评论
打印
Can you train someone to be a nicer person? A recent study using meditation techniques shows that it might be possible. The research is published in the journal Psychological Science.
你能把某人训练成为一位更优秀的人吗？一项近期的、结合冥想技巧的研究显示那是可能的。该研究发表在《心理科学》杂志上。
One group of subjects learned to practice what's called “compassionate meditation” by focusing on a specific person while repeating a phrase like, “May you be free from suffering.” The subjects concentrated on five different people: A loved one, a friend, themselves, a stranger and then someone they were in conflict with. Another group of subjects performed general positive thinking. Both groups did the exercise 30 minutes a day for two weeks.
一组受试者学着去实践所谓的“慈悲冥想”，即将注意力集中在一个特定的人身上，并不停地重复一句话，例如“祝愿您远离痛苦”。这些受试者们将注意力集中在5个人身上：爱人，朋友，自己，陌生人，然后是与之有冲突的人。另一组受试者则进行一般积极的思考训练。每组受试者每天这样锻炼30分钟，持续两个星期。
Then everyone was asked to spend money to help a fictional character who had been treated unfairly.
之后便要求每位受试者花钱去帮助一位虚构的、被不平等对待的人。
And the subjects who did compassionate meditation were more likely to spend their money to help than those who trained to just think more positively. The researchers also did brain scans of those who behaved most altruistically, before and after training. And people who were most altruistic after training showed the biggest increases in activity in brain areas involved in empathy and positive emotion. So empathy appears to be like a muscle—it can be built up by exercise that causes actual physiological changes.
相比那些在训练时想法更积极的人来说，那些进行同情冥想的人更愿意花钱去帮助别人。在训练前后，研究人员分别扫描了那些表现得最无私的受试者的大脑。结果显示，那些在训练后表现最为慷慨的受试者，其大脑内与同情和积极的情绪有关的区域的活动大为增强。因此，同情心似乎与肌肉类似——可以通过能引起真正生理变化的训练来建立。
原文译文属可可原创，未经允许请勿转载！
