My research lab sits about a mile from where several bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon in 2013. The surviving bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Chechnya, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death.
我的研究室距离 2013 年波士顿 马拉松期间的系列爆炸 仅有大约一英里。 爆炸肇事者,车臣共和国的 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 活着 被送上审讯,被定罪判死刑。
Now, when a jury has to make the decision between life in prison and the death penalty, they base their decision largely on whether or not the defendant feels remorseful for his actions. Tsarnaev spoke words of apology, but when jurors looked at his face, all they saw was a stone-faced stare. Now, Tsarnaev is guilty, there's no doubt about that. He murdered and maimed innocent people, and I'm not here to debate that. My heart goes out to all the people who suffered. But as a scientist, I have to tell you that jurors do not and cannot detect remorse or any other emotion in anybody ever. Neither can I, and neither can you, and that's because emotions are not what we think they are. They are not universally expressed and recognized. They are not hardwired brain reactions that are uncontrollable. We have misunderstood the nature of emotion for a very long time, and understanding what emotions really are has important consequences for all of us.
当陪审团要做出决定, 选择终身监禁还是死刑, 他们很大程度上根据被告是否 对他的行为感到懊悔。 Tsarnaev 做出了道歉的陈述, 但是当陪审团去看他的脸, 他们看到的是面无表情的脸上 一双凝视的双眼。 Tsarnaev 是有罪的, 这是毫无疑问的, 他使无辜的人致死或致残, 我对此没有异议。 我对所有遇难的人们深表同情。 但是作为一个科学家, 我得告诉你们, 陪审团不会也检测不出懊悔, 或者任何人的任何情感。 我也不能,你们也不能, 那是因为情感不是我们所想的那样。 它们不是被普遍表述和认为的那样, 它们不是不受控 的固化的脑部反应。 我们对情感的本质是什么的误解 很久以前就存在了。 理解感情真正是什么, 对我们所有人都很重要。
I have studied emotions as a scientist for the past 25 years, and in my lab, we have probed human faces by measuring electrical signals that cause your facial muscles to contract to make facial expressions. We have scrutinized the human body in emotion. We have analyzed hundreds of physiology studies involving thousands of test subjects. We've scanned hundreds of brains, and examined every brain imaging study on emotion that has been published in the past 20 years. And the results of all of this research are overwhelmingly consistent. It may feel to you like your emotions are hardwired and they just trigger and happen to you, but they don't. You might believe that your brain is prewired with emotion circuits, that you're born with emotion circuits, but you're not. In fact, none of us in this room have emotion circuits in our brain. In fact, no brain on this planet contains emotion circuits.
作为一个科学家,过去的 25 年中 我一直躲在研究情感。 在我的实验室,我们通过测量 电子信号探测人脸, 这些电子信号会引起脸部肌肉收缩, 从而制造脸部表情。 我们仔细研究了处于 情感状态下的人体, 分析了数百个生理研究案例, 其中包含了数千名测试对象。 我们扫描了数百个大脑, 检查了过去 20 年间发表的 处于情感中的每一个 脑图像的研究结果。 所有这些研究结果都惊人的一致。 你也许会觉得 你的情感是已固化存在的, 它们只不过是是不是被触发, 但事实并非如此。 你也许认为你的大脑 预铺设好了情感电路, 你生来就有情感电路,那就错了。 实际上,我们在座各位, 没有人的大脑里有情感电路。 实际上,世界上没有任何人的 大脑里有情感电路。
So what are emotions, really? Well, strap on your seat belt, because ... emotions are guesses. They are guesses that your brain constructs in the moment where billions of brain cells are working together, and you have more control over those guesses than you might imagine that you do.
那么究竟什么是情感呢? 系好你的安全带 因为 ... 情感是各种猜想。 它们是你大脑 在某个时刻建立的猜想, 是数十亿个大脑细胞共同协作的产物, 你对这些猜想可以做出的控制 比你想象中你所能做的要多。
Now, if that sounds preposterous to you, or, you know, kind of crazy, I'm right there with you, because frankly, if I hadn't seen the evidence for myself, decades of evidence for myself, I am fairly sure that I wouldn't believe it either. But the bottom line is that emotions are not built into your brain at birth. They are just built.
