1.When we think of ourselves, some of our features seem optional.
当我们想到自己时，我们的一些特征似乎是可以改变的。
2.They could have been otherwise; it would not have changed anything.
它们本来可以不这样；这不会改变任何事情。
3.If I was not able to wiggle my ears, this would not make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things.
如果我不能动我的耳朵，这不会对事情的大格局产生巨大的影响。
4.This is a contingent feature of mine.
这是我的一个偶然特征。
5.But some other features we don’t take to be optional.
但是其他一些特性我们并不认为是可以改变的。
6.These features are essential to who we are.
这些特征对我们的个性至关重要。
7.And there are experimental ways of separating the essential and the optional features of our self-image.
有实验方法可以区分我们自我形象的本质特征和可变特征。
8.Study participants are asked odd questions such as these: “Imagine that tomorrow you wake up much smarter than you are now. Or much less smart. Would that still be you? Or imagine that you wake up kinder, or skinnier, or a Republican, or less interested in yoga. Would that still be you?”
研究参与者被问及一些奇怪的问题，例如:“想象一下，明天你醒来时比现在聪明得多。或者更不聪明。那还是你吗？或者想象一下，你醒来时变得更和善，或者更苗条，或者是一个共和党人，或者对瑜伽不那么感兴趣。那还是你吗？”
9.A recent version of this experiment yielded some surprising results.
这个实验的最新版本产生了一些令人惊讶的结果。
10.These studies have shown that we all consider our preferences with regards to art, music, and literature to be surprisingly essential.
这些研究表明，我们都认为自己对艺术、音乐和文学的偏好是极其重要的。
11.Our taste in food and clothing is not far behind.
紧随其后的是对食物和衣服的品味。
12.When faced with an imagined scenario in which we wake up and our musical taste is the exact opposite of what it used to be, most of us say that that would not be us anymore, but a completely different person.
当面对一个想象的场景，我们醒来时，我们的音乐品味与过去完全相反，我们大多数人会说那不再是我们，而是一个完全不同的人。
13.We tend to consider our taste in music to be a more important part of who we are than our moral, political, or even religious views.
我们倾向于认为我们对音乐的品味是比我们的道德、政治甚至宗教观点更重要的一部分。
14.This is a surprising and significant finding on its own.
这本身就是一个令人惊讶的重大发现。
15.But it is even more surprising and significant if we put it together with another strand of empirical research on the way aesthetic preferences actually change.
但是，如果我们把它与另一系列关于审美偏好实际变化方式的实证研究放在一起，那就更令人惊讶和有意义了。
16.Aesthetic preferences change surprisingly quickly and often without us noticing.
审美偏好变化惊人地快，而且经常是在我们没有注意到的情况下。
17. According to some recent findings aesthetic preferences are the most stable in middle-aged people and they are much more fluid in younger and, somewhat surprisingly, older age groups.
根据最近的一些发现，中年人的审美偏好是最稳定的，而在年轻人中，以及有点令人惊讶的是，在老年人群中，审美偏好要灵活得多。
18.But even the aesthetic preferences of people in the most stable age group undergo at least one major change as often as every two weeks in an aesthetic domain they really care about.
但是，即使在最稳定的年龄组中，人们的审美偏好在他们真正关心的审美领域也至少每两周发生一次重大变化。
19.The reasons for this are also well-understood.
其原因也是众所周知的。
20.One major trigger for our change in taste is the mere exposure effect: The more you are exposed to something, the more you tend to like it. Just the mere exposure to something changes your preferences.
引发我们品味变化的一个主要原因是纯粹的接触效应:你接触某样东西越多，你就越喜欢它。仅仅是接触一些东西就能改变你的偏好。
21.And this happens even if you are not aware of what you are exposed to.
即使你没有意识到你接触到了什么，这种情况也会发生。
22.So, we get the following picture: On the one hand, we take our aesthetic preferences not only to be stable, but also as something that defines who we are.
所以，我们得到了下面的局面:一方面，我们不仅把我们的审美偏好作为稳定的，而且作为定义我们是谁的东西。
23.On the other hand, our aesthetic preferences change remarkably quickly.
另一方面，我们的审美偏好变化又非常快。
24.So what we take to be one of our most essential features, our taste in music, films, books, is in fact fluid and constantly changing.
所以我们认为最重要的特征之一，我们对音乐、电影、书籍的品味，实际上是流动的，不断变化的。
25.This is one of the many, many ways in which we can be completely wrong about our own mind.
而这只是我们误解自己的思想的众多方式之一。
联系客服
