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Here's a question for you: What's something you're afraid of?
有個問題問你：你害怕什么東西？
The first answer that comes to mind might be your typical boggart stuff.
你想到的的第一個答案可能就是你覺得特別古怪的事物。
Like, small children in horror movies, taking a test in a class that you haven't been to all semester, that kind of thing.
比如，恐怖電影中的小孩，參加一場你沒學過的課程的測試等等。
What about when you used to, like, leap into your bed, the monsters would nip at your toes?
你之前跳到床上時，會覺得怪物咬你的腳趾嗎？
Or that time your flight was so bumpy, you thought it was all over?
或者你的航班太顛簸，你就以為一切都結束了嗎？
Or maybe worst of all, when you took off your cap and gown and wondered what was next?
或者最糟糕的是，當你摘掉帽子、脫下長袍時，會好奇接下來發生的事？
Sorry, that just got real.
抱歉，這些是真的。
Most of us experience these common fears, of the dark, of death, or of the future, at some point in our lives.
我們中的大多數人在生命中的某個時刻都會經歷對黑暗、死亡或未來的恐懼。
And according to psychologists, there could be a reason for that.
心理學家認為這可能是有原因的。
Some researchers have argued that there might be one fundamental fear underlying all of these things.
一些研究人員認為，所有這些事情背后可能有一種恐懼根源。
One you can trace all of your worries to: the fear of the unknown.
即你所有擔憂的源頭：對未知的恐懼。
So when Albus Dumbledore said, "It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more",
所以當阿不思·鄧布利多說：“當我們看待死亡和黑暗時，害怕得是未知，不是別的。”
he might've actually been right. Jo Rowling strikes again.
他可能說對了。J.A.羅琳再次罷工。
Psychologists, maybe unsurprisingly, have been trying to understand fear for a long time.
毋庸置疑，心理學家一直在試圖理解恐懼。
It was obvious early on that people have individual differences
人們的個體差異
that make them more or less likely to feel afraid and anxious.
讓他們或多或少感到害怕和焦慮，這在早期很明顯。
But what was less clear was why some fears are more common than others.
但心理學家們不太清楚的是，為什么有些恐懼比其他的更普遍。
One idea was that certain stimuli might be quote-unquote "biologically prepared" to provoke fear,
一種觀點認為，某些刺激可能是天生用來引發恐懼的，
which was basically a fancy way of saying that being afraid of some stuff is innate because it helps keep us alive.
它認為對某些東西的恐懼是天生的，因為這能讓我們活下去，這種觀點很奇怪。
In theory, this could explain why so many of us are afraid of things like spiders and snakes.
理論上，它可能能夠解釋為什么我們中有很多人害怕蜘蛛和蛇之類的東西。
The problem, though, is that most spiders aren't really that dangerous.
但問題是大多數蜘蛛并不那么危險。
Generally speaking, they're not as nearly as dangerous as, like mushrooms.
老實講，它們可能還沒有蘑菇危險。
But most of us don't find mushrooms especially terrifying.
但我們大多數人都不覺得蘑菇特別可怕。
Another problem is that research shows that most six-month-old infants aren't afraid of things like snakes,
另一個問題是，研究表明，六個月大的嬰兒不害怕蛇之類的東西，
which seems to suggest that we learn to fear them later.
這似乎表明我們學會害怕它們是之后的事情。
Four-months-olds, however, do generally show fear in response to unfamiliar stimuli.
不過，4個月大的嬰兒在面對陌生刺激時通常表現出恐懼。
And evolutionarily speaking, the unknown makes a lot more sense as a universal, innate thing to be afraid of.
從進化的角度來說，未知是人們害怕得普遍天生的東西，這種說法更講得通。
If you've never encountered something before, you don't know how to deal with it…
如果你以前從未遇到過某件事，不知道如何應對……
which means a little caution might be in order.
這就意味著要謹慎行事。
The idea of this kind of broad, fundamental fear, rather than innate fears to specific stimuli,
對未知的恐懼是廣泛的恐懼根源，而不是對特定刺激的先天恐懼的觀點
was proposed by a clinical psychologist in 1991.
是一位臨床心理學家在1991年提出的。
He suggested a few criteria for this base fear:
他提出了一些判定恐懼根源的標準：
It had to be of something inherently unpleasant, it had to be distinct from other fundamental fears,
它必須是某種固有的不愉快的東西；它必須有別于其他的恐懼根源；
and it had to explain other common things we're afraid of.
它必須能解釋我們害怕其他常見事物的原因。
He believed there were three of them: the fears of anxiety, of physical injury and of negative evaluation.
他認為恐懼有三種：焦慮恐懼、對物理傷害的恐懼和對否定評價的恐懼。
And there was some support for this idea.
有一些研究支持這一觀點。
Like, a 1993 study that surveyed 100 subjects found that
比如，1993年的一項研究調查了100名受試者，
the common fears people reported, like being terrified of heights, were well explained by these fundamental fears.
