快速測驗：紐約州的首府是哪里？你確定嗎——想不想核對一下你的答案？

最新研究顯示，經常上網的人，面對他們可能早已熟知的常識性問題，更有可能會核實自己的答案。

加拿大滑鐵盧大學對大約100人進行了一項調查，受訪者需要回答一些常識性問題，例如“法國首都是哪個城市？”或者“世界上面積最大的大洋是哪個？”

研究者為半數受訪者提供了互聯網支持——相較于另一組受訪者，他們說自己不知道答案的概率要高出5%。研究發起者之一、心理學家埃文?瑞思科表示，出現這種結果的原因可能是，有條件訪問互聯網，就好像在身邊有一位非常聰明的朋友一樣。你有機會確認自己的答案，為什么不這樣做呢？

上網時間越來越多究竟會對人類行為產生哪些影響？這已然成為一個備受關注的話題。這項調查正是這方面最新的研究結果。現在，越來越多的人全天不斷網（有36%的30歲以下人群“幾乎始終”在線）。

然而，花時間搜索和查找不太確定的問題的答案，最終會讓人感覺自己非常聰明。這是耶魯大學博士研究生馬修?費舍爾的發現。他近期的調查顯示，經常上網的人認為自己“知道的知識，超過他們實際掌握的知識?！?/p>

他表示，互聯網正在變成一種非常有效的知識存儲策略，類似于一群人或夫妻兩人依靠彼此作為記憶輔助一樣（這種現象被成為交互記憶）。但費舍爾認為，“如果我們無法區分哪些是我們自己掌握的知識”，這種交互記憶系統會產生“預期之外的后果”。

瑞思科表示，雖然人們在互聯網上可能擁有一位回答問題非常準確的“朋友”，但他特別希望搞清楚，既然如此簡單就能獲得這么好的幫手，人們是否會心甘情愿地減少自身的努力？

……想核實一下嗎？（財富中文網）

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

審校：任文科

Here’s a quick test: What’s the capital of New York? Are you sure—or do you maybe want to check your answer?

New research shows people with access to the Internet are more likely to double-check their answers to the kinds of general knowledge questions they may already know.

In a study of about 100 people at the University of Waterloo in Canada, people were asked general knowledge questions like “What’s the capital of France?” or “Which is the largest ocean?”

Half the group was offered Internet backup—and they were about 5% more likely to say they didn’t know the answer to a question. Psychologist Evan Risko, who co-authored the study, says that may be because having access to the Internet is like having a really smart friend at your fingertips… there’s a chance to confirm, so why not?

It’s the latest wrinkle in the growing chorus of voices weighing in on how spending more time on the Internet is changing the way people operate, as more and more people are plugged in throughout the day (about 36% of people under 30 years old are online “almost constantly”).

But all that time spent searching and scanning for answers to things people aren’t quite sure about can make them feel pretty smart at the end of the day. That was the finding of Yale doctoral candidate Matthew Fisher. His recent research showed that people who’ve been online claim to “know a lot more than they actually do.”

He says the Internet is becoming a really efficient strategy for storing knowledge, much like a group or a couple can rely on each other as a memory aid (this phenomenon is called transcative memory). But that kind of system can have “unintended consequences when we’re failing to distinguish what’s our own knowledge,” Fisher says.

And while people may have a pretty accurate ‘friend’ in the Internet, Risko says he’s curious to find out whether or not having that easy access means people are willing to struggle less on a given task.

…Care to check on that?