Secrets of the mind and free will -- revealed by magic tricks | Alice Pailhès

翻译人员: Bill Fu 校对人员: psjmz mz

Alright.

好的，

I'd like to start with a small imagination exercise.

首先我们先做一个 小小的想象力练习。

Imagine you're sitting at this table, facing me right now.

想象一下，你现在 正在桌子对面，面对着我。

Now, I'm going to ask you to push one of these cards towards me.

我需要你将 其中一张牌推向我，

So please imagine yourself pushing one of these cards towards me.

请想象一下你将其中一张推向我。

OK, so take the number matching the card you pushed

好的，那么看好你推出的纸牌 对应的数字，

and remember it -- it's important for later.

并且记住它，之后会用到。

Now, I'm going to flip through this deck of cards

现在，我会快速翻动这副牌，

and ask you to choose a card that you will see in the deck.

并需要你从看到的 几张牌中选出一张。

Are you ready?

你准备好了吗？

Alright, now that you have your card in mind,

好，现在请记下选出的牌，

add the value of your card to your previous number.

把这张牌的数值和之前的数字相加。

For example, if you chose the six of clubs, add six,

比如说，如果你选了 梅花 6 ，就加上 6 ，

if it's an ace, add one,

如果是张 A，就加上 1 ，

and take 11 for any picture cards.

带图片的牌就加上 11 。

Have you got your final number in mind?

你已经得出最后结果了吗？

Perfect.

很好，

So please take the item matching your final number.

那么请选出最后结果 所对应的物品。

Now, here's what's funny.

有趣的是，

There are going to be a lot of people watching this video,

有很多人将会看到这个视频，

and you all have different quirks with different preferences.

而且每个人都有 不同的癖好和偏爱，

And yet,

但是，

the vast majority of you right now is thinking about a kiwi,

你们其中大部分人会选奇异果，

or, if you're left-handed, probably a corn on the cob.

或者如果你是左撇子的话， 大概会选玉米棒。

Yes, I just tricked you.

是的，我诱导了你。

And I used your psychological biases

我运用了心理偏差

to influence both of your decisions.

来影响你做出的那两个决定。

I work in the MAGIC Lab

我在伦敦大学金匠学院的

at Goldsmiths University of London,

一个魔术实验室工作，

which is not only a place where we make assistants vanish,

这不仅是个表演让助手 突然消失的地方，

but where we use magic tricks to study psychological processes,

还是个运用魔术技法 来学习心理过程，

such as attention, perception, deception and free will.

比如注意力、感知、 欺瞒和自由意志的地方。

I am fascinated by the subtle factors that influence our choices,

我迷上了那些影响 我们决定的微妙因素

and how understanding our flaws can give us back some power.

以及怎么通过理解自己的缺陷 来减少这些影响。

Magic tricks provide a powerful tool to investigate this,

我们的实验显示，

and our experiments have shown that.

魔术是用来探查 这一点的强大工具。

First, we humans tend to go for the easiest decisions.

首先，人类倾向于 做出最简单的决定。

With the card trick I did,

在刚才的纸牌魔术里，

most people tend to choose the card that I want them to choose,

大部分人倾向于选 我想让他们选的牌，

because I'm presenting it a bit longer than the others.

因为我展示那张牌的时间 会比其他牌稍长一些，

And it becomes the easiest option for your brain.

它就变成大脑得出的 最简单的选项。

In our case,

在这个例子里，

the majority of you probably chose the ten of hearts, right?

你们中的大部分人 选了红心 10 ，对吗？

And a lot of other tricks are based on this principle

而且有许多其他技巧都用到了

of easy decision.

这个简单决定的原则。

Because magicians are very aware

因为魔术师很清楚

that our brain, not to say "we," tends to be a bit lazy.

虽然说不上是“我们”， 但我们的大脑都有点懒惰。

The exercise we did with the four cards is also a good example of this.

那四张牌的想象练习 也是个很好的例子，

It's based on another trick I investigated,

它用了我观察到的另一个技巧。

where I ask participants to physically push

当我要求参与者手动向我推出

one of the four cards towards me.

