異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第115期:榮譽文化的實驗

"We sat down and tried to figure out what is the insult that would go to the heart of an eighteen-to-twenty-year old's brain," Cohen says.

"我們坐了下來，試圖找出什么樣的侮辱，會刺激這些18至21歲的年輕人的神經，"科恩說，

"It didn't take too long to come up with 'asshole.'"

"很快，我們就得到了答案：罵他是'混蛋！'"。

The experiment went like this.

實驗是這樣進行的。

The social science building at the University of Michigan has a long, narrow hallway in the basement lined with filing cabinets.

密歇根大學的社會科學教學樓的地下室有一條狹長的走廊，兩旁排著檔案柜。

The young men were called into a classroom, one by one, and asked to fill out a questionnaire.

這些年輕人被帶到一個教室里，一個挨一個坐著，并要求填寫了一份調查問卷。

Then they were told to drop off the questionnaire at the end of the hallway and return to the classroom, a simple, seemingly innocent academic exercise.

然后，告訴他們把問卷放到走廊盡頭并返回教室――一種簡單，看似無意義的學術活動。

For half the young men, that was it. They were the control group.

一半的青年男子。他們是控制他人的小組。

For the other half, there was a catch.

另一半，則是目標組。

As they walked down the hallway with the questionnaire, another man, a confederate of the experimenters, walked pass them and pulled out a drawer in one of the filing cabinets.

當這些年輕人帶著問卷穿行在走廊里時，一個人--這個實驗的策劃者之一--從他們身邊走過，并抽出檔案柜的一個抽屜。

The already narrow hallway became even narrower.

于是，本已狹窄的走道更加狹窄。

As the young men tried to squeeze by, the confederate looked up, annoyed.

這個策劃者看到，一個青年男子很生氣地要將抽屜按回去。

He slammed the filing cabinet drawer shut, jostled the young men with his shoulder, and, in a low but audible voice, he said the trigger word: "Asshole."

他"砰"地一下把檔案柜的抽屜關上，年輕人用肩膀抵住這個人，用低沉但聽得見的聲音說："混蛋"。

Cohen and Nisbett wanted to measure, as precisely as possible, what being called that word meant.

科恩和尼斯貝特想盡可能精確地定義這個詞的意思。

They looked at the faces of their subjects and rated how much anger they saw.

他們觀察這些測試對象的臉并據此來劃分他們的憤怒程度。

They shook the young men's hands to see if their grip was firmer than usual.

他們與這些年輕男子握手，看看他們是不是會比平常更用力。

They took saliva samples from the students, both before and after the insult,

他們取走受辱前、和受辱后的唾液樣本，

to see if being called an asshole caused their levels of testosterone and cortisol, the hormones that drive arousal and aggression, to go up.

看看是否被稱為混蛋會造成皮質醇的睪酮激素水平上升，皮質醇即驅使覺醒和侵略性的荷爾蒙。

Finally, they asked the students to read the following story and supply a conclusion:

最后，他們要求學生閱讀下面的故事并要求他們得出一個結論：

It had only been about twenty minutes since they had arrived at the party when Jill pulled Steve aside, obviously bothered about something.

從他們來到這個舞會時，大約有20分鐘了，吉爾把史蒂夫拉到一邊，顯然有什么麻煩事情。

"What's wrong?" asked Steve.

"發(fā)生什么了？"史蒂夫問。

"It's Larry. I mean, he knows that you and I are engaged, but he's already made to passes at me tonight."

"這是拉里。我的意思是，他知道，我們已經訂婚了，但今晚他已經在我身邊轉悠了兩次了。"