Our Brain Typically Overlooks This Brilliant Problem-Solving Strategy
作者: Diana Kwon
In recent years, many parents have opted to train their kids with balance bikes, pedalless two-wheelers that enable children to develop the coordination needed for bicycling—a skill that is not as easily acquired with an extra set of wheels.
近年来，很多家长选择用平衡车来训练孩子，这种无脚踏的两轮车能培养骑车所需的协调性——而这种技能并非简单增加一套轮子就能轻易掌握的。
Given the benefits of balance bikes, why did it take so long for them to replace training wheels? There are plenty of other examples in which overlooked solutions that involve subtraction turn out to be better alternatives.
既然平衡车有这么多好处，为什么又要花更多时间训练，来取代为了培养平衡感而增加的训练轮呢？类似的例子还有很多，可证明一个更好的解决问题策略，那便是：超越问题本身，做减法。
Leidy Klotz, an engineer at the University of Virginia, noticed that minimalist designs, in which elements are removed from an existing model, were uncommon. So he reached out to Gabrielle Adams, a social psychologist at the university, to try to figure out why this was the case.
弗吉尼亚大学的工程师莱迪·克罗兹注意到，极简主义设计，即从现有模型中删除元素，其实并不常见。于是他向本校的社会心理学家加布里埃尔·亚当斯请教，试图弄清楚这种情况的原因何在。
The two researchers hypothesized that there might be a psychological explanation: when faced with a problem, people tend to select solutions that involve adding new elements rather than taking existing components away.
两位研究人员推测，心理学可对此进行解释：在面临某个问题时，人们倾向的解决方案为增加新元素，而非减少原有元素。
Adams, Klotz and their colleagues set out to test if their hunch was correct. "We wanted to investigate whether, and to what extent, people actually overlooked subtraction when they're tasked with changing things," Adams says.
亚当斯、克洛兹和他们的同事开始测试这一猜测是否正确。亚当斯说，“我们想调查，人们在给到一个新任务是去改变任何事物时，人们是否忽略了‘做减法’这一解决策略，或者说是在多大程度上忽略了这一策略。”
The researchers first carried out a set of observational studies, assessments without a control group, to see whether this bias existed at all. In one, they asked 91 participants to make a pattern symmetrical by either adding or removing colored boxes. Only 18 people (20percent) used subtraction.
研究人员首先进行了一组观察性研究，在没有对照组对比的情况下，观察这种偏差是否存在。在其中一项研究中，他们要求91名参与者通过添加或删除彩色盒子使图案对称。其中只有18人（占比20%）使用了减法。
In another, the team scanned through an archive of ideas for improvement submitted to an incoming university president and found that only 11 percent of 651 proposals involved eliminating an existing regulation, practice or program.
在另一项研究中，该团队查看了提交给即将上任的大学校长的改进意见档案。他们发现，651个提案中，只有11%的提案涉及消除现有的法规、行为或项目。
Similar results emerged across tasks that involved modifying structures, essays and itineraries—in each case, the vast majority of people chose to augment rather than remove.
类似的结果出现在涉及修改结构、论文和行程的任务中——在每一种情况下，绝大多数人都选择了增加而不是删除。
2026年2月6日于经典龙苑
