互联网让人类产生自我怀疑

快速测验：纽约州的首府是哪里？你确定吗——想不想核对一下你的答案？

最新研究显示，经常上网的人，面对他们可能早已熟知的常识性问题，更有可能会核实自己的答案。

加拿大滑铁卢大学对大约100人进行了一项调查，受访者需要回答一些常识性问题，例如“法国首都是哪个城市？”或者“世界上面积最大的大洋是哪个？”

研究者为半数受访者提供了互联网支持——相较于另一组受访者，他们说自己不知道答案的概率要高出5%。研究发起者之一、心理学家埃文•瑞思科表示，出现这种结果的原因可能是，有条件访问互联网，就好像在身边有一位非常聪明的朋友一样。你有机会确认自己的答案，为什么不这样做呢？

上网时间越来越多究竟会对人类行为产生哪些影响？这已然成为一个备受关注的话题。这项调查正是这方面最新的研究结果。现在，越来越多的人全天不断网（有36%的30岁以下人群“几乎始终”在线）。

然而，花时间搜索和查找不太确定的问题的答案，最终会让人感觉自己非常聪明。这是耶鲁大学博士研究生马修•费舍尔的发现。他近期的调查显示，经常上网的人认为自己“知道的知识，超过他们实际掌握的知识。”

他表示，互联网正在变成一种非常有效的知识存储策略，类似于一群人或夫妻两人依靠彼此作为记忆辅助一样（这种现象被成为交互记忆）。但费舍尔认为，“如果我们无法区分哪些是我们自己掌握的知识”，这种交互记忆系统会产生“预期之外的后果”。

瑞思科表示，虽然人们在互联网上可能拥有一位回答问题非常准确的“朋友”，但他特别希望搞清楚，既然如此简单就能获得这么好的帮手，人们是否会心甘情愿地减少自身的努力？

……想核实一下吗？（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

审校：任文科

Here’s a quick test: What’s the capital of New York? Are you sure—or do you maybe want to check your answer?

New research shows people with access to the Internet are more likely to double-check their answers to the kinds of general knowledge questions they may already know.

In a study of about 100 people at the University of Waterloo in Canada, people were asked general knowledge questions like “What’s the capital of France?” or “Which is the largest ocean?”

Half the group was offered Internet backup—and they were about 5% more likely to say they didn’t know the answer to a question. Psychologist Evan Risko, who co-authored the study, says that may be because having access to the Internet is like having a really smart friend at your fingertips… there’s a chance to confirm, so why not?

It’s the latest wrinkle in the growing chorus of voices weighing in on how spending more time on the Internet is changing the way people operate, as more and more people are plugged in throughout the day (about 36% of people under 30 years old are online “almost constantly”).

But all that time spent searching and scanning for answers to things people aren’t quite sure about can make them feel pretty smart at the end of the day. That was the finding of Yale doctoral candidate Matthew Fisher. His recent research showed that people who’ve been online claim to “know a lot more than they actually do.”

He says the Internet is becoming a really efficient strategy for storing knowledge, much like a group or a couple can rely on each other as a memory aid (this phenomenon is called transcative memory). But that kind of system can have “unintended consequences when we’re failing to distinguish what’s our own knowledge,” Fisher says.

And while people may have a pretty accurate ‘friend’ in the Internet, Risko says he’s curious to find out whether or not having that easy access means people are willing to struggle less on a given task.

…Care to check on that?