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

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: Helen Chang

Imagine for a second that your job was made redundant

想像一下，

一款先進的軟體讓你的工作 變成是多餘的，

by an advanced piece of software

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

它做這項工作的品質跟你一樣好，

還是免費的。

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

但你的保障合約 剛好還要三年才到期，

and so your employer gives you two options.

所以你的雇主給你兩個選項。

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

你可以按照合約繼續領薪水，

但待在家裡，讓軟體來做你的工作，

as the software does your job,

or you can keep going in and doing the work

或者你可以繼續上班，做那份工作，

that could have been automated

領一樣的薪水，去做可以 自動化不用你做的工作。

for the same money.

What would you do?

你會選哪個？

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

我相信大部分人會覺得 用膝蓋想也知道。

Take the money, go home, watch TED talks.

接受這薪水，回家去， 看 TED 演說。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

但總會有些人選擇繼續工作。

What do you think of those people?

你怎麼看待那些人？

What does it say about their character?

這代表他們有什麼樣的品格？

This is the scenario about a hypothetical medical scribe named Jeff

這是我們提供給我們的研究 受試者的情境，情境中的主角

that we gave to our research participants.

是虛構的醫療抄寫員傑夫。

For half the people in the study,

一半的研究受試者看到 最後傑夫選擇回家的版本，

the story ends with Jeff choosing to go home,

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

另一半則看到傑夫 選擇繼續工作的版本。

And then we asked everybody what they thought of Jeff.

接著我們問所有受試者 對於傑夫的看法。

Those who heard about the Jeff who kept working

聽到傑夫會續工作的受試者

saw him as less competent --

認為他能力比較差——

he does seem like a bit of a chump --

他確實看起來有點呆——

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

but they also saw him as warmer and more moral,

但他們認為傑夫 比較溫暖且講究道德，

somebody who could be trusted to do the right thing.

可以相信傑夫會做對的事。

They saw him as a good person.

他們認為傑夫是好人。

Even though Jeff added no extra value,

即使傑夫沒有增加任何額外的價值，

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

大家認為他選擇繼續工作 是出於高尚的動機。

Why is it that we see mere effort as moral?

為什麼我們會把 單純的努力視為道德行為？

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

我是英屬哥倫比亞大學的心理學 教授，我在那裡研究道德。

where I study morality.

我研究過宗教與道德，

I've worked on religion and morality,

I've worked on driverless cars and morality,

研究過無人駕駛汽車與道德，

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

但最近，我和我的合作夥伴 在研究的是工作本身。

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

每次研究我們都發現，大家會 把道德價值和努力連結在一起，

regardless of what that effort produces.

不論那努力會產生什麼結果。

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

所以我們又做了一個研究，

問試受者關於兩名 小機件製作工人的事。

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

在同樣的時間內，他們 製作出的小機件數量相同。

at the same level of quality.

品質也一樣。

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

但其中一人要花更多心力 才能做到這個程度。

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

受試者這樣看待工作 比較努力的那名工人：

less competent but again, more moral.

同樣的，能力比較差，

也同樣的，比較講究道德。

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

如果你要從兩人當中 選擇一位當你的合作夥伴，

you would choose the one who struggles.

你會選比較辛苦的那位。

We call this effort moralization.

我們稱之為「努力的道德化」。

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

它不是只在北美才有的現象。

Work norms, of course, differ around the world,

當然，世界各地的工作規範不同，

but we replicated our original American result in South Korea,

我們在南韓也做了同樣的 研究，結果和美國相同，

which is known by the numbers

眾所皆知，根據數據， 南韓是 OECD 中

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

最努力工作的國家之一。

and in France, which is known for other strengths.

在法國，該國的長處……不是努力。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

In all of these places,

在所有這些地方，

the harder-working person was seen as more moral

比較努力的人都被認為 是比較講究道德的人，

and a better cooperation partner,

也是比較好的合作夥伴，

even though they added no extra value.

即使他們無法協助增加價值。

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

這個現象看起來是比，比如， 新教工作倫理更廣泛。

the Protestant work ethic.

Even the Hadza people,

就連哈扎人，

hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, show something like it.

坦尚尼亞的獵人—採集者， 也呈現出類似的現象。

When asked what qualities contribute to good character,

被問到良好的品格 應該具有哪些特質時，

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

他們的看法沒有太多相同之處， 但有兩點是相同的：

Generosity and hard work.

寬宏大量，以及努力工作。

So this intuitive connection between effort and morality

很直覺就把努力和道德連結起來，

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

似乎不是某種文化的才有的怪癖，

but potentially something very deep indeed.

