The standard advice for multiple-choice tests is: if in doubt, stick with your first answer。

在做选择题的时候，大家奉行一条：如果在选项中纠结，那么就选你最先认定的那个答案。

College students believe it: about 75% agree that changing your first choice will lower your score overall (Kruger et al., 2005). Instructors¹ believe it as well: in one study 55% believed it would lower students' scores while only 16% believed it would improve them。

75%大学生认为更改选择题中自己最先认定的答案会降低他们的考试分数。在一项研究中，也有55%的老师这么认为，只有16%的老师认为更改自己最初认定的选项会提高考[微博]试分数。

And yet this is wrong。

但是这种想法是错的。

One survey of 33 different studies conducted over 70 years found that, on average, people who change their answers do better than those who don't (Benjamin et al., 1984). In none of these studies did people get a lower score because they changed their minds。

70多年里的33项研究显示，一般来说，修改选择题答案比不修改答案的考试结果要好。在这些研究中，没有哪项结果显示修改选择题答案会降低考试分数。

Study after study shows that when you change your answer in a multiple-choice test, you are more likely to be changing it from wrong to right than right to wrong. So actually sticking with your first answer is, on average, the wrong strategy。

众多研究显示，在做选择题时，把答案改对的情况比把答案改错的情况要多。所以坚持自己最初选择的答案也不算是正确的考试策略。

Why do so many people (including many who should know better, like the authors of test-preparation guides) still say that you should stick with your first answer? Kruger et al. (2005) argue that it's partly because it feels more painful to get an answer wrong because you changed it than wrong because you didn't change it。

那为什么这么多人说应该做选择题时应该坚持自己最初选的那个答案呢？Kruger等人认为一部分原因是：本来选对了后来却改错了的痛苦程度相较于不改答案而做错题来说要大多了。

So we tend to remember much more clearly the times when we changed from right to wrong. And so when taking a test we anticipate the regret we will feel and convince ourselves that our first instinct is probably right (when it's probably not)。

所以我们会把改错答案的事情记得更清楚。于是在纠结要不要改答案的时候这种痛苦之情就会出现，让我们觉得坚持最初的选项会是对的。