时差N小时:与做道德决策有关的大脑部分 Where Does The Brain Process Moral Decisions?

Yael, suppose there's a trolley that's about to runover five people.

雅艾尔,假设一辆有轨电车将要撞上五个人。

Do you flip the switch that will steer the trolleyonto a different track if that means only one personwill die?

这时扳动转辙器让电车行驶到另一条轨道上，但这意味着只会有一人丧命。你会这么做吗?

I sure would.

我会这么做。

Okay, now what if the only way you can save thosefive people is by pushing the stranger next to you into the trolley's path?

唐:好，那么如果拯救这五个人的唯一办法是把你身边的陌生人推到电车的轨道上，你觉得怎么样呢?

Yuck, Don. That would be wrong.

令人恶心, 唐。这是不对的。

You know, Yael, most people, when asked this question, answered the same way.

雅艾尔，大多数人被问到这个问题的时候，都会这么回答。

And moral philosophers and psychologists have been trying to figure out why.

伦理学家和心理学家一直在尝试弄清为什么会这样。

After all, in both cases, one person dies to save five.

毕竟，在这两种情况下，都是牺牲一人保全五人。In one study, scientists discovered thatthese two scenarios are processed by different parts of the brain.

在一项研究中，科学家们发现这两种场景是由大脑的不同部分处理的。

Flipping a switch, because it's more impersonal, activates the part of the brain associatedwith memory.

扳动转辙器，因为这是非人性的动作，所以它只激活大脑中和记忆有关的那部分。

But the more personal scenario that requires actively killing a person activates the part of thebrain associated with emotions.

而杀人这个场景更具人性色彩，所以会激活大脑中和感情有关的那部分。

Scientists speculate that a lot of our gut reactions to moral dilemmas may be affected by ourupbringing.

科学家们推断，我们面对道德两难处境时的许多本能反应可能与我们受到的教育有关。

After all, as children we internalize the emotional reactions of those around us and store themin emotional brain circuits.

毕竟，在儿童时代，我们把身边人的情感反应内化并储存在情感大脑回路里。

Then, later, when we encounter a moral problem, these automatic gut feelings guide ourdecision-making.

然后，当我们遇到道德问题时，直觉就会自动指导我们做出决断。

Scientists hope that by figuring out how the brain behaves when people wrestle with difficultissues, we'll be able to understand how people with different backgrounds reach differentconclusions on when it's okay to take a life.

科学家们希望通过弄清人们思考困难问题时大脑的运转方式，来帮助理解为什么不同背景的人在面对“可以取人性命”的问题时会得出不同的结论。

And everyone knows we could use a little more understanding.

并且，每一个人都知道我们可以多一些理解。