经济学人31:心理学 当权者都会腐化 败坏?

 　　Science and Technolgy

　　科技

　　Psychology¹

　　心理学

　　All power tends to corrupt²

　　当权者都会腐化、败坏

　　But power without status corrupts³ absolutely

　　但出身卑微的当权者败坏的更彻底

　　DURING the second world war a new term of abuse entered the English language. To call someone "a little Hitler" meant he was a menial functionary⁴ who employed what power he had in order to annoy and frustrate⁵ others for his own gratification. From nightclub bouncers to the squaddies at Abu Ghraib prison who tormented⁶ their prisoners for fun, little Hitlers plague the world. The phenomenon has not, though, hitherto been subject to scientific investigation⁷.

　　二战期间，有一个骂人的新词"小希特勒"在英语国家中很盛行，如果这样称呼一个人意味这他是一个为了满足自己，很会利用手里的小权力折磨、刁难其他人的位卑但权重的小人物。从夜总会的保安到阿布扎比监狱里以折磨犯人取乐的狱警， 这样的"小希特勒们"无处不在。但这种现象一直没有被科学的分析过。

　　Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California has changed that. He observed that lots of psychological experiments have been done on the effects of status and lots on the effects of power. But few, if any, have been done on both combined. He and his colleagues Nir Halevy of Stanford University and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University, in Chicago, set out to correct this. In particular they wanted to see if it is circumstances that create little Hitlers or, rather, whether people of that type simply gravitate into jobs which allow them to behave badly. Their results have just been published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

　　南加州大学的 Nathanael Fast 改变了这一情况，他研究了大量的有关身份地位和有关于权力的心理学测试。但发现很少的测试是有关这两项之间相关性的。他和他的同事：斯坦福大学的 Nir Halevy、芝加哥西北大学的 Adam Galinsky 决定填补这一项空白。他们想知道是大环境造就了小希特勒们？还是所从事的特定工作迫使他们行为不端？测试结果就发表在这一期的"实验社会心理学杂志"上。

　　Dr Fast's experiment randomly⁹ assigned each of 213 participants to one of four situations that manipulated their status and power. All participants were informed that they were taking part in a study on virtual organisations and would be interacting with, but not meeting, a fellow student who worked in the same fictional¹⁰ consulting firm. Participants were then assigned either the role of "idea producer", a job that entailed¹¹ generating and working with important ideas, or of "worker", a job that involved menial tasks like checking for typos. A post-experiment questionnaire demonstrated that participants did, as might be expected, look upon the role of idea producer with respect and admiration¹². Equally unsurprisingly, they looked down on the role of worker.

　　Fast博士将213位实验对象随机分配到四个代表不同情形的身份及权力的小组中。所有实验对象都被告知他们将以小组形式参加一个研究，与另一个同样是虚构的顾问公司的同学进行互动，他们彼此并不见面。一些试验对象被赋予的角色是"拿主意的"人－需要他们制定、实施重大决策，另一些人的角色是"劳动者"－做些类似校对、打印之类的日常事务的工作。实验后的问卷调查验证了他们之前的推测：测试对象们对"拿主意的"角色报以尊重和赞美，同样在他们意料之中的还有，对劳动者的角色都是轻视的态度。

　　To manipulate their power, participants were told there would be a draw for a $50 bonus prize at the end of the study and that, regardless of their role, each participant would be able to dictate¹³ which activities his partner must engage in to qualify to enter the draw. Participants that Dr Fast wanted to imbue¹⁴ with a sense of power were informed that one other element of their role involved dictating¹⁵ which "hoops¹⁶" their partners would have to jump through in order to qualify for the draw, and that they controlled the amount of effort the partner had to exert in order to win the $50. They were also told that the partner did not have any such control over them. In contrast, low-power participants were informed that while they had the ability to determine the hoops their partner had to jump through, that partner ultimately had more control because he could remove the low- power participant's name from the raffle¹⁷ if he did not like the hoops selected.

　　在如何运用他们的权力的实验中，测试对象们被告知在研究结束后会进行一个价值50美元的抽奖活动，无论他们的角色是什么，每个参与者都有权决定他所评判的对象在完成指定动作后是否有资格参加抽奖。Dr Fast还赋予那些权重的测试对象的另一个角色就是，他们能决策哪些"障碍"是必须翻越之后对方才有资格抽奖，他们还控制着对方努力多少次才能赢取50美元。他们同时被告知另一方则没有控制他们的权力。相反的，权轻的测试者则被告知他们也能决定对方必须翻越的"障碍"，可最后，如果权重的这一方不喜欢他们要完成的动作，他们可以直接将权轻的测试对象除名。

　　Participants were then presented with a list of ten hoops and told to select as many as they liked (but a minimum of one) for their partner to jump through. Unknown to the participants, Dr Halevy and Dr Galinsky had conducted an independent test, using 58 people not involved in the main study, to rate how demeaning, humiliating, degrading, embarrassing and uncomfortable each of the ten possible activities actually was. Five of the ten were rated as deeply demeaning. These included things like: "say ‘I am filthy¹⁸' five times" and "bark like a dog three times". The other five were not considered particularly demeaning. They included: "tell the experimenter a funny joke" and "clap your hands 50 times".

