经济学人下载:心理学 死亡的程度

Science and technology
科学技术

Psychology
心理学

How dead is dead?
死亡的程度

Sometimes, those who have died seem more alive than those who have not
有时候，已死的人比没死的人更像活人

IN GENERAL, people are pretty good at differentiating between the quick and the dead. Modern medicine,
一般来说，我们很容易辨别一个人是处于生的状态还是死的状态。

however, has created a third option, the persistent vegetative state.
现代医学又创造了第三种选择：植物人状态。

People in such a state have serious brain damage as a result of an accident or stroke.
在这种状态下，人的大脑因事故或中风严重受损，

This often means they have no hope of regaining consciousness.
几乎没有重获意识的任何希望。

Yet because parts of their brains that run activities such as breathing are intact, their vital functions can be sustained indefinitely.
但是，因为这些人大脑某些部分的活动依然正常，这使他们的生命机能能够得以维持，尽管持续的时间等难以确定。

When, if ever, to withdraw medical support from such people, and thus let them die, is always a traumatic decision.
如果要终止这类病人的治疗，任其死亡，这通常是一件痛苦的事情。

It depends in part, though, on how the fully alive view the mental capacities of the vegetative—an area that has not been investigated much.
这部分取决于完全活着的人怎样看待植物人的心智能力，人们对这一领域研究的还不多。

To fill that gap Kurt Gray of the University of Maryland, and Annie Knickman and Dan Wegner of Harvard University,
为了填补这一空白，马里兰大学的库尔特·格雷以及哈佛大学的安妮·尼克曼和丹·韦格纳做了一个实验，

conducted an experiment designed to ascertain just how people perceive those in a persistent vegetative state.
旨在弄清人们对于植物人的认识。

What they found astonished them.
实验结果让他们大吃一惊。

They first asked 201 people stopped in public in New York and New England to answer questions after reading one of three short stories.
首先，他们在纽约和新英格兰的公共场所选择201位受访者回答问题，回答问题之前先要他们分别阅读三则短报道中的一篇。

In all three, a man called David was involved in a car accident and suffered serious injuries.
短报道说的是一个叫戴维的男子遭遇车祸，受了重伤。

In one, he recovered fully.
一个报道的结果是，他完全康复；

In another, he died.
另一个是，他不幸死亡；

In the third, his entire brain was destroyed except for one part that kept him breathing.
第三个报道的结果是，他的大脑除了负责呼吸功能的区域外，全部损坏，

Although he was technically alive, he would never again wake up.
虽然从技术上说，他还活着，但他永远不会醒来。

After reading one of these stories, chosen at random, each participant was asked to rate David’s mental capacities,
随机选读一篇后，每个参与者被要求为戴维的心智能力打分，

including whether he could influence the outcome of events, know right from wrong, remember incidents from his life, be aware of his environment, possess a personality and have emotions.
这些能力包括：他是否能够影响一些事件的结果，他是否能够分清是非，他是否能够记住他经历过的一些事情，他是否知道他所处的环境，他是否具备健全的人格，他是否还拥有常人一样的情感等等。

Participants used a seven-point scale to make these ratings, where 3 indicated that they strongly agreed that he could do such things,
参与者采用七点评分法，3表示他们非常同意戴维具有上述能力，

0 indicated that they neither agreed nor disagreed, and -3 indicated that they strongly disagreed.
0表示不置可否，-3表示非常不同意戴维具有上述能力。

The results, reported in Cognition, were that the fully recovered David rated an average of 1.77 and the dead David -0.29.
根据《认知》杂志报道，评分的结果是，完全康复的戴维平均得分1.77，死亡的戴维平均得分-0.29。

That score for the dead David was surprising enough, suggesting as it did a considerable amount of mental acuity in the dead.
后者的得分让人感到意外，这说明人们认为死去的人依然具有相当的心智灵敏性。

What was extraordinary, though, was the result for the vegetative David:
让人尤为感到不可思议的是，植物人状态的戴维得分仅为-1.73，

In the view of the average New Yorker or New Englander, the vegetative David was more dead than the version who was dead.
在普通的纽约和新英格兰民众看来，植物人的心智能力竟不如一个完全死亡了的人。

The researchers' first hypothesis to explain this weird observation was that participants were seeing less mind in the vegetative than in the dead because they were focusing on the inert body of the individual hooked up to a life-support system.
研究人员认为这种怪异的结果来自于受访者对于支撑生命那份躯壳的过分关注。

To investigate that, they ran a follow-up experiment which had two different descriptions of the dead David.
为了弄清这个问题，他们又进行了一个补充实验。在这个实验中，他们给死亡的戴维两种不同的描述。

One said he had simply passed away.
一种描述只简单地说他死了，

The other directed the participant’s attention to the corpse. It read, After being embalmed at the morgue, he was buried in the local cemetery. David now lies in a coffin underground.
另一种描述是在停尸房做过防腐处理后，下葬于本地公墓，戴维现在正躺在地下的棺材里，

In this follow-up study participants were also asked to rate how religious they were.
通过这种毫无歧意的描述把参与者的注意力引向那具尸体。在这个实验中，还要求参与者列出自己的宗教信仰。

Once again, the vegetative David was seen to have less mind than the David who had passed away.
植物人戴维的得分再一次输给了死亡的戴维。

This was equally true, regardless of how religious a participant said he was.
不论参与者有无宗教信仰，结果都是一样的。

However, ratings of the dead David’s mind in the story in which his corpse was embalmed and buried varied with the participant’s religiosity.
但是，对于那个已做了防腐处理而且已经埋葬了的戴维，参与者给他的评分却因宗教信仰的不同而不同。

Irreligious participants gave the buried corpse about the same mental ratings as the vegetative patient.
无宗教信仰的参与者认为这种情况下的戴维与植物人戴维的心智能力几乎一样。

Religious participants, however, continued to ascribe less mind to the irretrievably unconscious David than they did to his buried corpse.
但是，有宗教信仰的参与者仍然认为植物人戴维的心智能力还是不如那位已经长眠地下的戴维。

That those who believe in an afterlife ascribe mental acuity to the dead is hardly surprising.
相信来世的人认为死去的人精神不灭，这没有什么奇怪的。

That those who do not are inclined to do so unless heavily prompted not to is curious indeed.
不相信有来世的人，如果不是受到什么刺激，而有这样的想法，倒是奇怪的事。