简介：
We Are More Likely to Lie in the Afternoon
人一到下午，就更爱忽悠
If you want to catch someone in a lie, you'll raise your odds in the afternoon, because most people are more likely to cheat or lie then, as opposed to in the morning.
我们在下午更容易逮到另一个人说谎，因为与早晨相比，人们在下午更容易出现说谎或欺骗的行为。
撰写/播音 克里斯蒂•尼克尔森（Christie Nicholson）
翻译 尹秋媛
校对 程孙雪子
As the day wears on, we tend to get weary. Now a study finds that as a result we may be more likely to cheat or lie in the afternoon than in the morning. But only if we’re usually ethical to begin with.
随着一天的流逝，我们会变得越来越疲惫。一项研究发现，因为下午的疲倦，我们比早晨时更容易说谎或骗人，但前提是，我们在一开始的早晨是讲道德的。
Scientists showed volunteers patterns of dots on a computer and asked them to tell which side of the screen contained more dots, the right or left. Here's the kicker: the researchers gave the subjects a higher reward if they selected the right side, even if it was incorrect. And with this incentive, subjects were more likely to cheat in the afternoon than in the morning.
科学家让志愿者看一台电脑上按不同规则排列的圆点图，然后问他们，左右两边哪边的圆点更多。这里有一个猫腻：即使“右”是错误答案，受试者只要选择了右，就会获得更高的奖赏。研究人员发现，在这个奖励机制的刺激下，受试者们在下午时更倾向于作弊，而在早晨则相对诚实。
In another experiment the scientists showed the subjects fragments of words, and asked them to complete the word. For example, they might see the last three letters, R, A, L, of a five-letter word. And surprisingly in the morning the participants tended come up with the word "moral" whereas in the afternoon the word of choice was “coral.”
科学家又进行了另一项实验，向受试者展示一些单词的片段，并要求他们填写字母，将单词拼写完整。比方说，他们会看到一个后三个字母为R，A，L的5字母单词。令人吃惊的是，早晨参加的受试者会拼写出“moral”（道德），而下午的受试者则会写出“coral”（珊瑚）。
The researchers also found that people who tend to cheat regularly were just as likely to do so in the morning as in the afternoon. It was the more ethical folks who suffered lapses as the day wore on. So the early bird gets the worm…and the truth.
研究人员还发现，一个经常欺骗的人说谎并不分早晚；只有道德感更强的人，才会在一天的进程中逐渐失掉原则。所以早起的鸟儿不仅有虫吃，还有真话听！
( 题图来源：Alamy)
