外刊精读每周总结（外刊精读Day42你不了解自己的十件事情）

原文刊登于《Scientific American》（2018.05.15）

2. Your motives are often a complete mystery to you.

①How well do people know themselves? ②In answering this question, researchers encounter the following problem: to assess a person’s self-image, one would have to know who that person really is. ③Investigatorsuse a variety of techniques to tackle such questions. ④For example, they compare the self-assessments of test subjects with the subjects’ behavior in laboratory situations or in everyday life. ⑤They found that unconscious parts of the personality come to the fore, and a person’simplicit self-image is often quite predictive of his or her actual behavior, especially when nervousness or sociability is involved.

3. Outward appearances tell people a lot about you.

⑥ Much research indicates that our nearest and dearest often see us better than we see ourselves. ⑦ As psychologist Simine Vazire of the University of California, Davis, has shown, two conditions in particular may enable others to recognize who we really are most readily: ⑧ First, when they are able to “read” a trait from outward characteristics and, second, when a trait has a clear positive or negative valence (intelligence and creativity are obviously desirable, for instance; dishonesty andegocentricity are not). ⑨ Our assessments of ourselves most closely match assessments by others when it comes to more neutralcharacteristics.

investigator 调查者

tackle 解决

laboratory 实验室

come to the fore 显示出来，呈显性

implicit 隐性的

sociability 社交

outward 外部的

trait 特性，少量

egocentricity 个人至上，自私自利

neutral 中性的

readily 常见意思是“准备好的”；此处意思是“容易地”；

valence 本意为化学中的化合价；此处当做一个心理学术语，意为“诱发力”；

1.They found that unconscious parts of the personality come to the fore, and a person’s implicit self-image is often quite predictive of his or her actual behavior, especially when nervousness or sociability is involved.

本句的主干是并列句。前半句“They found that…”中，that从句作宾语从句，后半句“and a person’s implicit self-image is…”的句式的本质是“主系表”结构，后面的“of his or…”可看作是predictive的状语；最后是一个when引导的时间状语从句。

2.As psychologist Simine Vazire of the University of California, Davis, has shown, two conditions in particular may enable others to recognize who we really are most readily:

此句开头是as引导的定语从句“as Simine Vazire has shown”；后面是主句“two conditions in particular may enable…”末尾处有一个who引导的宾语从句，作recognize的宾语。

2. 你时常对自己的动机一无所知

人们是如何了解自己的？为了解答此问题，研究者遇到了这一难题：要想评价某人的自我形象，你就要真正了解这个人。调查者用很多技巧来解决这类问题。比如，他们把受试者的自我评价与其在实验室或日常生活中的表现进行对比。结果发现，人们性格中无意识的部分是处于显性的。尤其是在紧张时刻，或者社交场合，通过内在的自我形象常常可以预测其真实行为。

3. 外在表现可以告诉别人你的许多信息

很多研究表明，我们亲近的人对我们的印象要比我们的自我印象好。加州大学戴维斯分校的心理学家Simine Vazire认为，两种情况可以让别人更容易别人我们的真实样子。第一种，是他们能从我们的外部特征中解读出一些特质。第二种，是这种特质对他们明显产生了正面或负面的诱发力（比如说，聪明与创新显然是正面的，而不诚实与自私则是不是）。我们在偏中性的特征上对自己的评价与别人最接近。

1.For example, we may be absolutely convinced that we are empathetic and generous but still walk right past a homeless person on a cold day.

本句理解的难点在于中间“that we are…”的成分。它的主语是we，“may be absolutely convinced”为谓语；“be convinced”虽然是是被动态，但其意义就相当于“believe”，所以后面的that从句可理解为宾语从句。后半句“but still walk …”和前面的主句并列。