科学美国人60秒 包容幻觉减少种族偏见（在线收听）

Our ability to empathize depends, in part, on how much we see ourselves in others. Watch someone get smacked in the face and you’re likely to wince. 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 literally 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 swapping. 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 implicit racial bias. 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 Cognitive 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。