如果对你来说这听起来很荒谬, 或者说颇为疯狂, 我非常理解,因为坦白说, 如果我没有亲眼见到这些证据, 我几十年来获得的证据, 我很确定我也不会相信。 但重点在于,情感不是你出生时 就在你的大脑中已经建造好的。 它们是刚刚才形成的。
To see what I mean, have a look at this. Right now, your brain is working like crazy. Your neurons are firing like mad trying to make meaning out of this so that you see something other than black and white blobs. Your brain is sifting through a lifetime of experience, making thousands of guesses at the same time, weighing the probabilities, trying to answer the question, "What is this most like?" not "What is it?" but "What is this most like in my past experience?" And this is all happening in the blink of an eye. Now if your brain is still struggling to find a good match and you still see black and white blobs, then you are in a state called "experiential blindness," and I am going to cure you of your blindness. This is my favorite part. Are you ready to be cured?
要理解我的意思,请看这张图。 现在,你们的大脑正在疯狂地运行。 你们的神经细胞繁忙地工作, 试图去理解这张图, 从这一团团的黑与白 中看出些什么。 你的大脑在一生的经历中筛选, 在同一时间做出上千个猜想, 衡量着各种可能性, 试着回答 “这最有可能是什么?”, 而不是“这是什么?” 是“根据我过去的经验, 这最有可能是什么?” 这一切都发生在眨眼之间。 现在如果你的大脑仍然在 努力找寻一个正确的匹配, 而你仍然看到的是一团团的黑与白, 那么你正处在一个叫做 “经验盲点”状态中, 而我将治愈你们的盲点, 这是我最喜欢的部分。 你们准备好了被治愈吗?
(Cheers)
(观众欢呼)
All right. Here we go.
好的,那么我们开始。
(Gasps)
(惊讶声)
All right. So now many of you see a snake, and why is that? Because as your brain is sifting through your past experience, there's new knowledge there, the knowledge that came from the photograph. And what's really cool is that that knowledge which you just acquired moments ago is changing how you experience these blobs right now. So your brain is constructing the image of a snake where there is no snake, and this kind of a hallucination is what neuroscientists like me call "predictions." Predictions are basically the way your brain works. It's business as usual for your brain. Predictions are the basis of every experience that you have. They are the basis of every action that you take. In fact, predictions are what allow you to understand the words that I'm speaking as they come out of my --
好的。 那么现在你们中很多人看到了一条蛇, 那是为什么呢? 因为随着你们的大脑 在过去的经历中筛选, 那里有了新的知识, 从照片中来的知识。 很酷的一点是, 你刚刚才获取的知识 正在改变你现在对 这些黑白斑块的体会。 你们的大脑在没有蛇的地方 建造了一条蛇的图像, 这样的一种幻觉 被像我一样的神经学家叫做“预测”。 预测,简单说来就是 你们大脑运作的方式。 是你们的大脑运作的普遍方式。 预测是你所拥有的每样经历的依据, 它们是你做出的每个行动的依据。 实际上,预测使得你们 能够理解我的话, 随着这些话语出自我的——
Audience: Mouth. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Mouth. Exactly.
观众们:嘴。 Lisa Feldman Barrett: 嘴,正是。
Predictions are primal. They help us to make sense of the world in a quick and efficient way. So your brain does not react to the world. Using past experience, your brain predicts and constructs your experience of the world.
