科学美国人60秒 包容幻觉减少种族偏见

Our ability to empathize depends, in part, on how much we see ourselves in others. Watch someone get smacked¹ in the face and you’re likely to wince². And studies show you’re more likely to feel the sting when the other person is more like you, when it comes to age or sex or race.

我们移情的能力在某种程度上取决于我们在别人身上看到多少自己的影子。看别人挨一巴掌，你的脸可能也会抽搐一下。研究表明，挨打的人和你越像，你越容易对他的刺痛感同身受;尤其是年龄或性别或种族相似时。

But what if we could literally³ see ourselves differently?

但如果我们真能看到不同的自己呢?

To find out, psychologists engaged in some experimental body swapping⁴. They use illusions that convince subjects that a rubber hand is actually part of their body or that a virtual body belongs to them. With these tricks, researchers can get light-skinned volunteers to see themselves as having a dark-skinned hand, face or entire body.

为得出结论，心理学家们进行了一些实验性的身体交换。他们利用幻想使实验对象相信一只橡胶手其实是他们身体的一部分或他们拥有一个虚拟的身体。通过这些技巧，研究人员可以让“浅肤色”的志愿者认为自己拥有“深肤色”的手、脸甚至是整个身体。

Before and after they experience the false physicality, the volunteers take a test that measures their implicit⁵ racial bias⁶. And they show a clear shift in their attitudes, reflecting more positive associations toward the group to which they temporarily felt they belonged. The study is discussed in a review article in the journal Trends in Cognitive⁷ Sciences.

在他们经历虚幻肉体之前和之后，志愿者参加了一次检验他们隐含的种族偏见的测试。测试中他们表现出了明显的态度转变，对那些使他们临时感觉与自己相关的群体，他们表现出了更积极的联想。该研究以一篇评论文章的形式发表于《认知科学趋势》期刊上。

Whether these enlightened attitudes last over time is not clear. But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Even if you take that step on virtual feet.

至于这些开明的态度是否会一直持续尚不清楚。但千里之行始于足下，即使你的第一步是虚拟的。

1 smacked   

拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He smacked his lips but did not utter a word. 他吧嗒两下嘴，一声也不言语。
• She smacked a child's bottom. 她打孩子的屁股。

2 wince   

n.畏缩，退避，（因痛苦，苦恼等)面部肌肉抽动；v.畏缩，退缩，退避

参考例句：

• The barb of his wit made us wince.他那锋芒毕露的机智使我们退避三舍。
• His smile soon modified to a wince.他的微笑很快就成了脸部肌肉的抽搐。

3 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 swapping   

交换，交换技术

参考例句：

• The slow swapping and buying of horses went on. 马匹的买卖和交换就是这样慢慢地进行着。
• He was quite keen on swapping books with friends. 他非常热衷于和朋友们交换书籍。

5 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

6 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

7 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。