四张牌的其中之一，

We found that around 60 percent of people choose the third card from the left,

我们发现大约六成的人 会选左起第三张牌，

and if they were left-handed,

如果是左撇子，

they typically chose the second card from the left.

一般会选左起第二张牌。

This is based on the easy-option principle again,

这又一次用到简单选项的原则，

because the card that most people choose

因为大部分人都会选

is the most easy to reach by the dominant hand.

自己的惯用手 最容易触碰到的那张牌。

So, I knew that most of you

那么我知道了你们大部分人

would end up with one of these two numbers,

会选的其中一个数字，

and this allowed me to estimate

这就能让我预估出

the two most probable things you would end up with.

两个你们最有可能选的对象。

But this is not just about magic.

但这不仅关系到魔术，

It's also about how we are influenced in our day-to-day lives.

还关系到我们在日常生活里 是怎么受到影响的。

You know, stories and politicians

要知道，故事和政客

play with your mind as well, all the time,

也在一直干涉你的大脑，

because they also know that we tend to choose and like

因为他们也明白我们 倾向于选择和喜欢

what's easily grabbed or seen.

能简单抓到或看到的东西。

For instance, when you are in a store,

比如说当你在商店里的时候，

choosing a bottle of wine or a bag of rice

想从许多纵向排列的货架上

among many lined up on vertical shelves,

选出一瓶红酒或者一袋米，

your first instinct is to look

你的第一反应就是

only at the ones that are on the shelves in front of your eyes, right?

先看眼前货架里的商品，对吗？

It's easier and requires less effort.

这更简单而且不用花费精力。

Did you know that many brands actually negotiate

你知道吗，其实许多品牌

to be at eye-level on grocery store shelves

因为简单选项原则， 会和店家交涉

because of that easy-option principle?

把商品放在视线高度的货架上？

And this is a tactic that many politicians use.

而且这也是 许多政客惯用的战术。

When information is right in front of our eyes on social media,

公布在社交媒体上的信息

it's easily accessible,

很容易就能获取到，

and it absolutely affects our voting behaviors.

而这绝对会影响到 我们的选举行为。

Political outcomes, such as the Brexit referendum

政治活动的结果， 比如英国脱欧公投

or the American election in 2016,

或者 2016 年的美国大选，

were heavily influenced by targeted advertising,

都深受针对性宣传的影响，

making some information,

让特定群众不成比例地

which was not necessarily truthful,

接收和看见

disproportionately easily accessible and visible to specific audiences

一些不一定是真实的信息，

to influence their votes.

进而影响他们的投票。

But here is the good news.

但这里有个好消息，

Some simple factors have an impact on how influencible we are.

一些简单的因素就能改变 我们被影响的程度。

In an experiment using the trick with the four cards,

在那个四张牌魔术的实验里，

we found that explicitly informing participants

我们发现在做出选择时，

that they have a choice

明确知情的参与者

can actually lead them to make more deliberate decisions,

能够做出更谨慎的决定，

as opposed to behaving in the way we are trying to make them behave.

并抵抗我们的心理暗示。

In other words,

换句话说，

I either simply asked participants to push one of the cards,

我能直接要求参与者 把其中一张牌推向我，

or I said,

或者我可以说，

"Choose a card, and then push it."

“选出一张牌，然后把它推向我”，

And when asked to choose a card,

当我要求选出一张牌的时候，

the percentage of people who impulsively chose the most reachable one

冲动地选最容易拿到的 那张牌的人数比例

dropped from 60 to 35 percent.

从 60% 降到了 35%。

So, it seems that when we are reminded that we have control over our choices,

所以，当我们被提醒 自己掌控着自己的决定，

and know that our actions matter,

并且明白这个行为 是有意义的时候，

as opposed to acting without thinking,

比起不经思考地行动，

we can actually make more personal decisions

我们实际上会做出 更个人的决定，

and are less easily influenced.

而且不那么容易受到影响。

Let me show you another trick,

让我向你们展示另一个

invented by a British mentalist Derren Brown,

由英国舞台艺术家 德伦·布朗（Derren Brown）

to make my point.

