專家揭祕爲何有些人總愛說謊大綱
By the age of 3 or 4, we all start to lie. At this point in our brain's development, we learn that we have an incredibly versatile and powerful tool at our disposal -- our language -- and we can use it to actually play with reality and affect the outcome of what's happening.
人到了三四歲就開始說謊。在大腦發育的這個節點，人們認識到自己有一種多功能的強大工具可用，那就是語言。人們實際上可以用它來顛倒是非並影響事情的結局。Lying is "bad", but we all have to lie sometimes. But some people are pathological liars, meaning they can't stop spreading misinformation about themselves and others.
說謊“不好”，但誰都不得不偶爾說謊。但有些人是病態撒謊精，忍不住要傳播關於自己和別人的錯誤信息。The psychological reasons for why some people are this way is a bit of a mystery, but according to the third edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", pathological lying is a disorder in its own right, as well as a symptom of personality disorders like psychopathy.
這種行爲的心理學原因有點神祕莫測，但根據第三版《精神疾病診斷與統計手冊》，病理性說謊不僅與心理變態和自戀一樣，同爲人格障礙的症狀，其本身也是一種病。
Psychiatrist Judith Orloff said pathological liars have empathy deficient disorder, meaning they lack empathy, which essentially means a lack of conscience.
精神病學家朱迪絲·奧洛夫稱病理性說謊者患有共情缺陷障礙，即缺乏同理心，實質上就是缺乏良知。When you don't care about other people, lies don't seem to matter. A lack of empathy essentially means a lack of conscience, which is a hard concept to grasp for a lot of people.
如果你不在乎別人，那麼謊言也就顯得無所謂。缺乏同理心實質上就是缺乏良知，這對很多人來說是一個難以理解的概念。
"When they lie it doesn't hurt them in the same way it would hurt us," Orloff said. "So many people can't understand why they're lying, because they're trying to fit these people into the ordinary standards of what it means to be empathetic."
奧洛夫說：“他們說謊的時候不會像我們一樣感到難受。很多人根本不明白這些人爲什麼撒謊，因爲他們試圖讓這些病態的說謊者達到關於同理心的通常標準。”But they don't fit. In fact, they may not even realise they are lying half the time, because they're not conscious of it.
但這些說謊者是達不到通常標準的。事實上，他們有一半時候或許根本沒有意識到自己在說謊，因爲他們毫無察覺。Orloff said they actually believe they are telling the truth a lot of the time. It's not so much about the fact itself, she said, as it is about wanting to have power over somebody.
奧洛夫表示，他們很多時候其實認爲自己說的是實話。這跟事實本身沒多大關係，關鍵是他們想掌控別人。Once the lies start, it can end with the victim being gaslighted, which is essentially when they are told over and over again that their version of reality is incorrect, and they begin to believe the warped truth of the abuser.
一旦謊言開始，其最終結果就是受害者被逼瘋，他們一遍又一遍地被告知自己所認定的現實是不準確的，而且開始相信經過說謊者歪曲的真相。
