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We all do stupid things once in awhile.
我们偶尔都会做些傻事。
But some mistakes are worse than others:
但有些错误要更糟糕一些：
Sometimes grabbing a drink after work with your friends accidentally becomes an evening you can't remember,
有时候下班后和朋友一起喝酒，不经意间你就不记得了，
and you're just glad that you didn't end up with alcohol poisoning or married and lost in Vegas.
你只是庆幸自己没有酒精中毒，没有结婚，没有在维加斯迷路。
You usually don't mean to land yourself in a sticky situation.
通常，你不想让自己陷入两难境地。
You decide to do something, and maybe in the back of your mind somewhere you know there's a risk, but you do it anyway.
你决定做某件事，也许你内心深处知道有风险，但你还是做了。
There are two major components to taking a dangerous or stupid risk.
有两个主要因素驱使你冒险去做危险或愚蠢的事。
First, somehow the sensible part of your brain becomes a lot easier to ignore.
首先，大脑中敏感部位变得很容易被忽视。
And second, you don't have enough control self-control to stop yourself from taking the risk.
其次，你没有足够的自控能力阻止自己冒险。
So, depending on how they respond to excitement and how much self-control they have,
所以，这取决于人们对兴奋的反应以及人们的自我控制能力，
some people are more prone to taking risks than others.
有些人更容易冒险。
In psychology, something's a risk when you don't know for sure what's going to happen.
在心理学中，当在做你不确定事情的时候就是在冒险。
A lot of research has gone into studying the risks tied to bad outcomes,
很多研究都是关于不良结果的风险，
like whether you'll get an STI or an unplanned pregnancy from having unprotected sex.
比如，没有保护措施的性行为是否会让人感染性病或者意外怀孕。
With risks like this, the bad thing is really bad, but it might not happen.
像这样的风险产生的结果真的很糟糕，但它可能不会发生。
And there's some good thing that you're more sure about — in this case, sex.
就拿性来说，有一些你确定的好事。
You have to decide whether the risk is worth it, and different people will make different decisions.
你必须决定是否值得去冒险，不同的人会做出不同的决定。
For people who tend to decide to take the risk, fun and pleasure and excitement is kind of ... more fun and exciting.
对于那些倾向于冒险的人来说，乐趣、快乐和兴奋更乐趣，更刺激。
Psychologists call this sensation seeking: some people are just more drawn to new or intense experiences,
心理学家把这种现象称为寻求刺激：一些人只是更容易被新鲜的或紧张的经历所吸引，
like bungee jumping or spontaneously deciding to go on a trip with no plan.
比如蹦极，或者在没有计划的情况下自发地去旅行。
For low sensation-seekers, these things don't move the needle on their pleasure-meter as much, so they don't spend as much time on them.
对于寻求刺激少的人来说，这些东西对他们的愉悦度影响不大，所以他们花在这些东西上的时间也不多。
Sensation seeking seems to have a lot to do with the limbic system, which is a pretty old part of your brain, evolutionarily speaking.
寻求刺激似乎与边缘系统有很大关系，从进化的角度来说，边缘系统是大脑中一个旧件。
Every mammal has one, and they look kind of similar.
每个哺乳动物都有，而且看起来有点相似。
It's involved in a lot of the basic stuff, like your emotions, stress response, and long-term memory.
它涉及到很多基本的东西，比如情绪、压力反应和长期记忆。
Whenever you get some kind of reward — or even just expect it — your limbic system sends out a bunch of dopamine,
每当你得到某种奖励——或者仅仅是期待——你的边缘系统就会释放出一堆多巴胺，
one of the brain's main feel-good neurotransmitters.
多巴胺是大脑中让人感觉良好的主要神经递质之一。
Studies have found that there's probably a big genetic component to how sensation seeking works in different people's brains.
研究发现，在不同人的大脑中，寻求刺激很大部分可能来自于遗传因素。
Its heritability — meaning, how much of the trait comes from nature, rather than nurture—
遗传性——意思是，天生的而不是后天培养的特征
is between 40 and 60 percent, which is about as high as it gets for most psychological traits.
在40%到60%之间，这是大多数心理特征所能达到的最高水平。
One part of the limbic system, called the nucleus accumbens, seems to be more active in people with higher sensation seeking.
边缘系统有一部分被称为伏隔核，似乎在寻求更高刺激的人群中更活跃。
And when you're anticipating a reward, activity in another area of the brain, called the insula,
当你期待奖励时，大脑中另一个区域——脑岛，
is also correlated with higher sensation seeking.