發現人們報告的普遍恐懼如恐高，能被這些恐懼根源充分解釋。
And the categories also seemed to be distinct from each other.
這些類別似乎也不同。
But more recently, psychologists have started to argue that additional criteria are necessary to define a fundamental fear.
但最近，心理學家開始爭論說需要額外的標準來定義一種恐懼根源。
In addition to the stuff we've already mentioned,
除了我們已經提到的，
these researchers suggest that they should also be distributed evenly throughout the population
這些研究人員建議的標準是，它們也應該均勻分布于整個人群，
and be supported by an evolutionary explanation.
并有進化論方面的解釋。
It also shouldn't be possible to reduce them to anything more fundamental.
而且再沒有比它們更根本的了。
This means that the fears of anxiety, physical injury and negative evaluation might not pass the test.
這意味著對焦慮、身體傷害和負面評價的恐懼可能無法通過測試。
For one, not everybody has them, like,
首先，不是每個人都有這些恐懼，比如，
plenty of people, from thrill seekers to deadline junkies, actually seek out anxiety.
從尋求刺激的人到晚期癮君子，很多人實際上都想獲得焦慮。
The bigger problem, though, is that all of these can be reduced or attributed to other fears…
不過更大的問題是，所有這些都可以被減弱或歸因于其他恐懼……
one of which is the fear of the unknown.
其中之一就是對未知的恐懼。
And this fear does meet all the criteria.
這種恐懼確實符合所有標準。
As the researchers writing about it point out, it very well could be the one fear to rule them all.
正如研究人員所寫的那樣，未知恐懼很可能是一切恐懼的來源。
In case you were wondering: Yes. The Tolkien reference is deliberate and heavy-handed in the paper, too.
如果你想知道結論的話：是的，論文中托爾金的參考文獻也是經過深思熟慮的。
Because sometimes, scientists are a bunch of dorks.
因為有時候，科學家是一群呆子。
Of course, fear of the unknown isn't an easy thing to validate in the lab.
當然，在實驗室里不容易驗證對未知的恐懼。
But there are plenty of studies to suggest that we prefer familiarity and the sure thing,
但是很多研究表明我們更喜歡熟悉和確定的東西，
and that they can have a pretty wild effect on our behavior.
而且它們會對我們的行為產生了很大影響。
Research shows that we're more likely to visit a travel destination that we've been to before,
研究表明，我們更有可能游覽我們以前去過的旅游目的地，
and we're more likely to attend a baseball game if we feel confident that our team will win.
如果我們相信自己的球隊會贏，就更有可能參加棒球賽。
And, although no one wants to be zapped,
雖然沒人想被電擊，
knowing when electrical shocks are coming even makes the experience less stressful and anxiety-provoking than not knowing.
但知道電擊時間比不知道更能減輕壓力和焦慮。
There's also clinical evidence to suggest that the fear of the unknown really gets to us.
還有臨床證據表明，對未知的恐懼真的會降臨到我們身上。
If you're uncomfortable with uncertainty, studies have shown, you're likely to have more fear and anxiety.
研究表明，如果你對不確定性感到不安，很可能有更多的恐懼和焦慮。
And those with certain disorders, anything from panic and social anxiety disorders to OCD and depression,
那些患有特定疾病的人，從恐慌和社交焦慮癥患者到強迫癥和抑郁癥患者，
seem to be especially affected by this fear.
似乎特別受這種恐懼的影響。
While it does seem like there's something there, it's hard to say for sure whether fundamental fears exist,
雖然一些東西看起來確實存在，但很難確定恐懼根源是否存在，
let alone whether the fear of the unknown is the base human fear.
更不用說對未知的恐懼是人類的恐懼根源了。
If it is, though, it would be a pretty satisfying answer to a lot of questions we have about ourselves, big and small.
如果是這樣的話，對于我們自身的許多大小問題，它將是一個相當令人滿意的答案。
It could help explain why horror movies stop being as scary once you've seen the monster,
它可以解釋為什么當你看到怪物時，恐怖電影就不再那么可怕了，
or why there's literally nothing worse than waiting to find out what someone thinks or whether you got that job.
或者為什么沒有比等著發現別人的想法或者糾結你是否得到那份工作更糟糕的了。
For now, though, we've just got to deal with the fact that
但現在，我們必須處理這個事實
there's still a lot of, well, unknowns when it comes to our fear of the unknown.
即涉及到對未知的恐懼的問題，我們還有許多未知。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感謝您收看本期的心理科學秀！
If you want to learn even more about why stuff freaks us out,
如果你想了解更多有些東西讓我們抓狂的原因，
you can watch our episode about why scientists think we're specifically afraid of the dark.
可以看“為什么科學家認為我們特別害怕黑暗”的那期節目。