发明的魔术来证明我的观点。

This one uses what's called "priming" in psychology.

这个魔术运用了 称为“促发”的心理学效应，

Priming happens when exposure to something

促发发生在当你接触某个事物时，

influences your thoughts and behavior later on,

它会在你没有意识到的情况下，

without you being aware

在一定程度上引导你，

that the first thing is guiding you to a certain extent.

并且影响你之后的想法和行为。

The trick is usually done in a more intimate context,

这个魔术通常会用在 我和你面对面的，

where I would be directly facing you,

相对更亲密的环境下，

but we'll give it a try together.

但还是让我们一起试试看。

Just focus on me as best as you can,

你只要尽可能地 把注意力集中在我身上，

but do not let me influence your choice.

但不要让我影响你的选择。

I'm going to try and mentally transmit the identity of a playing card

我要尝试把我脑中 想到的一张扑克牌

I'm thinking of.

通过意念传达给你。

Are you ready?

准备好了吗？

OK, so first make the color bright and vivid.

好，那么先让颜色明亮生动起来，

Imagine a screen in your mind,

在脑中想象一个屏幕，

and on the screen, the little numbers, low down in the corners of the cards,

接着在牌面的上下角落

各有一个数字，

and then in the top of the cards.

And then the things in the middle,

然后图像在中间，

in the center of the cards,

牌面的正中央，

the boom, boom, boom, the suits.

然后补上花色的信息。

Did you get it?

想好了吗？

OK, so I'm going to bet that the majority of you

好，那么我打赌， 你们中的大部分人

thought about the three of diamonds,

最先想到的是方块 3 ，

but chose another card, right?

但最后决定选择的 是另一张牌，对吗？

As you might have noticed,

你可能已经注意到

I heavily tried to influence your choice with my gestures

我在给出指示的时候，

while giving you the instructions.

尽可能地通过手势 来影响你做选择。

By studying this trick,

通过研究这个魔术，

we found that around 18 percent of people choose the three of diamonds,

我们发现大约 18% 的人会选方块 3 ，

and nearly 40 percent choose the three of any suit,

而接近 40% 的人会选 任意花色的数字 3 ，

while being completely oblivious of the fact I was manipulating them.

但对我在操控他们的选择 这一点浑然不知。

So what happened here?

那么到底发生了什么呢？

Because you were aware

因为你知道我会试着

that I was trying to influence your choice,

影响你做选择，

you probably paid more attention to what I was doing.

你可能就花了更多精力 在我的动作上。

And this led the majority of you to choose more consciously

而这就让你们大部分人 比起那些不知道

than our participants who have no information

我是谁，我做着哪方面的研究，

about who I am, what I'm studying

或者我在如何影响 他们的大脑的参与者

or what I'm trying to do with their minds.

做出更清醒的选择。

So the thing is,

那么我想说的是，

in all of our experiments,

在所有实验中，

we managed to heavily influence people's card choices,

我们都在设法 深度操控人们如何选牌，

while they report feeling completely free and in control of their choice.

但他们都觉得这完全是 他们自己做出的决定。

And this lack of self-awareness

而对自我意识的缺乏

makes politicians, companies

会让政客、企业

and other people's influence all the more powerful,

和其他人对我们 产生更强大的影响，

because we might think we are in control of our choice and beliefs

因为我们很可能以为 我们掌控着自己的选择和信仰，

when we are not.

但是实际上并不是。

Politically or in our consumer behaviors,

从政治或者 消费者行为的角度来说，

if we don't pay attention,

如果我们不留心，

misleading content or showy ads can just trick our mind.

误导性内容或者夸张的广告 就会迷惑我们的大脑。

What if, in our day-to-day lives,

如果我们在日常生活中

we would stop more often and consciously choose

能更多地静下心来 做出理性的选择，

before acting on this impulsive, reactive beast inside of us?

而不是即刻反应，冲动做事， 会怎么样呢？

We can actually act more consciously

其实我们能做出更合理的行动，

if we keep in mind

只要我们记住

that we have the capacity to be influenced.

我们有能力不受影响。

Thank you.

谢谢。