Why monkeys (and humans) are wired for fairness | Sarah Brosnan

Transcriber: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

翻译人员: J Zhong 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

在我研究生第一年学习猴子 是如何互相协作的时间里，

我花了很多时间在室外

观察卷尾猴如何互动的。

My first year in graduate school, studying cooperation in monkeys,

一天下午，我从外面回来之后 要给其中一组猴子喂花生，

I spent a lot of time outside,

我必须要引开一个名叫 奥齐（Ozzie）的雄性猴子，

just watching our groups of capuchin monkeys interact.

这样才能保证其他猴子也能吃到一些。

One afternoon, I was out back feeding peanuts to one of our groups,

奥齐特别喜欢吃花生，

为了吃到花生它会用尽一切手段。

which required distracting one of our males, Ozzie,

enough so that the other monkeys could get some.

然而那天，

他竟然开始尝试从围栏里 带给我一些其他物品

Ozzie loved peanuts,

and he always tried to do anything he could to grab some.

与我交易来换取花生。

On that day, however,

要知道卷尾猴很聪明， 所以这样的举动并没有让我十分惊讶。

he began trying to bring other things from his enclosure to me

可让我惊奇的是

and trade them with me in order to get a peanut.

有些他用来交换花生的食物

据我所知是比起花生他更加喜欢的。

Now, capuchins are smart, so this wasn't necessarily a surprise.

他首先拿给我一颗猴子零食，

But what was a surprise

was that some of the things that he was bringing me,

这种食物类似于干狗粮——

还是美国普利纳宠物食品公司制作的——

I was pretty sure he liked better than peanuts.

可对于猴子来说， 这种食物可以说是一文不值。

First, he brought me a piece of monkey chow,

当然，我没有用花生与他交换。

which is like dried dog food --

但他没有放弃，

it was even made by Purina --

而最终，他带来了四分之一个橘子

and for a monkey, is about as worthless as it gets.

Of course, I didn't give him a peanut for that.

来与我交换一颗花生。

But he kept trying,

要知道橘子 对于猴子们来说可是高价货物，

and eventually, he brought me a quarter of an orange

也让这笔交易显得有点不理智。

and tried to trade it with me for a peanut.

你可能会好奇我们怎么会知道 猴子看重什么。

Now, oranges are a valuable monkey commodity,

其实我们会直接问它们，

只要让他们在两种食物之间做选择，

so this trade seemed, shall I say, a little bit nuts?

然后观察它们选中哪种食物就好了。

Now you may be wondering how we know what monkeys prefer.

总的来说， 它们的喜好和我们很相似：

Well, we ask them,

越甜的食物它们就越喜欢。

by giving them a choice between two foods

就好像比起甘蓝 人类更喜欢纸杯蛋糕一样，

and seeing which one they pick.

与黄瓜一类的蔬菜相比， 猴子更喜欢

Generally speaking, their preferences are a lot like ours:

the sweeter it is, the more they like it.

诸如橘子或葡萄一类的水果，

当然，以上所列都胜过猴子零食。

So, much like humans prefer cupcakes to kale,

花生可算很不错的了。

monkeys prefer fruits, like oranges or grapes,

然而，对于它们来说 肯定比不上一块橘子。

to vegetables like cucumbers,

所以当奥齐试图用一块橘子 与我交换一粒花生的时候，

and all of this to monkey chow.

And peanuts are not bad.

我很惊讶，

However, they definitely don't prefer them to a chunk of orange.

心想他是否是因为 族群里的其他人都得到了花生

So when Ozzie tried to trade a quarter of an orange for a peanut,

才会这么做的。

it was a surprise,

顺便一提，我确实给了奥齐一颗花生。

and I began to wonder if he suddenly wanted that peanut

然后我立刻把这个观察 告诉了我的研究生导师

because everybody else in his group was getting one.

弗兰斯 · 德 沃尔（Frans de Waal），

我们开始设计一个实验，

In case you're wondering, I did give Ozzie his peanut.

它是关于猴子是否会在完成了同样工作

而族群中其他人获得比它更好的待遇时

But then I went straight to my graduate adviser,

Frans de Waal,

有所反应。

and we began to design a study

to see how the monkeys would respond

这个实验很简单。

when somebody else in their group got a better reward than they did

我们在同一个族群里选两只猴子

并让它们并排坐着，

它们要完成一项

for doing the same work.

