설탕이 뇌에 미치는 영향 [Sugaring the decision]

Psychology

Sugaring the decision

Mar 27th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Do not think on an empty stomach

MOST people have experienced the feeling, after a taxing mental work-out, that they cannot be bothered to make any more decisions. If they are forced to, they may do so intuitively, rather than by reasoning. Such apathy is often put down to tiredness, but a study published recently inPsychological Sciencesuggests there may be more to it than that. Whether reason or intuition is used may depend simply on the decision-maker's blood-sugar level—which is, itself, affected by the process of reasoning.

대부분의사람들은힘든정신적작업후에더이상의어떤결정도하지않으려하는느낌을가져본적이있다.그것이강요된것이라면,그들은이성적이기보다는아마도직관적으로그렇게할것이다. 이런무감각은흔히피로에의한것이라여겨지는데최근의Psychological Science에발표된연구에의하면그외에다른이유가있다.이성적또는직관적인결정은단순히의사결정자의추리과정에의해영향을받는혈당수치에의해결정된다.

cannotbebothered(todo)=notbother(todo)《구어》 …조차하지않다

E.J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister ofFloridaStateUniversitydiscovered this by doing some experiments on that most popular of laboratory animals, the impoverished undergraduate. They asked 121 psychology students who had volunteered for the experiment to watch a silent video of a woman being interviewed that had random words appearing in bold black letters every ten seconds along the perimeter of the video. This was the part of the experiment intended to be mentally taxing. Half of the students were told to focus on the woman, to try to understand what she was saying, and to ignore the words along the perimeter. The other half were given no instructions. Those that had to focus were exerting considerable self-control not to look at the random words.

 플로리다 대학의E.J. Masicampo , Roy Baumeister는이러한사실을가장인기있는연구용동물인대학생을상대로한몇가지실험을통해발견했다.지원한121명의학생들에게한여자가인터뷰하는영상을시청할것을요구했다.그영상의주변에는10초간격으로검은색글자가나타난다.이것은정신적부담을주려는의도였다.절반의학생들에게는여자가말하는것을이해하는데초점을두고,글자는무시하라고말했다.다른절반은어떤지시도받지않았다.그들은랜덤한글자를보지않기위해상당한주의를기울여야했다.

When the video was over, half of each group was given a glass of lemonade with sugar in it and half was given a glass of lemonade with sugar substitute. Twelve minutes later, when the glucose from the lemonade with sugar in it had had time to enter the students' blood, the researchers administered a decision-making task that was designed to determine if the participant was using intuition or reason to make up his mind.

그영상물이끝났을때,각그룹의절반은설탕이든레몬에이드를받았고절반은설탕대용식품이든레몬에이드를받았다. 12분후,레몬에이드에든설탕의포도당이학생들의혈액속에전달될시간이흐른후연구원들은참가자의의사결정이직관에의한것인지이성에의한것인지판단하는테스트를실시하였다.

The students were asked to think about where they wanted to live in the coming year and given three accommodation options that varied both in size and distance from the university campus. Two of the options were good, but in different ways: one was far from the campus, but very large; the other was close to campus, but smaller. The third option was a decoy, similar to one of the good options, but obviously not quite as good. If it was close to campus and small, it was not quite as close as the good close option and slightly smaller. If it was far from campus and large, it was slightly smaller than the good large option and slightly farther away.

그 학생들은 다음해 그들이 어떠한 곳에 살고 싶은지 장소에 대한 질문을 받았다.그 장소는 크기,학교에서의 거리등에 따라3가지 옵션으로 나뉘어진다. 2가지 옵션은 좋은 반면1가지는 그렇지 않다.하나는 학교에서 멀지만,매우 크고 다른 옵션들은 학교에서 가까우며 작다.세번째 옵션은 미끼다.좋은 옵션과 유사하지만 명백히 좋지 않은 옵션이다.그 미끼가 학교에 가깝고 작다면,그것은 다른 좋은 옵션보다 더 가깝지 않거나 미세하게 작다.미끼가 학교에서 멀고 크다면,좋은 옵션보다 미세하게 작거나 좀 더 멀다.

A drink to decide

Psychologists have known for a long time that having a decoy option in a decision-making task draws people to choose a reasonable option that is similar to the decoy. Dr Masicampo and Dr Baumeister suspected that students who had been asked to work hard during the video and then been given a drink without any sugar in it would be more likely to rely on intuition when making this decision than those from the other three groups. And that is what happened; 64% of them were swayed by the decoy. Those who had either not had to exert mental energy during the showing of the video or had been given glucose in their lemonade, used reason in their decision-making task and were less likely to be swayed by the decoy.

 심리학자들은 오랫동안 의사결정 작업에 미끼옵션을 두는 것은 사람들이 미끼와 유사한 이성적 옵션을 고르도록 유인한다고 알고있었다.Dr Masicampo와Dr Baumeister는영상물을보는동안신경쓰고설탕이없는음료를마신학생들이의사결정에있어다른세그룹에비해직관에의존한결정을할것이라기대해싿.결과는그들중64%가미끼에흔들렸다.영상시청에그들의정신적에너지를소비하지않고포도당이첨가된레몬에이드를마신그룹은의사결정에있어이성적이고미끼에적게흔들렸다.

It is not clear why intuition is independent of glucose. It could be that humans inherited a default nervous system from other mammals that was similar to intuition, and that could make snap decisions about whether to fight or flee regardless of how much glucose was in the body.

왜 직관이 포도당과 관계가 없는지는 확실치 않다.그것은 아마 체내의 포도당의 양과는 상관없이 싸울 것인지 도망갈 것인지 순간적인 판단,그리고 직관 같은 타 포유류로부터 물려받은 기본적 신경체계일지 모른다.

Whatever the reason, the upshot seems to be that thinking is, indeed, hard work. And import!!!ant decisions should not be made on an empty stomach

 그 이유야 어쨌든,이 결과는 사고 자체가 중노동이라는 것,그리고 중요한 결정은 빈속에해선 안된다는 것을 보여준다.