评论
打印
It's easy to poke fun at robocalls and e-mail scams.
人们很容易拿录音电话营销和电子邮件诈骗开玩笑。
Partly because we get so many of them, and partly because they can seem so extreme that they're almost funny.
部分原因是我们接听或收到过很多，另一部分原因是它们看起来非常极端，甚至很有趣。
Like, a Nigerian prince is asking me, some guy from Montana, to help him launder some money?
比如，一个尼日利亚王子邀请我这个来自蒙大拿州的汉子帮他洗钱？
Yeah, that's gotta be legit.
当然，一定是合法的。
But these scams are no joke.
但这些骗局可不是玩笑。
If research on them has taught us anything, it's that anyone can fall for them.
如果对它们的研究教会了我们什么，那就是任何人都能爱上它们。
And every year, people lose billions of dollars to fake IRS calls, bogus dating profiles, and dozens of other frauds.
每年，人们都会因为伪造国税局的电话、伪造的约会资料和其他数十种欺诈行为，而损失数十亿美元。
It's not necessarily because people are gullible, naive, or unaware that scammers exist, either.
这也不一定是因为人们容易上当、天真，或者没有意识到有骗子。
Instead, it's because scammers do something pretty devious:
相反，这是因为骗子做了一些非常狡猾的事情：
They take our brain's biases and our personality traits (many of which we use to survive in this world) and they turn them against us.
他们利用人们大脑的偏见和我们的个性特征（其中很多都是我们赖以在这个世界上生存的特征），并利用它们与我们作对。
One of the most common tactics scammers use is to offer you really motivating prizes.
骗子最常用的策略之一，就是给你提供真正的激励奖。
This comes up all the time, like when you "win a free trip to Hawai'i" or some foreign royal offers you a bunch of money if you do him a favor.
这种情况经常出现，比如当你“赢得一次夏威夷的免费旅行”或者如果你给某位外国皇室帮忙，他会给你一大笔钱。
And it might seem obvious why this would work.
似乎很明显为什么这行得通。
I mean, someone is probably way more likely to give you their personal info if you're offering them a free cruise as opposed to, like, I don't know, a beach towel.
我的意思是，如果你给某人提供一次乘游轮游览的免费行程，而不止是一条大浴巾，他们可能更愿意说出自己的个人信息。
But there's another reason this tactic gets so many people:
但这一策略吸引众多人的另一个原因是：
When we're faced with something really motivating, we actually get worse at making decisions.
当我们面对一些真正能激励我们的事情时，我们实际上在做决定时会变得更糟糕。
Studies have found that in these situations, people don't consider something's pros and cons as much or think about the long-term consequences.
研究发现，在这种情况下，人们不会考虑事物的利弊，也不会考虑长期后果。
So if you hear that, hey, someone is going to give you enough money to pay off all your student debt and your mortgage… well, like you gotta consider that at least for a second.
所以，如果你听到了有人给你钱来偿还所有的学生债务和抵押贷款时……你至少要考虑一下。
This happens because, for better or worse, emotions play a major role in our brain's decision-making process.
这是因为，不管好坏，情绪在我们大脑的决策过程中起着重要作用。
This is a huge area of research, and studies suggest that the line between emotion and logic is super fuzzy, neurologically.
这是一个巨大的研究领域，研究表明情绪和逻辑之间的界限在神经学上超级模糊。
For example, parts of your brain famous for higher-level thinking, including the prefrontal cortex, might be involved in emotion, too.
例如，你大脑中以高级思维著称的部分，包括前额叶皮层，也可能与情绪有关。
This could explain why studies have found that emotional triggers are strong enough to disrupt everything from our working memory to our cognitive control.
这可以解释为什么研究发现，情绪触发因素非常强大，足以扰乱从工作记忆到认知控制的一切。
And sometimes, people use that against us.
有时候，人们利用它来对付我们。
Another tactic scammers are famous for is called the foot-in-the-door method.
另一个骗局是著名的敲门砖战术。
It's where you ask someone to do you a small favor, get them to agree, and then ask them to do an even bigger favor later.
它说的是，你要求别人帮你一个小忙，让他们同意，然后要求他们以后再帮你一个更大的忙。
Online dating scams use this strategy all the time.
网上交友骗局一直使用该策略。
For instance, a scammer might form an online relationship with someone, and then ask them for a small sum of money for a supposed "emergency".
例如，骗子可能与某人在网上建立关系，然后向他们索要一小笔钱，以应付所谓的“紧急情况”。
Then, once their victim has sent over the ten or twenty bucks, the scammer asks for more.
一旦受害者发来10快或20块钱，骗子就会要更多的钱。
And then more.