与我交换代币的任务，

It was a very simple study.

如果它们成功了，

We took two monkeys from the same group

and had them sit side by side,

就能够得到奖励。

不同之处是 其中一只猴子每次都会得到一片黄瓜，

and they would do a task,

which was trading a token with me,

and if they did so successfully,

而另一只有时会得到一片黄瓜，

they got a reward.

有时则会得到一粒葡萄。

The catch was that one monkey always got a piece of cucumber,

要知道，

在卷尾猴的食物鄙视链中

and the other monkey sometimes got a piece of cucumber,

葡萄是远远优于黄瓜的。

这就是我的其中两只卷尾猴。

but sometimes got a grape.

右边的叫温特（Winter）， 正通过交换得到葡萄，

And if you'll recall,

grapes are much preferred to cucumbers

右边的兰斯（Lance） 交换到的则是黄瓜。

on the capuchin monkey hierarchy.

你能看到她—— 没错，兰斯其实是只雌性——

These are two of my capuchin monkeys.

Winter, on the right, is trading for a grape,

最开始她对黄瓜没什么不满的，

and Lance, on the left, is trading for a cucumber.

直到她发现温特能够交换到葡萄。

You can see that she -- and yes, Lance is actually a female --

兰斯对于交换突然变得加倍热情。

is at first perfectly happy with her cucumber,

她拿到黄瓜，咬一口，接着——

until she sees Winter trading for a grape.

马上把它重新扔出来。

Suddenly, Lance is very enthusiastic about trading.

与此同时，温特再一次 在交换中得到了葡萄，

She gets her cucumber, takes a bite and then --

在她吃葡萄的过程中， 兰斯的注意力完全被吸引过去了。

throws it right back out again.

这一次，

Meanwhile, Winter trades again and gets another grape

兰斯对于交换就不那么感兴趣了。

and has Lance's undivided attention while she eats it.

但最后，她还是重新开始了交换。

可是当她再一次得到一片黄瓜的时候，

This time,

Lance is not so enthusiastic about trading.

她甚至没有咬它一口，

But eventually, she does so.

而是原封不动地把它扔了回来。

But when she gets the cucumber this time around,

显然，兰斯在看到温特吃葡萄之前，

she doesn't even take a bite

对她的黄瓜很知足。

before she throws it back out again.

而且兰斯并不是个例。

Apparently, Lance only wants a cucumber

只要我一视同仁地给所有猴子分发黄瓜，

when she hasn't just watched Winter eat a grape.

卷尾猴们就会很满足。

但当除它们以外的猴子 得到的是葡萄的时候，

And Lance was not alone in this.

All of my capuchins were perfectly happy with their cucumbers

它们就不是那么满意了。

as long as the other monkeys were getting cucumbers too.

一个容易想到的问题是：为什么？

如果它们原本挺喜欢黄瓜，

But they often weren't so happy with their cucumbers

when other monkeys were getting a grape.

为何后来改变了？

我是个科学家，

The obvious question is why?

科学家们通常不会 对自己的研究进行过度解读，

If they liked those cucumbers before,

我们很少揣测其他动物的

what changed?

想法或是情感，

Now, I'm a scientist,

因为我们无法询问它们。

and scientists are famously shy about reading too much into our studies,

但是，我在我的猴子身上看到

especially when it comes to what other animals

它们仿佛会像人类一样追求公平。

are thinking or feeling,

说到底，

because we can't ask them.

But still, what I was seeing in my monkeys

对于黄瓜的看法是在 看到温特能得到葡萄之后才改变的，

looked an awful lot like what we humans would call a sense of fairness.

而在此之前并没有。

人类着迷般地追求公平。

After all,

the difference in that cucumber was that it came after Winter got a grape,

我有个妹妹，

在我们小的时候，

如果我妹妹得到的派比我得到的要大，

rather than before.

We humans are obsessed with fairness.

甚至只是大一点点，

我都会非常生气。

I have a younger sister,

这不公平。

and when we were little,

幼小的我也不是唯一一个这样想的。

if my sister got a bigger piece of the pie than me,

even by a crumb,

我们人类太痛恨吃亏了，

I was furious.

