人说的紫色时期，像这家伙一样，在球场上他们绝对不会丢分。
But in fact, what happens is that if you analyze the pattern of hits and misses statistically, it turns out that it s nearly always at random. Your brain creates patterns from the randomness.
但事实上，如果你对这些得分和丢分进行统计分析，你会发现这几乎都是随机的。你的大脑会从随机事件中 创建出某种模式。
If you toss a coin, a streak of heads or tails is going to come out somewhere in the randomness, and because the brain likes to see patterns where there are none, we look at these streaks and attribute meanings to them and say, "Yeah he s really on form today," whereas actually you would get the same pattern if you were just getting hits and misses at random.
比如你抛硬币，会随机出现正面或反面两种可能，因为大脑喜欢从随机中找出模式来， 我们会为这些随机事件人为加上某种意义，说：“是啊，他今天状态很好。” 但如果你只是随机的得分和丢分，实际上还是会获得相同的数据分布模式。
So an exception to this, however, is penalty shootouts. A recent study looking at penalty shootouts in football shows that players who represent countries with a very bad record in penalty shootouts, like, for example, England, tend to be quicker to take their shots than countries with a better record, and presumably as a result, they re more likely to miss.
但是罚球是一个例外。最近一项关于足球运动中罚点球的研究发现，那些罚点球记录很糟糕的国家队中的球员，例如，在英国队，相比罚球记录较好国家的球员更急于射门得分，结果看起来就好像他们比较容易罚球失误。
Which raises the question of if there s any way that we could improve people s performance. And one thing you might think about doing is punishing people for their misses and seeing if that improves them.
这又带出了一个问题，有什么方法可以改善人们的表现。你可能会想做这样一件事， 惩罚有失误的人，看这样是否能提高他们表现。
This idea, the effect that punishment can improve performance, is what participants thought they were testing in Milgram s famous learning and punishment experiment that you ve probably heard about if you re a psychology student. The story goes that participants were prepared to give what they believed to be fatal electric shocks to a fellow participant when they got a question wrong, just because someone in a white coat told them to.
这个关于惩罚可以提升表现的看法，正是来源于参与过Milgram著名的学习和惩罚实验的被试者们， 如果你是一个心理学系的学生， 你可能听说过这个实验。具体是这样，当一部分参与者答错了问题时，另一部分参与者就要对他们实施提前被告知会致命的电击，就因为某个穿着白大褂的人告诉他们这样做。
But this story is a myth for three reasons. Firstly and most crucially, the lab coat wasn t white, it was in fact grey. Secondly, the participants were told before the study and reminded any time they raised a concern, that although the shocks were painful, they were not fatal and indeed caused no permanent damage whatsoever.
但这个故事疑点重重，原因有三个。第一个，也是最关键的，实验外套不是白色，而是灰色。其次，在研究进行之前，参与者会被告知并在实验中一直被提醒，虽然电击会引起疼痛，但并不是致命的，也不会引起永久的伤害，等等。
And thirdly, participants didn t give the shocks just because someone in the coat told them to. When they were interviewed after the study, all the participants said that they firmly believed that the learning and punishment study served a worthy scientific purpose which would have enduring gains for science as opposed to the momentary nonfatal discomfort caused to the participants.
第三，参与者没有因为穿实验服的人让他们实施电击，就真的这样做了。在实验结束后的采访中，所有参与者都说，他们坚定地认为学习和惩罚的研究很有科学价值， 虽然会给予参与者短暂的，非致命的不适感，但能让科学领域获得长远的收获。
Okay, so I ve been talking for about 12 minutes now, and you ve probably been sitting there listening to me, analyzing my speech patterns and body language and trying to work out if you should take any notice of what I m saying, whether I m telling the truth or whether I m lying, but if so you ve probably completely failed,
好了，目前我已经讲了约12分钟，你们可能一直在那里听我讲，分析我讲话的模式和身体语言，并试图记住我说过的一些话，并分辨它们究竟是事实，还是我在撒谎，如果你这样做的话，你大概没得出什么正确结论，
because although we all think we can catch a liar from their body language and speech patterns, hundreds of psychological tests over the years have shown that all of us, including police officers and detectives, are basically at chance when it comes to detecting lies from body language and verbal patterns.
因为，虽然我们认为，我们能够通过身体语言和说话方式来判断一个人是不是在说谎，但是多年来的数百个心理学研究却发现我们所有的人，包括警察和侦探，当想要透过说话者的身体语言和说话方式来测谎时，其实都是在碰运气。
Interestingly, there is one exception: TV appeals for missing relatives. It s quite easy to predict when the relatives are missing and when the appealers have in fact murdered the relatives themselves.
吁寻找失踪的亲人，我们很容易就能判断亲人是真的失踪了，还是发出呼吁的人已经谋杀了自己的亲人。
So hoax appealers are more likely to shake their heads, to look away, and to make errors in their speech, whereas genuine appealers are more likely to express hope that the person will return safely and to avoid brutal language. So, for example, they might say "taken from us" rather than "killed."
说谎的呼吁者更可能会摇头，目光游移不定，而且他们的言辞中错误频频，相反，真正的呼吁人通常更会表达对失踪者安全归来的期待，并避免使用极端的语言。例如，他们可能会说 “离开了我们”，而不是“被杀害了”。
Speaking of which, it s about time I killed this talk, but before I do, I just want to give you in 30 seconds the overarching myth of psychology. So the myth is that psychology is just a collection of interesting theories, all of which say something useful and all of which have something to offer.
说到这里，差不多该结束这次演讲了，不过在结束以前，我想用30秒来总结一下关于心理学总体的一个错误观念。这个观念是，心理学只是对有趣理论的收集，只是提供一些实用的，指导性的理论而已。
What I hope to have shown you in the past few minutes is that this isn t true. What we need to do is assess psychological theories by seeing what predictions they make, whether that is that listening to Mozart makes you smarter, that you learn better when information is presented in your preferred learning style or whatever it is,
在刚才的演讲中我希望已经让你们知道了，这种说法并不正确。我们需要做的是 通过心理学所做的预测来评估这些心理学理论， 论是听莫扎特音乐能让你更聪明，或当信息以你较喜欢的学习模式呈现出来，你会学得更好，无论它是什么，
all of these are testable empirical predictions, and the only way we can make progress is to test these predictions against the data in tightly controlled experimental studies. And it s only by doing so that we can hope to discover which of these theories are well supported, and which, like all the ones I ve told you about today, are myths.
所有这些都是可检验的以经验为依据的预测，我们唯一能取得进展的方式就是在严格的对照实验研究中用数据去检验这些预测。只有这样，我们才能期待去挖掘那些有充分证据支持的理论，而哪些，就像我今天介绍过的，是错误的观念。
Thank you.
谢谢。（鼓掌）
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