Does Working Hard Really Make You a Good Person? | Azim Shariff | TED

翻译人员: Yip Yan Yeung 校对人员: sylvia feng

Imagine for a second that your job was made redundant

想象一下，你的工作

by an advanced piece of software

被一款先进的软件取代了，

that could do the work at the same level of quality for free.

它可以免费完成质量相当的工作。

But you happen to have three years left on a guaranteed contract,

但你的合同还有三年，

and so your employer gives you two options.

所以你的雇主给了你两个选项。

Either you can keep getting paid as per your contract, but stay home

要么你依旧按合同拿钱， 但就呆在家里，

as the software does your job,

等着这个软件把你的活干了，

or you can keep going in and doing the work

要么接着干活，

that could have been automated

虽然这些工作都能被自动化完成，

for the same money.

你还能拿到之前的钱。

What would you do?

你会选哪个？

Now most of you, I'm sure this is a no-brainer.

在座的大多数人都会 毫不犹豫做出选择。

Take the money, go home, watch TED talks.

拿上钱，收工回家，看 TED。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But there's always some who would choose to keep working.

但总会有人选择接着干活。

What do you think of those people?

你觉得这种人怎么样？

What does it say about their character?

可以体现出他们怎样的品质？

This is the scenario about a hypothetical medical scribe named Jeff

这就是一个虚构的医疗抄写员 杰夫（Jeff）所处的情景，

that we gave to our research participants.

我们将其提供给了 本项研究的参与者。

For half the people in the study,

研究中，有半数参与者

the story ends with Jeff choosing to go home,

得到的版本是杰夫选择了回家，

and for the other half it ends with him choosing to keep working.

还有一半参与者的版本是 杰夫选择接着工作。

And then we asked everybody what they thought of Jeff.

然后，我们问了每位参与者 他们对杰夫有何看法。

Those who heard about the Jeff who kept working

那些听说杰夫接着工作的参与者

saw him as less competent --

认为他能力比较有限，

he does seem like a bit of a chump --

他确实看起来有点傻，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

but they also saw him as warmer and more moral,

但他们认为他 更有人情味，更有道德，

somebody who could be trusted to do the right thing.

是他们可以信任把事搞定的人。

They saw him as a good person.

他们认为他是个好人。

Even though Jeff added no extra value,

虽然杰夫没有带来任何额外价值，

people saw him as virtuous for choosing to keep plugging away.

但人们认为他坚持不懈的行为 代表他是个品德高尚的人。

Why is it that we see mere effort as moral?

为什么我们会把无用功 看成有道德的表现呢？

I am a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia,

我是一名不列颠哥伦比亚大学的 心理学教授，

where I study morality.

我研究的是道德。

I've worked on religion and morality,

我研究过宗教和道德，

I've worked on driverless cars and morality,

研究过无人车和道德，

but recently my collaborators and I have been working on work itself.

但最近我和我的合作伙伴 在研究工作本身。

And in study after study, we find that people attach moral worth to effort

在一项项研究中，我们发现 人们会给付出的努力加上道德价值，

regardless of what that effort produces.

无论努力有何种成果。

So in another study, we asked people about two widget makers.

在另一项研究中，我们让人们回答 关于两位小器具制作人的问题。

They produce the same number of widgets in the same amount of time

他们在同等时间里以同等质量

at the same level of quality.

制作了同等数量的小器具。

But for one of them, it takes a lot more effort to do so.

但有一位花的工夫要多得多。

People see that harder-working widget maker as, again,

人们也认为更努力的那一位

less competent but again, more moral.

能力没有那么强， 但也更品德高尚。

And if you had to choose just one of those two as a cooperation partner,

如果你要在其中选择一位合作伙伴，

you would choose the one who struggles.

你会选择那位披荆斩棘的。

We call this effort moralization.

我们称之为“努力道德化”。

And it doesn't appear to just be a North American thing.

这不仅仅是北美的现象。

Work norms, of course, differ around the world,

世界各地的工作规范不尽相同，

but we replicated our original American result in South Korea,

但我们在北美得到的结果 也出现在了韩国，

which is known by the numbers

数据表明

to be one of the hardest-working countries in the OECD,

韩国是经济合作与发展组织中 最努力工作的国家之一，

and in France, which is known for other strengths.

法国也出现了同样的结果， 当然法国的特质不太一样。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

In all of these places,

在这些地方，

the harder-working person was seen as more moral

人们认为工作越努力的人品德越高尚，

and a better cooperation partner,

是更好的合作伙伴，

even though they added no extra value.