预测是原始的能力。 它们帮助我们快速有效地 理解这个世界。 所以,大脑并不会 对世界做出反应。 使用过去的经验, 你们的大脑预测和建造了 你对世界的经验。
The way that we see emotions in others are deeply rooted in predictions. So to us, it feels like we just look at someone's face, and we just read the emotion that's there in their facial expressions the way that we would read words on a page. But actually, under the hood, your brain is predicting. It's using past experience based on similar situations to try to make meaning. This time, you're not making meaning of blobs, you're making meaning of facial movements like the curl of a lip or the raise of an eyebrow. And that stone-faced stare? That might be someone who is a remorseless killer, but a stone-faced stare might also mean that someone is stoically accepting defeat, which is in fact what Chechen culture prescribes for someone in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's situation.
我们看其他人情感的方式 很大部分从预测中发展得来。 所以对我们来说, 我们只是看着一个人的脸, 在他们的面部表情中做出解读, 这种方式与阅读一页文字 的方式没有差别。 但实际上, 你的大脑是在预测。 它在用基于类似情况下 的过去的经验 来试图找出意义。 这次,你不是在试图解读一个图案, 你在解读面部运动, 比如像撇嘴或是挑眉 这样的面部运动, 面无表情的脸上凝视的双眼? 那可能表示某人是个冷血杀手, 但面无表情的脸和凝视的双眼 也可能意味着某个人 默默地接受了失败, 实际上这正是车臣文化 处在 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev 这种情况下的人的典型表现。
So the lesson here is that emotions that you seem to detect in other people actually come in part from what's inside your own head. And this is true in the courtroom, but it's also true in the classroom, in the bedroom, and in the boardroom.
所以我们在这里学到的是, 看似是你在他人身上探测出的感情, 实际上部分来自于 你自己大脑里的经验。 在法庭如此, 在课堂上, 家中, 董事会中也是如此。
And so here's my concern: tech companies which shall remain nameless ... well, maybe not. You know, Google, Facebook --
所以我的担忧是, 科技公司—— 我在这里不应该点名—— 好吧,还是提一下, 就像谷歌,脸书——
(Laughter)
(观众笑声)
are spending millions of research dollars to build emotion-detection systems, and they are fundamentally asking the wrong question, because they're trying to detect emotions in the face and the body, but emotions aren't in your face and body. Physical movements have no intrinsic emotional meaning. We have to make them meaningful. A human or something else has to connect them to the context, and that makes them meaningful. That's how we know that a smile might mean sadness and a cry might mean happiness, and a stoic, still face might mean that you are angrily plotting the demise of your enemy. Now, if I haven't already gone out on a limb, I'll just edge out on that limb a little further and tell you that the way that you experience your own emotion is exactly the same process. Your brain is basically making predictions, guesses, that it's constructing in the moment with billions of neurons working together.
花费数百万美金建造感情探测系统, 他们完全是在问错误的问题, 因为他们在试图从 面部和身体中探测出感情, 但感情并不存在于你的面部和身体里。 身体的运动并不具备 本质上的感情意义。 我们要让它们具有意义。 人或者其它东西 必须将它们置于具体情境中 才能使它们有意义。 那样我们就会知道 微笑也许意味着难过, 哭泣也许意味着快乐, 克制静默的脸也许意味着 你生气地密谋击败你的敌人。 如果到现在大家还相信我的说法, 我想再前进一小步,告诉你们, 你们经历自己的感情的方式 正是同样的过程。 你们的大脑简单说来是 在进行预测,猜想, 数十亿细胞正在共同运作, 建造此时的预测和猜想。
Now your brain does come prewired to make some feelings, simple feelings that come from the physiology of your body. So when you're born, you can make feelings like calmness and agitation, excitement, comfort, discomfort. But these simple feelings are not emotions. They're actually with you every waking moment of your life. They are simple summaries of what's going on inside your body, kind of like a barometer. But they have very little detail, and you need that detail to know what to do next. What do you about these feelings? And so how does your brain give you that detail? Well, that's what predictions are. Predictions link the sensations in your body that give you these simple feelings with what's going on around you in the world so that you know what to do. And sometimes, those constructions are emotions.
