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We all do stupid things once in awhile.
我們偶爾都會做些傻事。
But some mistakes are worse than others:
但有些錯誤要更糟糕一些：
Sometimes grabbing a drink after work with your friends accidentally becomes an evening you can't remember,
有時候下班后和朋友一起喝酒，不經意間你就不記得了，
and you're just glad that you didn't end up with alcohol poisoning or married and lost in Vegas.
你只是慶幸自己沒有酒精中毒，沒有結婚，沒有在維加斯迷路。
You usually don't mean to land yourself in a sticky situation.
通常，你不想讓自己陷入兩難境地。
You decide to do something, and maybe in the back of your mind somewhere you know there's a risk, but you do it anyway.
你決定做某件事，也許你內心深處知道有風險，但你還是做了。
There are two major components to taking a dangerous or stupid risk.
有兩個主要因素驅使你冒險去做危險或愚蠢的事。
First, somehow the sensible part of your brain becomes a lot easier to ignore.
首先，大腦中敏感部位變得很容易被忽視。
And second, you don't have enough control self-control to stop yourself from taking the risk.
其次，你沒有足夠的自控能力阻止自己冒險。
So, depending on how they respond to excitement and how much self-control they have,
所以，這取決于人們對興奮的反應以及人們的自我控制能力，
some people are more prone to taking risks than others.
有些人更容易冒險。
In psychology, something's a risk when you don't know for sure what's going to happen.
在心理學中，當在做你不確定事情的時候就是在冒險。
A lot of research has gone into studying the risks tied to bad outcomes,
很多研究都是關于不良結果的風險，
like whether you'll get an STI or an unplanned pregnancy from having unprotected sex.
比如，沒有保護措施的性行為是否會讓人感染性病或者意外懷孕。
With risks like this, the bad thing is really bad, but it might not happen.
像這樣的風險產生的結果真的很糟糕，但它可能不會發生。
And there's some good thing that you're more sure about — in this case, sex.
就拿性來說，有一些你確定的好事。
You have to decide whether the risk is worth it, and different people will make different decisions.
你必須決定是否值得去冒險，不同的人會做出不同的決定。
For people who tend to decide to take the risk, fun and pleasure and excitement is kind of ... more fun and exciting.
對于那些傾向于冒險的人來說，樂趣、快樂和興奮更樂趣，更刺激。
Psychologists call this sensation seeking: some people are just more drawn to new or intense experiences,
心理學家把這種現象稱為尋求刺激：一些人只是更容易被新鮮的或緊張的經歷所吸引，
like bungee jumping or spontaneously deciding to go on a trip with no plan.
比如蹦極，或者在沒有計劃的情況下自發地去旅行。
For low sensation-seekers, these things don't move the needle on their pleasure-meter as much, so they don't spend as much time on them.
對于尋求刺激少的人來說，這些東西對他們的愉悅度影響不大，所以他們花在這些東西上的時間也不多。
Sensation seeking seems to have a lot to do with the limbic system, which is a pretty old part of your brain, evolutionarily speaking.
尋求刺激似乎與邊緣系統有很大關系，從進化的角度來說，邊緣系統是大腦中一個舊件。
Every mammal has one, and they look kind of similar.
每個哺乳動物都有，而且看起來有點相似。
It's involved in a lot of the basic stuff, like your emotions, stress response, and long-term memory.
它涉及到很多基本的東西，比如情緒、壓力反應和長期記憶。
Whenever you get some kind of reward — or even just expect it — your limbic system sends out a bunch of dopamine,
每當你得到某種獎勵——或者僅僅是期待——你的邊緣系統就會釋放出一堆多巴胺，
one of the brain's main feel-good neurotransmitters.
多巴胺是大腦中讓人感覺良好的主要神經遞質之一。
Studies have found that there's probably a big genetic component to how sensation seeking works in different people's brains.
研究發現，在不同人的大腦中，尋求刺激很大部分可能來自于遺傳因素。
Its heritability — meaning, how much of the trait comes from nature, rather than nurture—
遺傳性——意思是，天生的而不是后天培養的特征
is between 40 and 60 percent, which is about as high as it gets for most psychological traits.
在40%到60%之間，這是大多數心理特征所能達到的最高水平。
One part of the limbic system, called the nucleus accumbens, seems to be more active in people with higher sensation seeking.
邊緣系統有一部分被稱為伏隔核，似乎在尋求更高刺激的人群中更活躍。
And when you're anticipating a reward, activity in another area of the brain, called the insula,
當你期待獎勵時，大腦中另一個區域——腦島，
is also correlated with higher sensation seeking.