也与寻求更高刺激有关。
It's part of the cortex, a part of the brain that evolved more recently,
脑岛是大脑皮层的一部分，在大脑中刚进化不久，
but it's pressed up against the limbic system, and is associated with emotional and gut reactions.
但它是压在边缘系统上的，与情绪和直觉反应有关。
Basically, people with higher sensation seeking have a bigger response to pleasure, excitement, and rewards.
基本上来说，寻求更高刺激的人对快乐、兴奋和奖励的反应更大。
Which makes it kind of like driving a car with a really sensitive gas pedal:
这有点像驾驶一辆油门踏板非常灵敏的汽车：
you only need a light tap to rev the engine.
只需轻轻一点就能使引擎加速。
Higher sensation seeking is making people more likely to ignore some other possible negative consequences of taking a risk —
寻求更高刺激使人们更有可能忽视冒险可能带来的其他一些负面后果
and a little more likely to crash their car.
更有可能撞坏他们的车。
Metaphorically speaking.
打个比方。
There's still the other major component to risk-taking, though: the brakes.
不过，冒险还有另一重要因素：刹车。
Some people, even if they have high sensation seeking, are just better at controlling their impulses and desires than others.
即使有些人寻求更高刺激，也只是比其他人更善于控制自己的冲动和欲望。
In studies, there's a part of the brain that's almost always activated when people exercise self-control:
经研究，当人们锻炼自我控制时，大脑中有一部分几乎总是被激活：
the prefrontal cortex, which seems to be responsible for telling the limbic system when to cool it.
前额皮质似乎负责告诉边缘系统什么时候降温。
That helps explain why adolescents tend to take more risks than adults do.
这有助于解释为什么青少年比成年人更倾向于冒险。
While most parts of your brain are finished developing by the time you're a teenager— including the limbic system, with its dopamine-injecting power —
当你十几岁的时候，大脑的大部分系统（包括边缘系统）已经发育完成，由多巴胺注入的能量——
your prefrontal cortex might not be fully developed until your mid-20s.
前额皮质要到25岁左右才能发育完全。
One thing that's taking so long is the myelination in the brain, where your neurons are coated with the myelin sheath, a membrane that makes their signals go faster.
大脑中的髓鞘形成需要很长时间，神经元被髓鞘包裹，髓鞘是一种膜，能让信号传递得更快。
It's almost as if the part of your brain responsible for the brakes just can't get there in time for a lot of decisions.
就好像大脑中负责刹车的那部分无法及时让人们停止做出很多决定。
Even after their prefrontal cortex is finished developing, some people still have a lot more trouble with self-control than others.
甚至在前额皮质发育完成后，有些人在自我控制方面仍然比其他人遇到的困难更多。
But, unlike sensation seeking, which has a big genetic component and is hard to change,
但是，与寻求刺激不同的是，寻求刺激很大一部分来自遗传因素，而且很难改变，
self-control might be a thing people have a little more power over.
自我控制的话，人们更有能力控制。
If you think you might have a high level of sensation seeking, you can try to train yourself to have better self-control.
如果你认为你可能寻求更高刺激，可以试着训练自制力。
It's not easy, but there are cognitive strategies that have been helpful for people — like,
这并不容易，但是有一些认知策略很有帮助，比如，
if you're tempted to take a risk, you can try finding something to distract you.
如果你想冒险，你可以试着找些事情分散你的注意力。
Changing your environment can also help —
改变环境也会有帮助——
like, if you know you have trouble keeping it to a few drinks and you don't want to get blackout drunk,
比如，如果你不能控制自己只喝几杯酒，又不想喝得酩酊大醉，
you can try asking your friends to meet up at a coffee shop instead.
可以试着邀请你的朋友去咖啡店见面。
So, everyone takes stupid risks sometimes.
所以，每个人都有愚蠢的时候。
But by knowing more about what's going on in your brain when you decide whether to take a risk,
但是当你决定是否冒险时，了解更多关于大脑的事情，
you can try to minimize the number of choices you'll regret.
可以尽量减少做出后悔的选择。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych, brought to you by our patrons on Patreon!
感谢收看本期心理科学秀节目，感谢Patreon对本节目的支持。
If you'd like to support us, you can go to patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想支持我们，可以访问patreon.com/scishow。
And if you want to learn more about how these weird brains of ours work, you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
如果你想了解更多奇怪的大脑，可以登陆youtube.com/scishowpsych并订阅我们的节目。