你们的大脑的确有 先前搭好的网络来制造一些感觉, 来自身体,生理的简单感觉。 所以当你出生的时候, 你已经有了一些感觉, 比如平静和激动, 兴奋,舒服,不舒服。 但是这些简单的感觉 不是情感, 它们实际上是伴随着你 生命的每一个醒着的时刻。 它们是你身体里发生 的种种情况的简单总结, 一种晴雨表。 但它们是没有什么细节的, 而你需要细节 来知道下一步要做什么, 去知道你要对这些感觉做什么。 那么你的大脑是如何 提供你那些细节的呢? 那就是预测。 预测将你身体里的感官体验, 也就是各种简单的感觉, 与这世界上正在 发生的事进行连接, 于是你就知道要做什么了, 有时候, 那些连接就是情感。
So for example, if you were to walk into a bakery, your brain might predict that you will encounter the delicious aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I know my brain would predict the delicious aroma of freshly baked chocolate cookies. And our brains might cause our stomachs to churn a little bit, to prepare for eating those cookies. And if we are correct, if in fact some cookies have just come out of the oven, then our brains will have constructed hunger, and we are prepared to munch down those cookies and digest them in a very efficient way, meaning that we can eat a lot of them, which would be a really good thing.
比如说,如果你正走进一家糕点房, 你的大脑也许会预测你将会看到 美味香浓,新鲜出炉的巧克夹心饼干。 我知道我的大脑会预测 美味香浓,新鲜出炉的巧克力饼干。 我们的大脑也许会引发 胃部进行蠕动, 来准备吃这些饼干。 如果我们是对的, 如果的确有一些饼干刚出炉, 我们的大脑将会构造饥饿感, 我们会准备吃掉这些饼干, 然后以一种很有效的方式 消化掉它们, 也就是说,我们可以吃掉很多, 那将是一件非常美妙的事情。
You guys are not laughing enough. I'm totally serious.
大家别笑,我是很严肃的。
(Laughter)
(观众笑声)
But here's the thing. That churning stomach, if it occurs in a different situation, it can have a completely different meaning. So if your brain were to predict a churning stomach in, say, a hospital room while you're waiting for test results, then your brain will be constructing dread or worry or anxiety, and it might cause you to, maybe, wring your hands or take a deep breath or even cry. Right? Same physical sensation, same churning stomach, different experience.
但重点是, 那个不断蠕动的胃 如果发生在一个不同的情况下, 它可能有完全不同的意义。 所以如果你的大脑将要预测 一个蠕动的胃, 比如说,当你呆在一间医院的病房 等待检测结果的时候, 那么你的大脑将会产生畏惧, 或者担忧,或者焦虑, 它也许会让你开始 把双手扭来扭去, 或深呼吸,甚至是哭泣。 同样的身体感觉, 同样的蠕动的胃, 却是不同的体验。
And so the lesson here is that emotions which seem to happen to you are actually made by you. You are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits which are buried deep inside some ancient part of your brain. You have more control over your emotions than you think you do. I don't mean that you can just snap your fingers and change how you feel the way that you would change your clothes, but your brain is wired so that if you change the ingredients that your brain uses to make emotion, then you can transform your emotional life. So if you change those ingredients today, you're basically teaching your brain how to predict differently tomorrow, and this is what I call being the architect of your experience.
所以我们可以从中学到的是, 那个似乎发生在你身上的感情, 实际上你制造出来的。 你不是完全被早早深植于你大脑 某部分的神秘感情电路支配。 你对你的感情可以做出的控制 比你想象中的要多。 我不是说你可以只是打个响指, 然后就像换衣服一样 换掉你的感觉, 但是你的大脑有着连通的线路, 所以如果你改变大脑 用于制造感情的那些成份, 那么就可以彻底改变你的情感生活。 如果你今天改变这些成份, 你就是在教授你的大脑明天 将如何以不同的方式做预测, 这就是我所描述的, “做你自身经历的建筑师”。
So here's an example. All of us have had a nervous feeling before a test, right? But some people experience crippling anxiety before a test. They have test anxiety. Based on past experiences of taking tests, their brains predict a hammering heartbeat, sweaty hands, so much so that they are unable to actually take the test. They don't perform well, and sometimes they not only fail courses but they actually might fail college. But here's the thing: a hammering heartbeat is not necessarily anxiety. It could be that your body is preparing to do battle and ace that test ... or, you know, give a talk in front of hundreds of people on a stage where you're being filmed.
