It’s really nice when a classmate stops by your house when you’re sick to bring you notes from your class you missed —
当你生病时,一个同学路过你家,给你带来你错过课程的笔记,这真是太好了——
but not like, remember-it-for-the-rest-of-your-life nice.
但不是说,余生都要记住它。
But that time you introduced yourself to the new kid and they cracked a joke about your hometown?
但那次你向新来的孩子做自我介绍,他们开了一个关于你家乡的玩笑?
It’s been years, and that memory still makes your blood boil.
已经过去好多年了,那记忆仍然让你想起来冒火。
That’s probably because our brains kind of like holding onto grudges —
这可能是因为我们的大脑有点怀恨在心——
even though it’s better for our health to let things go.
尽管让事情过去对我们的健康更好。
Before we really get into this, let’s note that we’re not saying anger is bad or wrong — sometimes, it’s downright righteous.
在我们真正进入这个话题之前,澄清一下,我们并不是说愤怒是坏的或错误的——有时,发火没错。
And you may be totally justified in holding a grudge.
你可能完全有理由怀恨在心。
But you should know that it costs you something, too.
但你应该知道这也会让你付出一些代价。
Experts say that when you hold a grudge,
专家说,当你怀恨在心的时候,
you keep experiencing the same negative emotions you felt during the offending event.
你会不断地体验到在受到冒犯时的负面情绪。
And feeling and re-feeling those emotions isn’t good for your health.
感受和重新感受这些情绪对你的健康没有好处。
Ruminating on past offenses has been shown to raise a person’s heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels —
反刍过去受到的冒犯已被证明会使人的心率、血压和皮质醇水平升高,
which, physiologically, is similar to chronic stress.
这在生理上,类似于慢性压力。
And if those things stay high for too long, they can damage your immune system and essential organs like your heart.
如果这些东西持续太久,会损害你的免疫系统和心脏等重要器官。
And studies have found that people who bear grudges are more likely to have physical ailments like heart attacks and stomach ulcers.
研究发现,怀恨在心的人更容易患心脏病和胃溃疡等躯体疾病。
This is probably because your brain processes mental imagery a lot like it processes the real deal.
这可能是因为你的大脑处理心理意象的方式和处理真实事物的方式非常相似。
Think of someone who’s afraid of spiders, for instance.
例如,想想那些害怕蜘蛛的人。
If they’re asked to imagine a spider, their heart will race and their muscles will tense,
如果让他们想象一只蜘蛛,他们的心脏会加速,肌肉会紧张,
just like they would if a spider was actually in front of them.
就像蜘蛛真的在他们面前一样。
Well, it’s the same with your grudge.
你的怨恨也一样。
If you keep re-living the memory of someone embarrassing you, you keep feeling the embarrassment and anger.
如果你一直活在某人让你难堪的记忆中,你就会一直感到难堪和愤怒。
And if that’s not bad enough, grudges can also bleed over into other relationships.
如果这还不够糟糕的话,怨恨也会渗透到其他关系中。
Research has found that ruminating on anger increases the odds you’ll lash out at others,
研究发现,反刍愤怒情绪会增加你对他人猛烈抨击的几率,
even if they had nothing to do with what made you upset.
即使他们与让你生气的事情无关。
So, if grudges are so bad for us, why do we hold onto them?
如果怨恨对我们如此有害,为什么我们要抓着它们不放呢?
Well, we can probably thank evolution for that.
我们应该感谢进化论。
We’re not the only species that does this.
我们不是唯一这样做的物种。
Studies have noted that all sorts of species, from ravens and crows to octopuses,
研究表明,从渡鸦、乌鸦到章鱼,
can remember a person who wronged them and exact revenge afterwards.
各种物种都能记住伤害它们的人,并在事后进行报复。
Though, exactly how long they can hold these grudges isn’t clear.
不过,目前还不清楚它们到底能抱持这些怨恨多久。
One biologist noted that even guppies seem to take revenge on other guppies that don’t pull their weight.
一位生物学家指出,即使是孔雀鱼似乎也会报复其他不努力工作的孔雀鱼。
If one individual falls too far behind when the group is inspecting a predator,
如果一条鱼在鱼群查看捕食者时落在后面太远,
the fish in front will fall back to leave the slowpoke exposed.
前面的鱼就会向后退,让动作迟缓的鱼暴露出来。
And some experts think that’s because revenge and forgiveness are both important for cooperation —
一些专家认为这是因为复仇和宽恕对合作都很重要,
and therefore, essential to social species.
因此对社会性物种来说也是必不可少的。
Specifically, revenge helps ensure people don’t let others walk all over them.
具体来说,复仇有助于确保人们不会让别人无理对待自己的。
People could just be hostile in general to prevent being used,
一般来说,人们可能只是为了防止被利用而怀有敌意,
but then they’d never form the relationships they need to survive.
但这样他们就永远无法形成生存所需的人际关系。
And sometimes, it’s impossible or unsafe to retaliate to an offense in the moment.
