VOA标准英语2011--Cleverest are Often Quickest to Cheat

Cleverest are Often Quickest to Cheat

 

It seems for the past few years, the news has been filled with stories of people who cheat: bankers bilking investors¹ out of millions of dollars, politicians who cheat on their wives and constituents².

The cheaters were always smart, creative people - who got caught. This prompted several psychological researchers to examine the relationship between cheating and creativity.

Francesca Gino, a behavioral economist³ who teaches at Harvard Business School, uses ideas from psychology⁴ to study how people make economic choices.

Gino finds the behavior of many notable cheaters fascinating, and it got her wondering why so many creative people seem to take the low road.

“Interestingly, there are actually a lot of examples in the literature, novels, movies, comic books about this idea of the evil genius, but really no empirical evidence for this relationship,” she says.

So Gino spent several years testing volunteers to see how creative they were. Then, she put them in situations where they could profit from cheating - where just bending the rules a little bit put a few extra dollars in their pockets.

Creativity leads people to be more morally flexible, according to Harvard behavioral economist Francesca Gino.

“What we find is that creativity leads people to be more morally flexible," she says, "so they are much more able to come up with justification⁵ for the behavior that they're about to engage in and as a result, they are more likely to cheat.”

But where cheating really matters is in the workplace. And in a competitive, global economy, innovation and creativity are particularly prized. After studying people at work, Gino found that fostering creativity in workers also opens up opportunities for that moral flexibility⁶ where people are tempted⁷ to bend the rules in their favor.

“We think that the creativity really helps people resolve this conflict between something that is more longer-term, which is the idea of being good and moral and then, something that is more short term and that is the idea of advancing your own self-interest," Gino says. "And that does not necessarily mean getting money out of cheating, but it could also be getting other types of pleasures or utilities.”

Such as cheating on your spouse⁸. In short, Gino says her study is a warning that creativity has a dark side.

"It's not that we are trying to say that people shouldn't be creative, we are trying to say that they should be creative but they should be thinking about the fact that their creativity can be used for the wrong reasons.”

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 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。

5 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

6 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

7 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

8 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？