这里有一个例子。 我们在场的所有人都有过 考试前紧张的感觉,对吧? 但是有些人在考试前 经历了极度的紧张 他们有考试焦虑症。 根据过去参加考试的经历, 他们的大脑预测出 一个极度强烈的心跳, 出汗的手心, 严重到他们几乎 无法真正参加考试。 他们在考场表现得不好, 有时候他们不仅仅会挂科, 甚至会无法从大学毕业。 但重点在于, 一个极度强烈的心跳 不一定代表焦虑, 它可能代表你的身体 在准备战斗, 准备在考试中大显身手—— 或者,比如演讲, 站在台上,面对数百个观众,还被录像。
(Laughter)
(观众笑声)
I'm serious.
我是认真的。
(Laughter)
(观众笑声)
And research shows that when students learn to make this kind of energized determination instead of anxiety, they perform better on tests. And that determination seeds their brain to predict differently in the future so that they can get their butterflies flying in formation. And if they do that often enough, they not only can pass a test but it will be easier for them to pass their courses, and they might even finish college, which has a huge impact on their future earning potential. So I call this emotional intelligence in action.
研究显示,当学生们学会 下定这种充满能量的决心, 而不再焦虑的时候, 他们在考试中表现得更出色。 而那种决心在大脑里扎根, 在未来会用不同的方式去预测, 这样他们就可以对 紧张情绪有所控制。 如果他们常常那样做的话, 他们不仅可以通过考试, 这个过程也会变得更容易, 他们甚至可以完成学业, 那对他们未来发挥潜力 有着巨大的影响。 我把这称作“行动中的情商”。
Now you can cultivate this emotional intelligence yourself and use it in your everyday life. So just, you know, imagine waking up in the morning. I'm sure you've had this experience. I know I have. You wake up and as you're emerging into consciousness, you feel this horrible dread, you know, this real wretchedness, and immediately, your mind starts to race. You start to think about all the crap that you have to do at work and you have that mountain of email which you will never dig yourself out of ever, the phone calls you have to return, and that important meeting across town, and you're going to have to fight traffic, you'll be late picking your kids up, your dog is sick, and what are you going to make for dinner? Oh my God. What is wrong with your life? What is wrong with my life?
你可以自己培养这种情商, 在你每天的日常生活中使用它。 就比如, 想象早上醒来, 我肯定你们有过这种经历,我有过。 你醒来,随着意识变得清晰, 你感受到了强烈的恐惧, 这种真切的痛苦 让你的思绪立刻开始狂奔。 你开始想着你工作中 必须要做的一切, 堆积如山的邮件, 那些向来都把你弄得 透不过气的海量邮件, 你必须回复的电话, 在城市另一头召开的重要会议, 你在路上会遇到交通拥堵, 你接孩子会迟到, 你的狗生病了, 你晚饭要准备什么,等等。 噢,我的天呐! 你的生活怎么了? 我的生活怎么了?
(Laughter)
(观众笑声)
That mind racing is prediction. Your brain is searching to find an explanation for those sensations in your body that you experience as wretchedness, just like you did with the blobby image. So your brain is trying to explain what caused those sensations so that you know what to do about them. But those sensations might not be an indication that anything is wrong with your life. They might have a purely physical cause. Maybe you're tired. Maybe you didn't sleep enough. Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you're dehydrated. The next time that you feel intense distress, ask yourself: Could this have a purely physical cause? Is it possible that you can transform emotional suffering into just mere physical discomfort?