It wasn't fair.

有一个研究

And the childhood me is not alone.

要求人们在下列假设情况中做选择，

We humans hate getting less than another so much

年收入 5 万美元

但其他人年收入 2.5 万美元，

that one study found

或是年收入 10 万美元

that if humans were given a hypothetical choice

但其他人年收入 25 万美元，

between earning 50,000 dollars a year

结果几乎一半的受试者

while others earned 25,000 dollars,

选择了 更低的年收入 5 万美元，

or earning 100,000 dollars a year

while others earned 250,000 dollars,

以此避免比其他人赚得少的情况。

nearly half the subjects

这代价还挺大的。

prefer to earn 50,000 dollars a year less money

是什么驱使人们作出这种

看起来不太理性的决定？

to avoid earning relatively less than someone else.

说到底，

That's a pretty big price to pay.

因为别人得到的是葡萄， 就要扔掉你的黄瓜

What drives people

只能用试图让情况变得更公平来解释。

to this sort of apparently irrational decision-making?

After all,

否则，温特得到了葡萄， 你却一无所获。

throwing away your cucumber because someone else got a grape

当然，人类和卷尾猴不同。

only makes sense if it makes things more fair.

但从表面上看，

Otherwise, Winter has a grape, and you have nothing.

因为其他人的收入比你高

而选择少赚 5 万美元

Of course humans are not capuchin monkeys.

和扔掉黄瓜的行为一样无法解释。

But on the surface,

sacrificing 50,000 dollars

但或许这是有道理的。

because somebody else is going to earn more money than you

一些经济学家认为

人类的公平感是与合作挂钩的。

makes no more sense than throwing away that cucumber.

Except maybe it does.

换句话说，我们与其他人合作时

需要公平感

Some economists think

that the sense of fairness in humans is tied to cooperation.

来感知我们是否处于劣势。

我们不如这样理解：

In other words, we need that sense of fairness

假设你有一个同事遇上了困难

when we're working with somebody else

并且需要一些额外协助。

如果她在你需要的时候也会帮忙，

to know when we're getting the short end of the stick.

你大概很愿意伸出援手。

Think about it this way.

Let's say you have a colleague at work who's having a hard time

换句话说，双方两清。

and needs a little extra help.

但如果

You're probably more than happy to help out,

这个同事一直不认真工作

especially if she does the same for you when you need it.

还总把差事推给你，

这就很气人了。

In other words, if things even out.

还可能更糟，

But now,

那就是你干了所有的活 她却得到更高的收入。

let's say that colleague is always slacking off

and dumping extra work on you.

你会很愤怒，对吧？

That's infuriating.

你就应该愤怒。

Or worse,

what if you're doing all the work, and she's getting paid more.

这种适时的愤怒是公平感的体现，

You're outraged, right?

是为了告诉你，这不公平。

As well you should be.

你必须从与你一起工作的人那里 得到公平合理的回报，

That righteous fury is your sense of fairness

否则这就只能叫做剥削，而非合作。

telling you that, well, it's not fair.

你或许不能摆脱每一份待你不公的工作，

You need to get your fair share from the people you're working with,

但在一个完美的、

or it's exploitation, not cooperation.

没有种族歧视、性别歧视和

因跳槽而产生的摩擦的世界里，

You may not be able to leave every job where you're treated unfairly,

你的公平感会告诉你

but in a perfect world,

什么时候该向前看。

one without racism and sexism

如果你无能为力该怎么办？

and the frictions associated with finding a new job,

那种被压抑的挫败感可能会使你 像那只猴子一样把黄瓜扔掉。

it's your sense of fairness that would let you know

when it was time to move on.

人类在这方面是很相似的。

And if you couldn't?

在之前提到的实验中， 兰斯对此无能为力，

Well, that smoldering frustration might make you throw your cucumbers too.

但如果情况不是这样呢？

结果发现，

And humans are not alone in this.

这些卷尾猴会直接放弃与其他

In the previous study, there was nothing Lance could do about it,

给出不公待遇的卷尾猴合作。

but what if there had been?

拒绝与其他猴子合作

It turns out

that capuchins simply refuse to cooperate with other capuchins

是一种很直接的平衡环境的方式。

who don't give them their share after they worked together.

