世界上的人更容易分散注意力而不是專注于自己的思想

世界上的人更容易分散注意力而不是專注于自己的思想

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

如果你正在讀這篇文章，那么可以肯定你是通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)來的。

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.

也許你在推特上看到了這個標題?；蛘吣憧梢栽贜etflix上看完一部平庸的電影后休息一下。

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

沒關系。因為根據(jù)一項新的研究，這一切都意味著一件事:一個接一個地分散注意力。

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.

問題是，它們是受歡迎的干擾。因為，正如本周發(fā)表在《個性與社會心理學雜志》上的研究指出的那樣，人們會做任何事情來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."

在他們的研究中，研究人員設計了一個樣本測試，共有來自11個國家的2557名參與者參加。他們把實驗對象分成兩組。在第一組中，人們被要求花10到15分鐘“盡其所能用自己的想法娛樂自己”。

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.

坐下來好好想想。聽起來不錯，不是嗎?嗯，也不完全是，第二組——被要求上網(wǎng)、玩電子游戲、甚至讀書的那組——報告說他們玩得更開心。他們在娛樂方面得分更高，在無聊方面得分更低。喜歡分散注意力似乎是一種全球現(xiàn)象，這可能會讓以什么都不做而著稱的意大利人感到驚訝。

"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.

研究人員在研究報告中指出:“世界各地的人似乎都更喜歡閱讀、看電視或上網(wǎng)等外部活動，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?

但研究中似乎有一個重要的遺漏。難道思想的質量不重要嗎?如果你有一些積極的事情要考慮——比如，你將如何度過你的假期，或者你已經(jīng)在腦海中寫了一半的偉大劇本——你為什么要讀這個?

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，如果消極的想法在你門前咆哮——也許是悲傷或痛苦的經(jīng)歷——無論如何，繼續(xù)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.

遺憾的是，我們不能在這里占用您太多的時間;這是一份很短的研究，很快就能切中要點。不過別擔心。外面有很多讓人分心的東西。喂，你看見那艘船在尼亞加拉瀑布邊搖搖欲墜嗎?那些可愛的奶牛呢?我打賭你不知道他們在六英里外就能聞到你的氣味。

And that's something to think about.

這是值得思考的。