那些狂奔的思绪都是预测, 你的大脑在搜寻一种解释, 为这些你身体里感觉到 的不适寻找解释, 就像你在面对黑白斑块图案 的时候一样。 你的大脑尝试着去解释 是什么引起了这些感觉, 这样你就知道要怎么做。 但是这些感觉 也许并不表示你生活 出现了任何问题。 它们背后也许有一个 纯粹的物理原因。 也许你很疲劳, 也许你的睡眠不足, 也许你很饥饿, 也许你脱水了。 下次你感觉到心情压抑的时候, 问问你自己: 这是否仅是身体原因导致的? 有没有可能你可以将 情绪上的痛苦转化成 仅仅是身体的不适?
Now I am not suggesting to you that you can just perform a couple of Jedi mind tricks and talk yourself out of being depressed or anxious or any kind of serious condition. But I am telling you that you have more control over your emotions than you might imagine, and that you have the capacity to turn down the dial on emotional suffering and its consequences for your life by learning how to construct your experiences differently. And all of us can do this and with a little practice, we can get really good at it, like driving. At first, it takes a lot of effort, but eventually it becomes pretty automatic.
我不是在建议各位, 只需要去表演 一些哄骗头脑的小把戏, 就能使你自己从抑郁 或焦虑,或任何一种 严重状况中走出来。 但我要告诉各位的是, 你对你的情感可以做出的控制 比你想象中的更多。 而且你有能力 通过学习如何用不同的方法 建立你的经历 去降低情感上痛苦的程度, 以及它对于你人生的影响。 我们所有人都可以做到, 只需要稍加练习, 就可以应对自如, 就好像开车。 起初,我们需要付出很大的努力, 但逐渐就会形成一个自发的过程。
Now I don't know about you, but I find this to be a really empowering and inspiring message, and the fact that it's backed up by decades of research makes me also happy as a scientist. But I have to also warn you that it does come with some fine print, because more control also means more responsibility. If you are not at the mercy of mythical emotion circuits which are buried deep inside your brain somewhere and which trigger automatically, then who's responsible, who is responsible when you behave badly? You are. Not because you're culpable for your emotions, but because the actions and the experiences that you make today become your brain's predictions for tomorrow. Sometimes we are responsible for something not because we're to blame but because we're the only ones who can change it.
我不知道你们怎么想, 但我发现这真是 一个鼓舞人心的信息, 是经过数十年研究 才得以发现的事实, 作为科学家的我也感到高兴。 但我也必须提醒你们, 它还附带了一些细则, 因为更多的控制 意味着更多的责任。 如果你不是受控于深植在你的大脑 内部某处,而且会自动激发的 神秘的情感电路, 那么谁来负责, 谁会在你做出负面行为时负责? 你来负责。 不是因为你应该为你的 感情负责, 而是因为你今天所做出的行为 和取得的经验 会成为你大脑对未来的预测。 有时候我们对某些事情负责, 不是因为是我们的错, 而是因为我们是唯一能 够去改变它的人。
Now responsibility is a big word. It's so big, in fact, that sometimes people feel the need to resist the scientific evidence that emotions are built and not built in. The idea that we are responsible for our own emotions seems very hard to swallow. But what I'm suggesting to you is you don't have to choke on that idea. You just take a deep breath, maybe get yourself a glass of water if you need to, and embrace it. Embrace that responsibility, because it is the path to a healthier body, a more just and informed legal system, and a more flexible and potent emotional life.
责任是一个很重的字眼。 它是如此之重, 以至有时人们觉得需要 抗拒关于情感是后天形成 而不是先天存在的 这一科学证据。 我们要对我们自身 的感情负责这一概念 似乎很难接受。 但我建议你们 不必在那个卡在这个概念上。 你只需要深呼吸, 如果需要,给自己倒一杯水, 然后去拥抱它。 拥抱那个责任, 因为这是造就 一个更健康的身体, 更公正和健全的法律系统, 以及一个更灵活, 充满力量的情感生活的道路。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(观众掌声)