无法停止 背后的心理因素

Whether you’re waiting for a train, a friend or the kettle to boil, the likelihood is that you’ll kill those brief moments by mindlessly scrolling or swiping across your phone screen.

不管你是在等一辆列车，一个朋友，或是等壶里的水烧开，你很有可能都会用盲目地滚动手机屏幕来打发那些短暂的时间。

And as soon as your phone pings or buzzes, do you immediately check it to see what exciting form of attention you’ve just been paid? Does it annoy you when you’re in a meeting, feel your phone vibrate in your pocket, but know you can’t check it?

而且只要你的手机一响或振动，你是不是会马上拿起手机，看看有什么令人兴奋的消息?每当你在开会，感觉到口袋里的手机在振动，又无法察看时，是不是心痒难耐?

It’s a compulsive urge that many of us find hard to resist.

这种强烈的渴望我们很多人都难以抗拒。

But according to Sharon Begley, author of Can't Just Stop: An Investigation of Compulsions, there’s a psychological reason behind this.

但是，根据莎朗·贝格利关于冲动性的调查研究—《无法停止》显示，这背后有心理因素在影响。

Research from the 50s seemed to suggest that because dopamine is pleasurable, it’s pleasure to which people become addicted. But now we know better.

五十年代的研究表明，多巴胺让人愉悦，所以也令人上瘾。如今我们发现了更多。

“What's emerged in the last few years is that the dopamine circuitry actually predicts how much you will like something and how much pleasure it will give you. Then it calculates how much reality corresponds to the prediction or falls short.

过去几年出现的观点是，多巴胺回路其实能预测出你有多喜欢某事，以及你能从中获得多少愉悦感。而且它能测度出现实在多大程度上符合了你的期望。

“The emerging idea seems to be that when reality falls short, we feel a dopamine plunge. That feels bad, so we keep trying to do something that will make reality live up to expectations. That, to me, fits in with compulsions because these things we're doing really aren't that pleasurable. Rather, it's the dopamine fuel, pleasure, and reward circuit that's making us feel bad.”

“这个新兴的观点似乎表明当现实达不到期望时，我们会感到多巴胺骤减。那种感觉太糟了，所以我们会持续做事来让现实不辜负期望。我认为这个过程正好符合冲动的心理，因为我们在做的事情的确不太快乐。相反，正是激活快感的多巴胺奖赏回路让我们郁闷。”

So what we get addicted to is not the actual rush of, say the comment you just received on your latest Instagram, but rather the anticipation of it - most of the time, actually reading that comment doesn’t live up to our expectations.

所以让我们上瘾的并不是实际会很快被满足的事，比如你在Instagram上收到的最新回复，而是我们对它的迫切渴望——大多时候，阅读别人的回复并不能满足我们的期望。

According to Begley, this means “we feel driven and compelled to keep trying, like one of these days it's going to feel great. If it never does, then you're in this essentially infinite dopamine loop.”

贝格利认为这意味着“我们感到被吸引和被迫去持续地做一件事，仿佛总有一天我们能享受这个过程。但如果那天迟迟未到，你就会陷入无限的多巴胺循环之中”。

“When he feels inferior for whatever reason - perhaps because he's comparing his inauguration crowds to the Women's March crowds - that seems to spur some anxiety in him, and it might compel his tweeting. He may alleviate his anxiety 140 characters at a time.”

“当他感觉低人一等——或许是他把他的就职典礼参会人数和三八妇女节做了对比——那可能会激发他的焦虑，从而迫使他发推特。发完140个字的推特后，他可能马上就能减轻这种感觉。”