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环球科学

洗手，能治“选择困难症”｜科学60秒

环环球科学约 2 分钟

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洗掉疑虑
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勤洗手，好处多 @Unsplash
我们都曾为艰难抉择而苦恼：烧烤还是火锅？火车还是飞机？清华还是北大？

好了，别再纠结了，《科学》

（Science）杂志上的一项研究表明，做出艰难抉择后，只要洗洗手就能让你不再有所顾虑。

洗手是一个有力的隐喻，但科学家怀疑，“洗手”是否有更深层的影响？此前的研究表明，洗手可以消除人们对过去错误行为的负罪感，但是，这是因为大脑以某种方式将身体和道德上的洁净联系起来了吗？还是因为洗礼仪式可以“洗掉”过去？

为了弄清这个问题，心理学家剔除了一个被迫做出的决定中所有的道德含义，让受试者在两张唱片或两种口味的果酱之间做出选择。

研究人员发现，做出选择后立即洗手的受试者不会再回头想这件事，他们接受了自己的选择并

……[查看全文]

Wash Away Your Doubt

We've all agonized over difficult decisions. Go to college or backpack around Europe? Buy or rent? Apple pie or death by chocolate?
Well, agonize no more—because a study in the journal Science suggests that simply washing your hands after making a tough choice can keep you from second-guessing.
Washing your hands of a situation is a powerful metaphor. But scientists got to wondering, could it be something more? Previous studies had shown that washing can remove the guilt people feel about past misdeeds. But is that because the brain somehow links physical and moral cleanliness? Or because ablution washes away the past?
To find out, psychologists removed any moral implications from a forced decision. They asked students to choose between things like a pair of CDs or two flavors of jam.
They found that subjects who washed their hands right after making their choice didn't look back. They made peace with their picks and...[full transcript]

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论文信息

Lee, S.W. and Schwarz, N. (2010) ‘Washing away postdecisional dissonance’, Science, 328(5979), pp. 709–709.

DOI: 10.1126/science.1186799

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