即使他们并不会带来额外价值。

And it looks like this is something broader than, say,

这似乎比新教伦理更宽泛。

the Protestant work ethic.

Even the Hadza people,

即使是哈扎人——

hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, show something like it.

坦桑尼亚的采猎者， 也展现了同样的情况。

When asked what qualities contribute to good character,

当被问到优秀的品质有哪些，

they didn't agree on very much, but they did agree on two things.

他们各执一词， 但不约而同地认可了两点。

Generosity and hard work.

慷慨和努力。

So this intuitive connection between effort and morality

努力和道德之间隐隐约约的联系

doesn't appear to be the quirk of any one culture,

不是任一文化中的怪事儿，

but potentially something very deep indeed.

而很有可能是非常深层的现象。

Now effort moralization makes sense at the individual level.

努力道德化在个人层面上 没什么问题。

Somebody who is willing to show that they will put effort

如果一个人愿意表示自己

into even meaningless tasks,

甚至肯在没有意义的 任务上付出努力，

maybe even especially into meaningless tasks,

也许尤其是没有意义的任务，

is somebody who's more likely to help you out.

这人更有可能是 会帮你解决麻烦的那个人。

So I have a friend from work, Paul.

我有个工作上的朋友保罗（Paul）。

Paul is an uncommonly charismatic man.

保罗是个异常有魅力的人。

Paul wears stylish pairs of raw denim jeans

保罗穿着时髦的原色牛仔裤，

and Paul buys expensive bars of soap,

买昂贵的肥皂，

60-dollar bars of soap.

60 美元一块的那种。

And Paul is one of those types who wakes up every morning

保罗还是那种 每天早上起来跑步的人。

and goes running.

And when I first heard this,

我第一次听说的时候，

I sort of rolled my eyes at this being one of those Mr. Perfect things.

我都想翻白眼， 想他肯定是那种完美先生。

Actually, Dr. Perfect in this case.

如果是他的话， 那就是完美博士。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But then one day I saw Paul on one of his morning runs,

但是有一天，我看到保罗在晨跑，

and instead of seeing a sleek, type-A personality

他没有展现出光鲜亮丽、 A 型人格的样子，

confidently striding through life,

在人生中自信满满地大步流星，

I saw Paul struggling, in an inelegant hobble

我看到了保罗并不雅观、 步履蹒跚地前行，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

with a grotesque grimace of something between annoyance and agony on his face.

面目狰狞，脸上浮现出 介于恼火和痛苦之间的表情。

Running was hard for him.

跑步对他来说是艰难的。

Every morning was effort,

每天早上都要挣扎一番，

and the person who was willing to wake up for that, day after day,

愿意日复一日爬起来 痛苦跑步的人，

is the kind of person you want in your corner.

你肯定希望那个人能成为你的帮手。

And Paul is in mine.

保罗就是我的帮手。

He's not just the inspiration behind some of the studies in this research,

他不仅是这项研究中的一些课题 背后的灵感来源，

he is a collaborator on them as well.

也是参与这些课题的合作者。

And he's a good man.

他还是个好人。

The truth is, we're all in the market

现实就是，我们都身处

for finding the best collaborators in life.

寻找生活中的 最佳拍档的市场之中。

And we're trying to show others that we are that person as well.

我们也想向别人展示 我们就是那个对的人。

The evolutionary psychologists call this partner choice.

进化心理学家称之为“伙伴选择”。

Just as we are trying to be and select the best romantic partners,

就像我们努力成为、 选择最佳的爱人，

we are also trying to be and select the best cooperation partners.

我们也在努力成为、 选择最佳的合作伙伴。

We're all trying to surround ourselves

我们都希望自己周围是

with people who will help us out in a pinch,

帮助自己脱离困境的人，

who won't slack off, who will share things fairly.

不会摸鱼的人，公平分享的人。

And as a result,

于是，

any quality which makes you a better cooperation partner,

任何能让你成为 更好的合作伙伴的品质，

say, generosity or self-control or hard work,

比如慷慨、自控、勤奋，

is seen as a moral quality.

都会被人认为是道德品质。

And so we have this simple heuristic:

所以我们就有了 一个直截了当的认知：

people who work hard are good.

努力的人是好人。

It's why you're more likely to donate to your friend

也就是为什么你会更愿意给你那位

who pledges to run a marathon for cancer research,

号称要为癌症研究 跑一场马拉松的朋友，

than your other friend who pledges to watch a "Sex in the City" marathon

而不是号称为了同样原因看一场 《欲望都市》电视剧马拉松的朋友捐钱。

for the same cause.

