How to motivate yourself to change your behavior | Tali Sharot | TEDxCambridge · TEDx Talks
Tali Sharot分享改变行为的关键因素，揭示恐惧警告的局限性。适合练习英语听力与理解，提升职场沟通与自我激励表达。
Transcriber: Leonardo Silva Reviewer: Denise RQ
转录者：莱昂纳多·席尔瓦 审稿人：丹尼斯·RQ
So, we all have some behavior that we would like to change about ourselves.
我们每个人都有某些自己希望改变的行为。
And we certainly all want to help someone else change their behavior in a positive way.
我们当然都希望帮助别人以积极的方式改变自己的行为。
So, maybe it's your kid, your spouse, your colleague.
也许，那个人是你的孩子、你的配偶，或者是你的同事。
So I want to share some new research with you that I think reveals something really important about what gets people to change their behavior.
因此，我想和大家分享一些新的研究成果。我认为这些研究揭示了关于人们为何会改变自身行为的重要因素。
But before I do that, let's zoom in on one strategy that I think you probably use a lot.
但在我开始之前，让我们先仔细看看一种策略——我认为你们可能经常使用这种策略。
So, let's say you're trying to stop yourself from snacking.
那么，假设你正在努力克制自己不要吃零食。
What do you tell yourself?
你会对自己说什么？
Well, most people, in a monologue, will say, "Beware.
嗯，大多数人在独白时都会说：“当心。
You'll be fat."
你会变胖的。
And if this was your kid, you would probably tell him that smoking kills and, by the way,
如果这是你的孩子，你很可能会告诉他吸烟会致命。顺便说一句……
he's in big, big trouble.
他麻烦大了。
So, what we're trying to do here is we're trying to scare ourselves and others into changing their behavior.
所以，我们在这里试图做的是：通过让自己和他人感到恐惧，来促使他们改变自己的行为。
And it's not just us.
而且不只是我们这样。
Warnings and threats are really common in health campaigns, in policy.
在健康宣传活动中以及政策制定过程中，警告和威胁其实是非常常见的现象。
It's because we all share this deep-rooted belief that if you threaten people, if fear is induced, it will get them to act.
这是因为我们都深信这样一个道理：如果你威胁他人、让他们感到恐惧，那么他们就会采取行动。
And it seems like a really reasonable assumption, except for the fact that the science shows that warnings have very limited impact on behavior.
这似乎是一个非常合理的假设，除非科学事实表明：警告对人们的行为影响非常有限。
So, graphic images on cigarette packets, for example, do not deter smokers from smoking, and one study found that,
例如，香烟包装上的图片并不能阻止吸烟者继续吸烟。一项研究发现……
after looking at those images, quitting actually became a lower priority for smokers.
在看过那些图片后，对吸烟者来说，戒烟实际上变得不那么重要了（或者说，戒烟的紧迫性降低了）。
So, I'm not saying that warnings and threats never work, but what I'm saying is, on average, they seem to have a very limited impact.
我的意思并不是说警告和威胁完全没有效果，而是说总体而言，它们的作用非常有限。
And so, the question is: why?
那么，问题就是：为什么？
Why are we resistant to warnings?
为什么我们对警告会表现出抵触情绪呢？
Well, if you think about animals, when you induce fear in an animal, the most common response you will see is freezing or fleeing;
嗯，如果你观察动物的行为，当你让动物感到恐惧时，它们最常见的反应就是静止不动（或称为“冻结”）或者逃跑。
fighting, not as much.
打架的情况倒没那么频繁。
And so, humans are the same.
因此，人类也是如此。
So if something scares us, we tend to shut down and we try to eliminate the negative feelings.
因此，如果某件事让我们感到害怕，我们往往会选择“关闭自己”（即停止对外界的反应），并试图消除那些负面情绪。
So, we might use rationalizations.
因此，我们可能会使用各种理由（或借口）来为自己的行为辩解。
For example, you might tell yourself: "My grandpa smoked.
例如，你可能会对自己说：“我的爷爷抽烟。
He lived to be 90.
他活到了 90 岁。
So, I have really good genes and absolutely nothing to worry about."
所以，我拥有非常优良的基因，完全没有什么需要担心的。
And this process can actually make you feel more resilient than you did before, which is why warnings sometimes have this boomerang effect.
这个过程实际上会让你比以前更加坚韧（更能应对各种挑战）。这就是为什么某些警告会带来“适得其反”的效果（即反而加剧了问题）。
In other times, we simply put our head in the ground.
在其他时候，我们干脆选择逃避现实（即把头埋在沙子里，不愿面对现实）。
Take the stock market for example.
以股市为例吧。
Do you know when people pull their head out of the ground to look at their accounts -- not to make a transaction,
你知道人们什么时候会从“地下”（即平时不关注财务的状态）中抽出身来，去查看自己的账户吗？他们这么做并不是为了进行交易，而是……
just to log in to check their account?
只是为了登录进去查看一下他们的账户情况吗？
So, what you're seeing here, in black,
那么，你们在这里看到的黑色部分，
is the S&P 500 over two years, and in gray, is the number of times that people logged in to their account just to check.
图中用蓝色线条表示标准普尔500指数在过去两年内的走势；用灰色线条表示用户登录账户仅是为了查看账户信息的次数。
And this is data from Karlsson, Loewenstein & Seppi, it's control for all the obvious confounds.
这些数据来自 Karlsson、Loewenstein 和 Seppi 的研究，用于控制所有可能存在的干扰因素（即那些会影响到研究结果的因素）。
So, what do we see?
那么，我们看到了什么呢？
When the market is high, people log in all the time, because positive information makes you feel good,
当市场行情良好时，人们会频繁登录（相关平台或系统），因为积极的信息会让人感到愉悦。