雖然你喝醉了，但，你還是你！

研究表明，當你喝醉時，你在道德上仍然是同一個人

Many of us know that feeling of waking up, headache in tow, struggling to remember what we said and did after that extra drink the night before. And then suddenly, the memories vividly resurface.

很多人都有這樣的感覺:一覺醒來，頭痛欲墜，努力回憶前一天晚上喝多了酒之后說了什么，做了什么。然后，突然，記憶生動地重現(xiàn)。

Alcohol disinhibits us, making us say and do things that we'd otherwise keep under wraps. People will often drink to gain "Dutch courage" in a demanding situation.

酒精會抑制我們，讓我們說和做一些我們不知道該怎么做的事情。人們常常在要求很高的情況下喝酒以獲得“荷蘭式的勇氣”。

Many of us can understand the appeal of having a drink before a blind date or a social event – it can help to calm our nerves and cultivate confidence. That's because alcohol has a depressant effect which makes us feel more relaxed.

我們中的許多人都能理解在相親或社交活動前喝一杯酒的吸引力——這有助于平靜我們的神經(jīng)和培養(yǎng)信心。這是因為酒精有抑制作用，使我們感到更放松。

Of course, alcohol's effects aren't all positive. We've all adopted nicknames for the characters that we become after a few drinks. Maybe you're the "happy drunk", or perhaps you've built a reputation for being the "aggressive drunk" who takes everything the wrong way after a pint.

當然，酒精的效果并不都是積極的。我們都給喝了幾杯酒后變得不是自己的人起了綽號。也許你是“快樂的醉漢”，或者你是“好斗的醉漢”，喝了一品脫酒后，一切都往錯誤的方向走了。

The relationship between alcohol and antisocial behaviour is well documented – both anecdotally and in research. Plenty of arguments and fights stem from someone having had one too many.

酒精和反社會行為之間的關系是有據(jù)可查的——無論是軼事還是研究。很多爭吵和打架都是因為某人喝得太多了。

Scientists believe we behave like this when drunk because we misinterpret social situations and lose our sense of empathy. In essence, once we start slurring words and stumbling, our ability to understand or share the emotions of others goes out the door, too.

科學家們認為，我們喝醉時之所以會這樣做，是因為我們誤解了社交場合，失去了同理心。從本質(zhì)上說，一旦我們開始吞吞吐吐，結(jié)結(jié)巴巴，我們理解或分享他人情感的能力也就喪失了。

If someone has done something wrong while under the influence of alcohol, we tend to give them a "get out of jail free card", rather than hold them accountable for their actions. We also extend these excuses to ourselves.

如果有人在酒精的影響下做了錯事，我們傾向于給他們一張“出獄免費卡”，而不是讓他們?yōu)樽约旱男袨樨撠?。我們也把這些借口用到自己身上。

But in our research, we've attempted to paint a clearer picture of how drinking alcohol, empathy, and moral behaviour are related.

但在我們的研究中，我們試圖描繪出一幅更清晰的畫面，描述飲酒、同理心和道德行為之間的關系。

In turns out that while consuming alcohol might affect our empathy, making us respond inappropriately to other people's emotions and reactions, this doesn't necessarily change our moral standards, or the principles we use to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.

事實證明，飲酒可能會影響我們的同理心，使我們對他人的情緒和反應做出不適當?shù)姆磻?，但這并不一定改變我們的道德標準，也不一定改變我們用來區(qū)分正確與錯誤的原則。

In a recent experiment, we gave participants shots of vodka and then measured their empathy and their moral decisions. We presented images showing various people expressing emotions to our participants.

在最近的一個實驗中，我們給參與者注射伏特加，然后測量他們的同理心和道德決定。我們展示了各種各樣的人向參與者表達情感的圖片。

After having a higher dose of vodka, people began to respond inappropriately to these emotional displays, reporting that they felt positively about sad faces and negatively about happy faces. The more intoxicated people were, the more impaired their empathy became – having a few drinks weakened people's abilities to understand and share the emotions of others.

喝了更大劑量的伏特加后，人們開始對這些情緒化的表現(xiàn)做出不適當?shù)姆磻?，報告說他們對悲傷的臉感到積極，對快樂的臉感到消極。醉酒的人越多，他們的同理心就越受損——喝幾杯酒會削弱人們理解和分享他人情感的能力。

But did this then have an effect on their morality?

但這對他們的道德有影響嗎?

We had people tell us what they thought they would do in moral dilemmas and then also looked at what they actually did in a simulation of a moral dilemma in Virtual Reality. Consider what you might do in one of these situations:

我們讓人們告訴我們他們在道德困境中會做些什么，然后看看他們在模擬虛擬現(xiàn)實中的道德困境時實際做了些什么。考慮在以下情況下您可能會做什么：

A runaway trolley is heading down some rail tracks towards five construction workers who can't hear it approaching. You're standing on a footbridge in between the approaching trolley and the workers. In front of you, is standing a very large stranger. If you push this stranger onto the tracks below, their large bulk will stop the trolley. This one person will be killed but the five construction workers will be saved. Would you do it?

一輛失控的電車正沿著鐵軌向5名建筑工人駛來，而這些工人聽不到它駛來的聲音。你正站在一座人行橋上，在靠近的電車和工人之間。在你面前，站著一個很大的陌生人。如果你把這個陌生人推到下面的軌道上，他們的大塊頭會讓電車停下來。這一人將被殺死，但這五名建筑工人將獲救。你會這么做嗎?

While alcohol might have impaired the empathy of our participants, it didn't have an effect on how they judged these moral situations or how they acted in them. If someone chose to push the person off the footbridge in order to save more lives while sober, they did the same thing when drunk.

雖然酒精可能會削弱我們參與者的同情心，但它對他們?nèi)绾闻袛噙@些道德狀況或他們在其中的行為沒有影響。如果有人為了在清醒的時候挽救更多的生命而選擇把這個人從人行天橋上推開，他們在喝醉的時候也會這樣做。

If people refused to sacrifice the person's life in the same situation because they believed that killing was wrong regardless of the consequences, they also did the same when drunk.

如果人們拒絕在同樣的情況下犧牲一個人的生命，因為他們認為無論后果如何殺人都是錯誤的，那么他們在喝醉的時候也會這么做。

It turns out that while we might believe that alcohol changes our personalities, it doesn't. You're still the same person after a drink – your existing sense of morality left intact.

事實證明，雖然我們可能認為酒精會改變我們的性格，但事實并非如此。喝過酒之后，你還是原來的那個你——你原有的道德感依然完好無損。

So while alcohol might affect how we interpret and understand the emotions of other people, we can't blame our immoral behaviours on alcohol.

因此，雖然酒精可能會影響我們?nèi)绾卫斫馑说那榫w，但我們不能把不道德的行為歸咎于酒精。

Drunken you has the same moral compass. And so you are responsible for your moral and immoral actions, whether you've had a few drinks or not.

喝醉的你也有同樣的道德準則。所以不管你有沒有喝幾杯酒，你都要為你的道德和不道德行為負責。