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But what makes sense at the individual level

但在个人层面没什么问题的行为

can still become very problematic when scaled up to the societal level.

一旦上升到社会层面， 就会很成问题。

Our intuition that effort is good for its own sake,

“无论有何成果， 努力本身就是好的”这一观念，

regardless of what it produces,

has created a work environment with perverse incentives.

给职场带来了扭曲的激励机制。

So when we start attaching worth to activity

当我们把价值和“忙活”挂钩，

rather than to productivity,

而不是和生产力挂钩时，

we start caring more about whether somebody is a hard worker

我们就会更关心 这个人是不是在努力工作，

than whatever it is that that work was supposed to achieve.

而不是这些努力会 产生什么样的结果。

And this can come at a very steep human cost.

这种现象的人力成本非常高昂。

So you'll remember our example of Jeff,

你还记得杰夫的例子吗？

the medical scribe who chose to throw his time into the volcano

那个将自己的时间付之一炬，

as a sacrifice to the gods of hard work.

献祭给勤奋之神的医疗抄写员。

That was just a contrived scenario.

这只是一个虚构的情景。

But how many Jeffs are out there,

但这世界有多少个杰夫，

taking time that could have been spent on love or on leisure

把本该花在爱和休闲上的时间

and spending it on signaling effort?

花在了凸显自己的努力上？

And how often are we Jeff,

我们自己又有多频繁地成为杰夫，

wearing workaholism as a badge of honor,

对沉迷工作引以为豪，

a way to reassure people that we are a good person,

让别人相信我们是好人，

even if the person you're just trying to reassure is yourself?

即使这个“别人”只是你自己？

The anthropologist David Graeber wondered

人类学家大卫·格雷伯 （David Graeber）好奇

how capitalism could sustain so many of what he bluntly called bullshit jobs.

资本主义是如何支撑着 这么多他口中的“狗屎工作”的。

These are jobs in which even the people doing the work see it as pointless,

连干这些工作的人都觉得 他们的工作毫无意义，

accomplishing nothing of societal worth.

所作所为没有任何社会价值。

A capitalistic system should root out those inefficiencies,

资本主义制度理应消除这些弊端，

but it doesn't.

但并没有。

And the reason it doesn't is because alongside capitalism,

做不到的原因是我们不仅 遵循着资本主义，

we also operate under another system.

还有另一套制度。

What the journalist Derek Thompson calls workism.

德里克·汤普森（Derek Thompson） 称之为“工作主义”。

Workism is about your job not just being the source of your paycheck,

工作主义指的是你的工作 不仅是你的收入来源，

but the source of your identity

还是你的身份来源

and your pathway to self-actualization.

和自我实现的途径。

Now that works for some people,

这对有些人来说是行得通的，

but what makes workism a culture is that we all get forced to participate.

但如果工作主义成为了一种文化， 结果就是我们都会被迫参与。

Partner choice is not just about being a good cooperation partner,

伙伴选择不仅仅是 成为一个好的合作伙伴，

but a better cooperation partner than the next guy.

还要比别人成为更好的合作伙伴。

Not just hard working, but harder working.

不单单是努力工作， 还要比别人更努力地工作。

And this can create these arms races of workism.

于是，这就造成了 围绕工作主义的“军备竞赛”。

So you can imagine two office workers,

想象有两个白领，

both keen to show how industrious they are,

都很想表现自己有多么勤奋，

both keen to be the first car in the parking lot in the morning.

都很想当早上 停在停车场的第一辆车。

And so they start one-upping each other by arriving earlier and earlier

于是他们就越来越卷， 早上到得越来越早、

and earlier in the morning.

越来越早。

And everybody else just seems like more of a slacker every day.

显得别人每天都在摸鱼。

The culture punishes us for not keeping up.

我们的文化会 惩罚我们没有跟上脚步。

And so we end up putting more and more in

所以我们会投入得越来越多，

regardless of what comes out the other side.

无论有何结果。

And the culture maintains the most laborious aspects of our jobs

文化保留了我们工作中 最辛苦的一部分，

because it most appreciates us when it sees us putting in that labor.

因为只要我们付出了努力 就会得到最高的认可。

And as a consequence, every other aspect of our job

于是，工作中的其他方面，

and our lives, however great,

我们的生活，无论有多精彩，

is made just a little less important.

都没有那么重要了。

Now, this is not an argument against hard work.

我不是在反对勤奋工作。

It's not.

不是这样的。

Hard work can be extremely meaningful when it serves a purpose.

