As an anxious person, I find the mantra "go with your gut" endlessly frustrating. What's so trustworthy about my gut instinct, which has, at various times, convinced me I'm dying of brain cancer, or about to get on an airplane doomed to crash, or destined to be alone forever? My therapist has had to remind me many times over that my so-called instincts have been wrong before and will be wrong again. But I've remained somewhat convinced that there is a "real" gut instinct somewhere beneath all my fake ones, and if only I knew how to access it, I would finally be perfectly wise, centred, and calm.
患有焦虑症的我发现"听从自己的直觉"这一准则太难遵守了。我的直觉为何值得信赖？毕竟直觉时不时的让我确信自己将死于脑癌，或是上了一架注定要坠毁的飞机，亦或是注定要孤独终老。
Unfortunately for me, a new study suggests this is probably not the case, and I am forever doomed to second-(and third-, and fourth-) guessing my every choice. In their study, researchers attempted to examine and compare the intuitive decision-making abilities of anxious, neutral, and optimistic people. More than a hundred participants were randomly assigned to each of these three groups, and "inducted" into the corresponding mood by viewing a series of emotionally coded sentences and images.
不幸的是，对我来说一项新研究表明也许情况并非如此，我将永远怀疑自己的每一个选择。在他们的研究中，研究人员试图检查和对比焦虑人士、中性人士以及乐观人士的直观决策能力。100多名受试者被随机分配成上列三组，研究人员给受试者看一系列抒发情感的语句和图片，以将他们"引入"到相应的情绪中。
For example, participants in the optimism group read: "The affection of those we love makes us feel particularly safe and confident. There is always someone who loves us," and were then shown a picture of a smiling young couple. (Huh.) Those in the anxious group read: "Safety is not guaranteed neither in our neighbourhoods nor in our own homes," followed by a picture of a man with his arm hooked around a woman's neck. I'm anxious just reading about it.
例如，乐观组的受试者看到了这样的话："我们所爱之人的爱慕让我们感到特别安全、特别自信。总有人爱着我们，"然后研究人员给这些受试者看了一张面带微笑的年轻情侣图片。焦虑组的受试者看到了这样的话："无论是在邻里街坊，还是在自己家中，我们的安全都得不到保障，"然后看了一张男人将胳膊搭在女人脖子上的图片。一读到这句话我就感到焦虑。
Once the mood was set, participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire designed to assess their tendency to make intuitive decisions, and how effectively they did so. While the researchers found that the decision-making abilities of the positive and the neutral mood groups were relatively unaffected by their moods, the anxious group showed a significantly reduced ability to use their intuition. My therapist, as usual, is right: if you're anxious, your so-called gut is pretty much useless.
确定情绪之后，研究人员要求受试者填写问卷，旨在评估他们做出直观决策的倾向，以及做决定时的效率。虽然研究人员发现对于正能量或心情不好也不坏的组来说，他们做决策的能力相对来说没有受到情绪的影响，但焦虑一组凭直觉做决策时，其能力却明显下降。如往常一样，我的治疗师是对的：如果你感到焦虑，那么你所谓的直觉就没什么用了。
The researchers hypothesized that anxiety's effects on our decision-making are damaging for several reasons: Anxiety makes us risk-averse, pessimistic, and less confident - all qualities which make us likelier to choose what we perceive as the safest, routine, and unchallenging decision.
研究人员假设焦虑对做决策的影响如此之大可能是由于如下原因：焦虑使我们厌恶风险、悲观、不太自信--所有这些品质都让我们更有可能选择我们以为的最安全的、最常规的和最没有挑战性的决定。
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