然后要更多。
And then more.
要更多。
Until their victim finally, eventually catches on.
直到他们的受害者最终反应过来。
There's a couple of reasons this might work on us, but it often seems to come down to what psychologists call preference for consistency, or PFC.
该策略对我们有用可能存在几个原因，但似乎常常归结为心理学家所说的一致性偏好（PFC）。
It's a personality trait that varies from person to person, and those high in PFC place a lot of value on being personally consistent.
这是一种因人而异的人格特质，那些在PFC高的人，非常重视个人的一致性。
In many ways, this can be a great thing!
在很多方面，这可能是一件很重要的事！
For example, it might mean someone honors the promises they make to their friends.
例如，这可能意味着某人兑现了他们对朋友许下的承诺。
But it could also make them susceptible to a scam.
但这也可能使他们容易成为诈骗的受害者。
After all, if someone has already given a scammer a few bucks, their high PFC might drive them to keep giving in order to appear consistent.
毕竟，如果有人已经给了骗子几块钱，高PFC可能会驱使他们继续给钱，以保持一致性。
Just… you know.
你明白的。
Exploiting the good things about people for profit.
利用人们身上的优点牟利。
It's fine.
够可以的。
This last strategy is also extremely common and pretty simple:
最后一个策略也很常见，而且非常简单：
Scammers tie their messages to something that's recently been popular on the news.
骗子把他们的信息与最近的新闻热点联系起来。
For instance, if you get a robocall asking you to donate to charity, it might mention how their organization has been helping earthquake victims in a country that did just experience an earthquake.
例如，如果你收到一个录音电话营销，要求你向慈善机构捐款，它可能会提及他们的组织如何帮助一个刚刚经历地震的国家的受害者。
This method can be really effective, but it doesn't work because of a personality trait or some cognitive quirk.
这种方法确实有效，但它不是由于个性特征或某些认知怪癖而起作用。
It relies on one of our brain's biases, called the availability heuristic.
它依赖于我们大脑的一种偏见，叫做可得性启发。
This says that, if you've had experience with something or have heard of it before, you're more likely to believe that thing will happen.
这意味着，如果你经历或听说过某事，就更可能相信事情会发生。
So if you were just reading tweets about that earthquake, and someone calls you about a donation, you might be more likely to believe they're legit.
所以，如果你只是在看关于地震的微博，然后有人打电话给你说要捐款，你可能会更相信他们这么做是合法的。
This bias might sound like some weakness in our brains, but it's actually very useful in everyday life.
这种偏见听起来像是我们大脑中的一些弱点，但实际上在日常生活中非常有用。
We don't have time to thoroughly evaluate every fact that comes our way, so heuristics like this help us make faster judgments.
我们没时间对遇到的每件事进行彻底评估，所以像这样的启发式方法可以帮助我们做出更快的判断。
Like, if you just read about some flu sweeping the country, and you start to feel sniffly, you might not feel the need to spend all day reading WebMD pages.
比如说，如果你刚读到一些流感横扫全国的消息，开始感觉很难受，你可能觉得不需要花一整天时间阅读网络医学网页。
You might just head to the doctor and save yourself some time.
你可以去看医生，省点时间。
Many people see scam victims as the vulnerable — people who just didn't know any better, or who were too trusting.
许多人认为诈骗受害者是弱势群体，他们只是不太了解，或者太信任别人。
But if studies say anything, it's that anyone can be a victim of scams.
但如果研究表明，任何人都可能成为诈骗的受害者。
And not because you're not on your guard, but because your brain has its limits, and scammers know that.
也不是因为你没有戒备，而是因为大脑有它的局限性，骗子知道这一点。
But maybe by knowing just a little more about how they work, you'll know what to look out for.
但也许只要多了解一点他们的工作原理，你就会知道该注意些什么。
This episode of SciShow Psych was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon!
本集《心理科学秀》是我们在Patreon上的赞助人赞助制作的！
This amazing community of people supports the show and makes everything we do possible.
这个超棒的社区支持本节目，使我们所做的一切成为可能。
So if you're a patron, thank you so much for joining us and helping us make content like this for free for everybody!
所以，如果你是一位赞助人，非常感谢你加入我们，并帮助我们免费为大家制作这样的内容！
If you're interested in becoming a patron and helping out with that, you can learn more at patreon.com/scishow.
如果你有兴趣成为一名赞助人并给予我们帮助，可以在patreon.com/scishow上了解更多信息。
And if you're a new patron, feel free to stop by our Discord server!
如果你是一位新的赞助人，请随时访问我们的Discord服务器！
We would love to say hello.
我们很乐意和你问好。