有时,对一次进攻进行报复是不可能或不安全的。
If that person has the capacity to hold a grudge, though,
不过,如果这个人怀恨在心,
they could mentally “practice” their revenge until it’s the right time to exact it.
他们可以在心理上“练习”复仇,直到时机成熟。
That’s certainly one way to keep the scales balanced.
这当然是保持心理平衡的一种方法。
And evolution doesn’t really care if a behavior is dark or cruel.
进化并不在乎一种行为不道德或残忍。
If people who held grudges produced more offspring than people who didn’t,
如果怀恨在心的人比没有怀恨在心的人生育更多的后代,
the neurological tendency to hold grudges would spread through the population.
那么怀恨在心的神经倾向就会在人群中蔓延开来。
And that could explain why it’s so common — even though grudge-holding isn’t so helpful now.
这就可以解释为什么这种情况如此普遍——尽管怀恨在心现在已经没有什么帮助了。
It also might explain why, to your brain, plotting revenge is a goal like any other.
这也可以解释为什么,对你的大脑来说,策划复仇和其他目标一样。
The same structures activate whether you’re planning to get even or planning brunch.
无论你是打算扯平还是准备早午餐,都会激活同样的构造。
That includes parts like the left prefrontal cortex, the dorsal striatum, and the caudate nucleus,
这包括左前额叶皮层、背侧纹状体和尾状核等部分,
which all play big roles in the neural circuits for motivation and reward.
它们都在神经回路中发挥着重要的作用,促进动机和奖赏。
So yeah, in a weird way, it feels good to get even.
没错,奇怪的是,扯平会让你感觉很好。
But, as satisfying as it might be to hold a grudge long enough to act on it, it’s still bad for your health overall.
但是,尽管长期怀恨在心最终可以付诸行动会让人感到心满意足,但这对你的整体健康还是有害。
Your hurt and angry feelings aren’t just echoes of something that happened long ago — they’re hurting you right now.
你受伤和愤怒的感觉不仅是很久以前发生的事情的回声——它们现在正在伤害你。
And when you forgive, you spend less time in stress mode, and that protects your mental and physical health.
原谅别人时,你花在压力模式下的时间就少了,这样可以保护身心健康。
Of course, it’s not always easy to release those feelings.
当然,释放这些情感并不总是那么容易。
Forgiveness takes work — like, it might take giving up some pretty powerful negative emotions
需要努力才能做到宽恕,比如,可能需要放下一些强烈的负面情绪,
or reconciling with a person that you might not feel deserves it.
或者和你觉得不值得宽恕的人和解。
But, there are ways to unburden yourself, if that’s what you want.
但是,如果这是你想要的,有很多方法可以减轻你的负担。
Take the Stanford University Forgiveness Project, for example.
以斯坦福大学的宽恕项目为例。
For a study published in 2006, they performed a randomized trial of a six-week forgiveness intervention
2006年发表的一项研究中,他们进行了一项为期六周的宽恕干预随机试验。
where they taught participants a lot of the science we just covered in this video.
在这项试验中,他们向参与者讲授了我们刚刚在视频中介绍的许多科学知识。
They also ran through visualization and meditation exercises
他们还进行了形象化和冥想练习,
designed to help them check in with their own emotions and learn alternatives to angry rumination,
帮助参与者检查自己的情绪,学习愤怒反刍的替代方法,
along with reframing the transgression to build more empathy toward their offender.
同时重新界定冒犯行为,以建立对冒犯者更多的同理心。
And it worked!
这样做成功了!
The intervention reduced the participants’ negative thoughts and feelings
这些干预措施可以使参与者的消极想法和感受
two to three times more effectively than a control group.
比对照组有效减少2到3倍。
So if you are holding onto a grudge — even one that is very well deserved — you may want to consider letting it go.
因此,如果你怀恨在心——即使这样做没错——你可能还是要考虑让事情就此别过。
After all, forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting or approving of the offending act, or letting the bad actor back into your life.
毕竟,宽恕并不意味着忘记或赞同冒犯的行为,也不意味着让坏事重回你的生活。
It means letting go of your anger and not letting someone else be responsible for your well-being.
它意味着放下你的愤怒,不让别人为你的幸福买单。
Forgiveness is a brave, difficult thing to give, but it’s better for you in the long run.
宽恕是一件勇敢、艰难的事情,但从长远来看,它对你更有益。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看本期《心理科学秀》节目!
We hope you learned something.
希望你学到了一些东西。
And if you did, you can thank our patrons for that.
如果确实是这样,你可以感谢我们的赞助人。
Without them, this entire channel wouldn’t exist.
没有他们,也不会有这个频道。
So thanks, patrons!
谢谢我们的赞助人!
And if you want to learn more about joining our amazing community of supporters,
如果你想了解更多关于加入我们超棒的支持者社区的信息,
you can learn more at Patreon.com/SciShow
可以登陆Patreon.com/SciShow网站查询。