显然，所有猴子都一无所获

And refusing to work together with another monkey

比起仅有其中一只猴子收获更多 要更理想。

is a pretty straightforward way of leveling the playing field.

就像你和你的同事，

只要长远来看所有事情都会扯平，

Apparently, no monkey getting anything at all

is better than another monkey getting more.

它们对于短时间的不公平 就不会感到不满。

But much like you and your coworker,

公平与合作之间的这种经济学联系

they're perfectly happy with a little short-term inequality

对于我一个进化生物学家来说也很合理。

as long as everything evens out over the long run.

说到底，

你的祖先并非因为 它们在某些绝对意义上非常出色

This economic connection between fairness and cooperation

才让它们的基因传承了下来，

makes sense to me as an evolutionary biologist.

而是因为它们比其他动物出色。

After all,

your ancestors didn't get to pass on their genes

这不叫 “适者生存”，

这叫 “最适者生存”。

because they did well in some absolute sense,

这意味着比其他人更适合。

but because they did better than others.

这都是相对的。

We don't call it survival of the fit,

好了。

we call it survival of the fittest.

总之我的卷尾猴并不喜欢被亏待。

As in more fit than others.

而且它们愿意为了平衡环境

It's all relative.

而放弃它们的黄瓜。

OK.

这很好。

So my capuchins don't like it when they get less than another.

但我们所谓的人类的公平感

And they're perfectly happy to sacrifice their cucumbers

也意味着当比其他人收获更多时 我们也会留心。

to level the playing field.

That's great.

至于我的猴子们？

But what we would call a sense of fairness in humans

结果发现

灵长类确实会注意到他们受到的优待，

also means that we care when we get more than someone else.

至少其中一些会。

What about my monkeys?

我的卷尾猴并不会。

It turns out

that primates do notice when they get more than others,

但在我的其中一项研究里，

如果族群里的 另一只黑猩猩得到的是黄瓜，

or at least some of them do.

My capuchins do not.

我的黑猩猩有时就会拒绝收下葡萄，

But in one of my studies,

介于我的黑猩猩们都很喜欢葡萄， 这令人印象深刻。

my chimpanzees would sometimes refuse a grape

if another chimpanzee in their group got a cucumber,

然而，比起受到优待 它们在受到亏待时

which is pretty impressive, given how much my chimpanzees like grapes.

更加不满。

你比你的邻居更富有时 你有可能感觉到不公，

However, they were still more upset when they got less than another chimp

但你的邻居比你更富有时， 你就不会认为这很公平了。

as compared to when they got more.

但更重要的问题是：

You may not think it's fair when you have more than your neighbor,

为什么我们在受到亏待的时候

but you really don't think it's fair when your neighbor has more than you.

更在乎不平等和不公？

Here's an important question, though.

如果进化的核心是最适者生存，

Why do we care about inequality or unfairness

我们不应该去夺取任何可能的好处吗？

when we are the ones who are unfairly benefiting?

问题是，

If evolution is about survival of the fittest,

如果我得到更多，我当然会付出更多。

wouldn't it make sense to grab any advantage you can get?

但最好的情况是我们团结起来，

最终的收获比我们任何一个人 单打独斗得到的更多。

Here's the thing though.

I do better if I get more than you, sure.

但如果你怀疑我不会公平行事的话， 你为何要和我共事呢？

But best of all is if you and I can work together

如果你觉得我能够意识到我获得的 比你更多

and get more than either one of us could have gotten on our own.

并且会为此作出改变，

But why would you work with me if you don't think I'm going to play fair?

那么你才会想要和我共事。

物种进化让我们变得能够接受 短期的损失，

But if you think I'm going to notice when I've got more than you

and do something about it,

以此来维持那些更为重要的 长期关系。

then you will work with me.

Evolution has selected us to accept the occasional short-term loss

黑猩猩表现出了这一点，

但这对于人类来说更为关键。

in order to maintain these all-important long-term relationships.

人类与人类之间存在着 强大的相互联系、相互依靠的关系，

我们拥有的发达的认知能力

This is true in chimpanzees,

but it is even more important in humans.