　　之后，测试对象们收到一个代表10个"障碍"的列表，要他们说出他们选了几个（至少选1个）"障碍"给他们的评判对象必须翻越的。测试对象所不知道的是， Dr Halevy and Dr Galinsky 对另外没有参加上述实验的58个人进行了一项独立的测试，即，对这10项行为的贬抑、羞辱、跌份、尴尬、和难受的程度进行打分。10项中有5项被评判为极其贬抑。比如像"说5遍‘我是肮脏的'"和"学狗叫3次"，其它5项不被认为是特别的丢脸，包括"讲一个笑话给对方"和"拍手50次"。

　　Participants who had both status and power did not greatly demean their partners. They chose an average of 0.67 demeaning activities for those partners to perform. Low- power/low-status and low-power/high-status participants behaved similarly. They chose, on average, 0.67 and 0.85 demeaning activities. However, participants who were low in status but high in power-the classic "little Hitler" combination-chose an average of 1.12 deeply demeaning tasks for their partners to engage in. That was a highly statistically¹⁹ significant distinction.

　　那些位高权重的测试对象对都不会特别刁难他们的对手，他们让对方所做的动作平均贬抑值为0.67。 权轻位卑 和权轻位高的测试对象所选的动作都差不多，他们所选的行动的贬抑平均值分别是0.67和0.85。但是，那些位身份卑微但手握重权的测试对象－即典型的"小希特勒"的组合体－为他们的对手选择要完成的动作贬抑平均值高达1.12。这是数字统计上的明显区别。

　　Of course, not everybody in the high-power/low-status quadrant of the experiment behaved badly. Underlying²⁰ personality may still have a role. But as with previous experiments in which random⁸ members of the public have been asked to play prison guard or interrogator²¹, Dr Fast's result suggests that many quite ordinary people will succumb²² to bad behaviour if the circumstances are right.

　　当然，在占到测试人员14人数的代表权重位卑的测试对象中，也不是每一个人都有这样的贬抑他人的行为举止，自身的人格特征也起到了一定的作用。但是，在先前做过的实验中，随机找来一些人来扮演狱警和审判官， Dr Fast 发现，如果环境允许，很多普通人都会去试试做个"恶人"。

1 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

2 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

3 corrupts   

（使）败坏( corrupt的第三人称单数 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏

参考例句：

• The unrighteous penny corrupts the righteous pound. 不正当得来的便士使正当得来的英镑也受到玷污。
• Blue cinema corrupts the souls of people. 黄色电影腐蚀人们的灵魂。

4 functionary   

n.官员；公职人员

参考例句：

• No functionary may support or cover up unfair competition acts.国家官员不得支持、包庇不正当竞争行为。
• " Emigrant," said the functionary,"I am going to send you on to Paris,under an escort."“ 外逃分子，”那官员说，“我要把你送到巴黎去，还派人护送。”

5 frustrate   

v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦

参考例句：

• But this didn't frustrate Einstein.He was content to go as far as he could.但这并没有使爱因斯坦灰心，他对能够更深入地研究而感到满意。
• They made their preparations to frustrate the conspiracy.他们作好准备挫败这个阴谋。

6 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

9 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

10 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

11 entailed   

使…成为必要( entail的过去式和过去分词 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需

参考例句：

• The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son. 城堡和土地限定由长子继承。
• The house and estate are entailed on the eldest daughter. 这所房子和地产限定由长女继承。

12 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。

13 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？

14 imbue   

v.灌输(某种强烈的情感或意见)，感染

参考例句：

• He managed to imbue his employees with team spirit.他成功激发起雇员的团队精神。
• Kass is trying to imbue physics into simulated worlds.凯斯想要尝试的就是把物理学引入模拟世界。

15 dictating   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
• Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句

16 hoops   

n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓

参考例句：

• a barrel bound with iron hoops 用铁箍箍紧的桶
• Hoops in Paris were wider this season and skirts were shorter. 在巴黎，这个季节的裙圈比较宽大，裙裾却短一些。 来自飘（部分）

17 raffle   

n.废物，垃圾，抽奖售卖；v.以抽彩出售

参考例句：

• The money was raised by the sale of raffle tickets.这笔款子是通过出售购物彩券筹集的。
• He won a car in the raffle.他在兑奖售物活动中赢得了一辆汽车。

18 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

19 statistically   

ad.根据统计数据来看，从统计学的观点来看

参考例句：

• The sample of building permits is larger and therefore, statistically satisfying. 建筑许可数的样本比较大，所以统计数据更令人满意。
• The results of each test would have to be statistically independent. 每次试验的结果在统计上必须是独立的。

20 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

21 interrogator   

n.讯问者；审问者；质问者；询问器

参考例句：

• No,I was not mad, but my interrogator was furious. 不，我没疯，只是质问我的人怒不可遏。 来自互联网
• Miss Fan lacked such an interrogator with whom she could whisper intimately. 范小姐就缺少这样一个切切私语的盘问者。 来自互联网

22 succumb   

v.屈服，屈从；死

参考例句：

• They will never succumb to the enemies.他们决不向敌人屈服。
• Will business leaders succumb to these ideas?商业领袖们会被这些观点折服吗？