[(Title)] Children more likely to believe robots' answers than their own, study suggests.

Would you be more likely to trust a robot to know the right answer than yourself or other human beings?

要想知道正确答案，你会更可能地相信一个机器人，还是你自己或其他人？

A recent study led by Anna-Lisa Vollmer at Germany's Bielefeld University has found that children do, and that they'll cave in to robot "peer pressure" at a pretty disturbing rate, even when the robot is clearly wrong.

由德国比勒费尔德大学的安娜-丽萨·沃尔默领导的一项最新研究发现，孩子们确实这么做，即使机器人明显是错的，他们也会以相当令人不安的速度屈服于机器人“同伴压力”。

That has significant implications when children spend a large amount of time in front of a screen, says Dr Mandie Shean, a specialist in education and child resilience.

教育及儿童恢复力专家曼迪·希恩博士说，当孩子在屏幕上花费大量时间时，这会产生重大影响。

Participants in the study were asked to match a set of vertical lines on a computer screen by size.

参与研究者被要求按大小与电脑屏幕上的一组垂直线相匹配。这项研究观察了43名年龄在7岁到9岁之间的儿童。一些人自己完成了任务（控制组），而另一些人则是和一组机器人中完成的。

The study looked at a group of 43 children aged between seven and nine years old.

Some completed the task on their own (the control group), while others did so in a group of robots.

A group of adults undertook the same activity in similar circumstances.

一群成年人在类似情况下也从事同样的活动。问题不是测试他们的视力，而是当机器人给出答案时，评估他们抵抗压力以同意错误的答案的能力。这项研究的成年人能够抵抗来自机器人的压力拒绝错误的答案，但75%的孩子会退缩。

The point was not to test their eyesight, but to assess their ability to resist pressure to agree with the wrong answer, when that answer was given by a robot.

Adults in the study were able to reject pressure from the robots to give the wrong answer, but 75 per cent of the children caved in.

"It's quite interesting that the children would think the robots have a significant authority voice in their heads," Dr Shean told RN Drive.

希恩博士表示：“孩子们会觉得机器人在他们头脑中就是权威的声音，这很有意思。”

She says children have grown up with robots, whereas adults did not and have more confidence in rejecting the robot's advice — something the children have not yet developed.

她说，孩子是随着机器人一起长大的，而成年人没有，而且更有信心拒绝机器人的建议，这是孩子们还没有发展起来的东西。

Dr Shean says when things come to us through a screen, we tend to think they're correct.

希恩博士说：“当我们通过屏幕上看到东西时，我们倾向于认为他们是正确的。我们只是不能过滤什么是正确的，什么是错误的，电脑是真理，事情也是通过它们而产生的。”

"Just that inability to filter what is right, what is wrong, and that computers are truth and the things that come through them," she said.

The findings are pertinent, given the amount of time children spend on computers at school, with their use of technology often continuing at home.

这些研究结果是恰当的，因为孩子们在学校用电脑的时间太多，而且他们往往回到家后继续使用。

"[There's] this whole new generation of children that have always had this," said Dr Shean.

希恩博士说：“这些新一代的孩子都是这样。我们确实需要考虑如何帮助孩子们过滤他们收到的信息。当然，随着我们的发展，我们应该对我们的观点更有信心。”

She thinks it's important to encourage young people to develop a critical mindset.

她认为鼓励年轻人培养批判性思维很重要。

"We really need to think about how we help children filter the messages they receive," she said

Dr Shean thinks the results shown in the research could be related to development; the participants were very young — aged between seven and nine years old.

她认为鼓励年轻人培养批判性思维很重要，这项研究的结果可能与发展有关，参与者非常年轻，年龄在7岁到9岁之间。

"Certainly as we develop, we should have more confidence in our opinions," she said.

"Although we also need to be thinking about do we think for children too much, and do we allow computers to think for children too much?"

“尽管我们还需要为孩子考虑太多，我们是否允许电脑为孩子考虑太多？”她说，我们需要帮助孩子们相信有充分根据的意见，但这不仅是关于自信。

She says we need to help children have confidence in well-founded opinions, but it's not just about confidence.

"Confidence unfounded is a terrible trait, but getting children to be really critical — have that conversation with them," she advised.

她建议说：“毫无根据的自信是一个可怕的特质，但让孩子真正地具有批判思维，和他们进行对话。你为什么相信这一点？你有何根据？你的证据是什么？我在这里教我的学生：不同意我的观点，只需要给我一个理由。”

她说，进行这些对话有助于儿童发展评价进程，并使他们对自己的决策有信心。“这对成长来说非常重要。”

"That's a really important thing for growing up."