让我们能够为未来做计划，

Humans are incredibly interconnected and interdependent,

以及认识到 维护这些合作关系的重要性。

and we have the advanced cognitive abilities

to be able to plan far into the future.

确实，非要说的话，

我认为我们忽视了

And to recognize the importance

公平感对于人类来说到底有多重要。

of maintaining these cooperative partnerships.

人与卷尾猴最大的区别就在于

Indeed, if anything,

I think we are likely underplaying

人类合作关系拥有显著的 广度和普遍性。

how important the sense of fairness is for people.

One of the biggest differences between humans and capuchin monkeys

换句话说，

我们比卷尾猴更擅长协作。

is the sheer magnitude and ubiquity of cooperation in humans.

法律和经济系统存在的唯一原因

就是我们一致同意维护它们。

In other words,

we're a lot more cooperative than capuchin monkeys are.

如果有人感觉自己没有从 这些系统获益，

Legal and economic systems literally only exist

因此不再支持这些系统，

整个系统就会功亏一篑。

if we all agree to participate in them.

And if people feel left out of the rewards and benefits

现在我们看到的许多抗议和暴动，

不论是在美国国内还是全球，

of those systems,

then they stop participating,

都与公平脱不开关系，

and the whole system falls apart.

而我并不惊讶。

Many of the protests and uprisings we're seeing,

不论是不平等的资源分配

both in the US and around the globe,

are explicitly framed in terms of fairness,

还是一些群体受到法律系统或是 病毒的影响比其他群体严重，

which is not surprising to me.

Whether it's about disproportionate access to resources,

这些抗议都是我们长久进化出来的 公平感以及

or that some groups are being disproportionately impacted

根深蒂固的社会分层共同造成的、

by the legal system or the effects of a virus,

符合逻辑的结果。

these protests are the logical outcome

of our long evolutionary tendency to reject unfairness

这种系统性的不公

是由社会分层所造成的。

combined with our long history of social stratification.

从各个角度来说，经济不平等还在加剧，

And the systemic inequalities

这给问题雪上加霜。

that have resulted from that stratification.

Layer on top of this the fact that by many measures

克里斯·勃姆（Chris Boehm）写了一本 名叫《林中阶级》，

在书中他提出， 人类拥有一种倒置的阶级，

economic inequality is skyrocketing.

处于阶级底端的人们联合在一起，

Chris Boehm wrote a book called "Hierarchy in the Forest,"

以防阶级顶端的人剥削他们。

in which he argued that humans have reverse hierarchies

或许这些抗议只是人类维护 阶级平衡的

in which those at the bottom band together

一种最新的体现。

to keep those at the top from taking advantage of them.

或许我们与卷尾猴最大的区别是

Perhaps these protests are simply the latest manifestation

我们能够认识到问题，

of humans' tendency to rebalance the hierarchy.

并且积极地去处理问题。

Perhaps the biggest difference between us and capuchin monkeys

我们自己受到亏待的时候很容易察觉，

is that we can recognize this problem

但我们同样也得意识到

and actively work to do something about it.

有时我们获益是建立在他人的牺牲上的，

Of course we recognize when we're disadvantaged.

我们得认识到公平是这两种不平等 之间的天平，

But we can and we must also recognize

因为这对我们社会来说至关重要。

when we're advantaged at the expense of someone else,

and recognize fairness

确实，我的研究显示

as the balance between these two inequalities,

不是所有灵长类动物都在乎不平等。

because our society literally depends upon it.

只有那些依靠合作的物种在乎，

Indeed, my research shows

人类毫无疑问属于此列。

that not all primate species care about inequality.

我们进化出了对公平的重视，

因为在一个合作的社会里， 我们是相互依靠的。

It's only those that rely on cooperation,

which most definitely includes humans.

这个世界变得越不公平，

We evolved to care about fairness

我们就会越来越不关心彼此，

我们要面对的困难也就越多。

because we rely on each other for our cooperative society.

我们要解决的问题远比 葡萄和黄瓜的差别要复杂，

And the more unfair the world gets,

但就像卷尾猴启示我们的那样，

and the less we care about each other,

如果人人维护公平， 我们都会过得更好。

the more peril we will face.

Our issues are more complex than grapes and cucumbers,

谢谢。

but as the capuchins have taught us,

we will all do better when we all play fair.

Thank you.