也與尋求更高刺激有關。
It's part of the cortex, a part of the brain that evolved more recently,
腦島是大腦皮層的一部分，在大腦中剛進化不久，
but it's pressed up against the limbic system, and is associated with emotional and gut reactions.
但它是壓在邊緣系統上的，與情緒和直覺反應有關。
Basically, people with higher sensation seeking have a bigger response to pleasure, excitement, and rewards.
基本上來說，尋求更高刺激的人對快樂、興奮和獎勵的反應更大。
Which makes it kind of like driving a car with a really sensitive gas pedal:
這有點像駕駛一輛油門踏板非常靈敏的汽車：
you only need a light tap to rev the engine.
只需輕輕一點就能使引擎加速。
Higher sensation seeking is making people more likely to ignore some other possible negative consequences of taking a risk —
尋求更高刺激使人們更有可能忽視冒險可能帶來的其他一些負面后果
and a little more likely to crash their car.
更有可能撞壞他們的車。
Metaphorically speaking.
打個比方。
There's still the other major component to risk-taking, though: the brakes.
不過，冒險還有另一重要因素：剎車。
Some people, even if they have high sensation seeking, are just better at controlling their impulses and desires than others.
即使有些人尋求更高刺激，也只是比其他人更善于控制自己的沖動和欲望。
In studies, there's a part of the brain that's almost always activated when people exercise self-control:
經研究，當人們鍛煉自我控制時，大腦中有一部分幾乎總是被激活：
the prefrontal cortex, which seems to be responsible for telling the limbic system when to cool it.
前額皮質似乎負責告訴邊緣系統什么時候降溫。
That helps explain why adolescents tend to take more risks than adults do.
這有助于解釋為什么青少年比成年人更傾向于冒險。
While most parts of your brain are finished developing by the time you're a teenager— including the limbic system, with its dopamine-injecting power —
當你十幾歲的時候，大腦的大部分系統（包括邊緣系統）已經發育完成，由多巴胺注入的能量——
your prefrontal cortex might not be fully developed until your mid-20s.
前額皮質要到25歲左右才能發育完全。
One thing that's taking so long is the myelination in the brain, where your neurons are coated with the myelin sheath, a membrane that makes their signals go faster.
大腦中的髓鞘形成需要很長時間，神經元被髓鞘包裹，髓鞘是一種膜，能讓信號傳遞得更快。
It's almost as if the part of your brain responsible for the brakes just can't get there in time for a lot of decisions.
就好像大腦中負責剎車的那部分無法及時讓人們停止做出很多決定。
Even after their prefrontal cortex is finished developing, some people still have a lot more trouble with self-control than others.
甚至在前額皮質發育完成后，有些人在自我控制方面仍然比其他人遇到的困難更多。
But, unlike sensation seeking, which has a big genetic component and is hard to change,
但是，與尋求刺激不同的是，尋求刺激很大一部分來自遺傳因素，而且很難改變，
self-control might be a thing people have a little more power over.
自我控制的話，人們更有能力控制。
If you think you might have a high level of sensation seeking, you can try to train yourself to have better self-control.
如果你認為你可能尋求更高刺激，可以試著訓練自制力。
It's not easy, but there are cognitive strategies that have been helpful for people — like,
這并不容易，但是有一些認知策略很有幫助，比如，
if you're tempted to take a risk, you can try finding something to distract you.
如果你想冒險，你可以試著找些事情分散你的注意力。
Changing your environment can also help —
改變環境也會有幫助——
like, if you know you have trouble keeping it to a few drinks and you don't want to get blackout drunk,
比如，如果你不能控制自己只喝幾杯酒，又不想喝得酩酊大醉，
you can try asking your friends to meet up at a coffee shop instead.
可以試著邀請你的朋友去咖啡店見面。
So, everyone takes stupid risks sometimes.
所以，每個人都有愚蠢的時候。
But by knowing more about what's going on in your brain when you decide whether to take a risk,
但是當你決定是否冒險時，了解更多關于大腦的事情，
you can try to minimize the number of choices you'll regret.
可以盡量減少做出后悔的選擇。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych, brought to you by our patrons on Patreon!
感謝收看本期心理科學秀節目，感謝Patreon對本節目的支持。
If you'd like to support us, you can go to patreon.com/scishow.
如果你想支持我們，可以訪問patreon.com/scishow。
And if you want to learn more about how these weird brains of ours work, you can go to youtube.com/scishowpsych and subscribe.
如果你想了解更多奇怪的大腦，可以登陸youtube.com/scishowpsych并訂閱我們的節目。