如果有一定的目的， 努力是相当有价值的。

Hard work built civilization.

努力带来了文明。

But how much of the effort we spend now is done to build nothing

但如今有多少 我们付出的努力都是徒劳，

but our own moral reputations.

只是为了打造我们的道德声誉。

To just convince other people that we are hard workers.

为了让别人信服 我们是努力工作的人。

And how much of what we admire in others is just effort porn?

有多少我们欣赏他人的点 只是作秀给人看的努力？

In one of his more candid moments,

我的一位研究生学生 有一次敏锐地发现

one of my graduate students said that he noticed

I would send emails out at all hours of the day,

我随时都有可能会发邮件。

1 am, 2 am, 3 am.

凌晨 1 点、2 点、3 点。

Now, this was because being a professor allowed me to maintain

这是因为当教授让我

an adolescent sleep schedule deep into my 30s.

把青少年时期的作息习惯 延续到了三十多岁。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But what he then did was he got some app

然后，他找了一个应用，

which scheduled his replies to come to me at one or two in the morning

定时在一两点给我回复，

so as to make it seem like he was also working all hours of the day.

显得他也无时无刻不在工作。

I'd clearly sent the wrong message,

显然我传达了错误的信息，

so much so that my student was willing to delay the work

以至于我的学生宁愿拖着不交，

to make it seem like he was more industrious.

也要显得他更勤奋。

It was literally bullshit work.

这就是无用功啊。

I had to change my lab's culture.

我得改变我的实验室文化。

I had to convince my students

我得说服我的学生们

that we weren't just about the show of work,

我们关心的不是表演你在努力，

but what we were actually producing.

而是你的努力会产生什么样的结果。

And it's not such a simple thing to do.

这不是件容易做到的事。

The mental circuit that connects effort to morality can be a stubborn one.

心理上把努力和道德 绑在一起的联结是顽固的。

When I teach about psychological biases to my intro-psych students,

我在给刚入门心理学的学生们 教心理偏差时，

I tell them that you can't always learn to resist a bias,

我告诉他们， 你不可能学会抵抗偏差，

they can be very deeply ingrained,

它们可能非常根深蒂固，

but you can learn to notice them

但你可以学习如何识别它们，

so that you can account for them when making important decisions.

这样你就能在做重大决定的时候 考虑到它们的影响。

We may not be able to break that mental circuit,

我们可能没办法打破 这种心理上的联结，

but we can learn to recognize our biases so they don't run our lives.

但我们可以学会识别我们的偏差， 不让它们主宰我们的人生。

There is a story, almost certainly apocryphal,

有这么一个故事， 基本可以断定是虚构的，

about perverse incentives in the era of British rule in India.

讲述的是印度在英国统治下的时期 出现的扭曲激励。

Desperate to deal with the cobras that were overrunning colonial Delhi,

急于处理殖民地德里的 眼镜蛇泛滥问题，

a bounty was put up

于是，每上交一块眼镜蛇皮 就能获得赏金。

for every cobra skin that was brought in.

But the plan backfired

但这个计划翻车了，

because enterprising Indians started breeding more cobras to kill them,

因为会做生意的印度人 开始养更多的蛇，再杀了，

bring in the skins and collect the bounty.

上交蛇皮，拿赏金。

And when the government finally abandoned the plan,

等到政府最终放弃这个计划时，

as the story goes,

接下来的故事是

the breeders then released the cobras into the city

养蛇人把蛇放生到了城市中，

and the snake problem was worse than ever.

蛇的问题更严重了。

Oops.

哎呀。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

The plan went awry because of the distance between what they wanted,

计划跑偏了是由于 他们想要的结果——

which was fewer cobras,

减少眼镜蛇，

and what they asked for,

和他们的要求——

which was an imperfect signal of fewer cobras,

减少眼镜蛇，想要死的眼镜蛇 这一有问题的信号之间的差距。

dead cobras.

But I fear we've done something very real

但恐怕我们在工作上也重蹈覆辙了。

and very similar with work.

We have built a culture that asks for the wrong thing.

我们建立了一个 有着错误追求的文化。

If all we ask from each other is the effort that we put in,

如果我们对他人的要求 只是付出的努力，

we will create a world full of effort and of hard labor and of cobras.

我们就会创造出一个充斥着 无用功、苦差和眼镜蛇的世界。

But if what we ask from each other is to produce something meaningful,

但如果我们对他人的要求是 产生有意义的结果，

we will create a world full of meaning.

我们就会创造出一个 充满意义的世界。

And what could be more moral than that?

还能比这样更有道德吗？

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）