世界上的人更容易分散注意力而不是专注于自己的思想

世界上的人更容易分散注意力而不是专注于自己的思想

If you're reading this, it's safe to assume you arrived by internet.

如果你正在读这篇文章，那么可以肯定你是通过互联网来的。

Photo: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock

Maybe you caught the headline as it raced by on Twitter. Or you might be taking a break from watching a very mediocre movie on Netflix.

也许你在推特上看到了这个标题。或者你可以在Netflix上看完一部平庸的电影后休息一下。

It doesn't matter. Because according to a new study, it all adds up to the same thing: pouncing on one distraction after another.

没关系。因为根据一项新的研究，这一切都意味着一件事:一个接一个地分散注意力。

And the thing is, they're welcome distractions. Because, as the research — published this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology — notes, people will do just about anything to avoid being left to their own thoughts.

问题是，它们是受欢迎的干扰。因为，正如本周发表在《个性与社会心理学杂志》上的研究指出的那样，人们会做任何事情来避免被自己的想法左右。

For their study, researchers designed a sample test for more than 2,557 participants in 11 countries. They divided their test subjects into two groups. In the first group, people were asked to spend 10 to 15 minutes "entertaining themselves with their thoughts as best they could."

在他们的研究中，研究人员设计了一个样本测试，共有来自11个国家的2557名参与者参加。他们把实验对象分成两组。在第一组中，人们被要求花10到15分钟“尽其所能用自己的想法娱乐自己”。

Just sit back and think about things. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, not really, The second group — the one where people were told to surf the net, play a video game, or even read a book — reported having much more fun. They scored more highly on entertainment and lower on boredom. And the preference for distraction seemed to be a global phenomenon, which may come as a surprise to Italians who are famously brilliant at doing nothing.

坐下来好好想想。听起来不错，不是吗?嗯，也不完全是，第二组——被要求上网、玩电子游戏、甚至读书的那组——报告说他们玩得更开心。他们在娱乐方面得分更高，在无聊方面得分更低。喜欢分散注意力似乎是一种全球现象，这可能会让以什么都不做而著称的意大利人感到惊讶。

"The preference for doing external activities such as reading, watching TV, or surfing the internet rather than 'just thinking' appears to be strong throughout the world," the researchers note in the study.

研究人员在研究报告中指出:“世界各地的人似乎都更喜欢阅读、看电视或上网等外部活动，而不是‘只是思考’。”

But there does seem to be an important omission from the study. Shouldn't the quality of thoughts matter? If you've got something positive to think about — say, how you're going to spend your vacation or the great screenplay you've already half-written in your head — why are you reading this?

但研究中似乎有一个重要的遗漏。难道思想的质量不重要吗?如果你有一些积极的事情要考虑——比如，你将如何度过你的假期，或者你已经在脑海中写了一半的伟大剧本——你为什么要读这个?

On the other hand, if negative thoughts are baying at your door — a sad or painful experience, perhaps — by all means, keep scrolling.

另一方面，如果消极的想法在你门前咆哮——也许是悲伤或痛苦的经历——无论如何，继续看。

Unfortunately, we won't be able to take up much of your time here; it's a short study that gets to the point in a hurry. Don't worry though. There's a whole world of distractions out there. Say, have you seen that ship teetering at the brink of Niagara Falls? And how about those charming cows? Bet you didn't didn't know they could smell you from six miles away.

遗憾的是，我们不能在这里占用您太多的时间;这是一份很短的研究，很快就能切中要点。不过别担心。外面有很多让人分心的东西。喂，你看见那艘船在尼亚加拉瀑布边摇摇欲坠吗?那些可爱的奶牛呢?我打赌你不知道他们在六英里外就能闻到你的气味。

And that's something to think about.

这是值得思考的。