可能是種非常深刻的連結。

Now effort moralization makes sense at the individual level.

在個人層面上， 努力的道德化是很合理的。

Somebody who is willing to show that they will put effort

如果一個人願意展現出

即使沒意義的工作任務， 他也會努力去做，

into even meaningless tasks,

maybe even especially into meaningless tasks,

或他都只努力在做 沒意義的工作任務，

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

這樣的人比較有可能 會幫助你解決問題。

So I have a friend from work, Paul.

我在職場有個朋友叫保羅，

Paul is an uncommonly charismatic man.

保羅是個非常有魅力的人。

Paul wears stylish pairs of raw denim jeans

保羅會穿時尚的丹寧牛仔褲，

and Paul buys expensive bars of soap,

保羅會購買昂貴的香皂，

60-dollar bars of soap.

一塊要價六十美金的香皂。

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

且保羅是那種每天早上 起床就會去跑步的人。

and goes running.

And when I first heard this,

我第一次聽到這些時， 馬上翻白眼，覺得這是那種

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

「完美先生」的事情。

Actually, Dr. Perfect in this case.

事實上，在這個例子 還是「完美博士」。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

但，有一天，我看到保羅在晨跑，

and instead of seeing a sleek, type-A personality

看到的不是時髦、

有著追求成功的個性， 自信滿滿地過生活的人，

confidently striding through life,

I saw Paul struggling, in an inelegant hobble

我看到的保羅很掙扎，

步履蹣跚十分不雅，

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

臉上有種介於煩惱

和痛苦之間的怪異表情。

Running was hard for him.

對他而言，跑步很辛苦。

Every morning was effort,

每天早上都要很努力，

而願意每一天起床 都去做這件事的人，

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

is the kind of person you want in your corner.

是你會希望和你同隊的人。

And Paul is in mine.

而保羅在我這一隊。

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

他不僅是這項計畫中 一些研究背後的靈感來源，

he is a collaborator on them as well.

也是這些研究的合作夥伴。

And he's a good man.

他是個好人。

The truth is, we're all in the market

事實是，我們都在

for finding the best collaborators in life.

尋找人生中最佳的合作夥伴。

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

我們也在向別人展示， 我們就是那個人。

The evolutionary psychologists call this partner choice.

演化心理學家稱之為伴侶選擇。

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

就如同我們會試著成為 和選擇最佳的愛情伴侶，

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

我們也會試著成為 和選擇最佳的合作夥伴。

We're all trying to surround ourselves

我們都試著讓自己身邊能圍繞著 會在困境中協助我們的人，

with people who will help us out in a pinch,

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

不會偷懶的人， 會公平分享事物的人。

And as a result,

因此，只要是讓你能成為 更佳合作夥伴的特質，

any quality which makes you a better cooperation partner,

say, generosity or self-control or hard work,

比如：寬宏大量、 自制力，或努力做事，

is seen as a moral quality.

就會被視為是道德特質。

And so we have this simple heuristic:

於是我們有了這個簡單的啟發： 努力做事的人是好人。

people who work hard are good.

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

這就是為什麼你比較可能捐錢給

承諾要為癌症研究跑馬拉松的朋友，

who pledges to run a marathon for cancer research,

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

而不是承諾要為癌症研究看 《慾望城市》馬拉松的朋友。

for the same cause.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But what makes sense at the individual level

但，雖然這在個人層面上是合理的，

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

把規模拉到社會層面時 仍可變得很有問題。

Our intuition that effort is good for its own sake,

我們直覺認為努力本身就是好的，

regardless of what it produces,

不論產生什麼結果都好，

has created a work environment with perverse incentives.

這樣反而會創造出有著 反常激勵誘因的工作環境。

So when we start attaching worth to activity

所以，當我們把 有沒有價值與活動連結

rather than to productivity,

而非與生產力連結，

we start caring more about whether somebody is a hard worker

我們就會開始比較在乎 別人是否努力做事，

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

而非他做的事應該要達成什麼目標。

And this can come at a very steep human cost.

這可能會造成很高的人力成本。

So you'll remember our example of Jeff,

各位還記得傑夫的例子嗎， 那位醫療抄寫員，

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

他選擇將他的時間投入火山中， 當作獻給努力之神的祭品。

as a sacrifice to the gods of hard work.

That was just a contrived scenario.

那只是個虛構的情境。

But how many Jeffs are out there,

但外頭有多少個傑夫？

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

把本來可以花在愛或樂趣上的時間

and spending it on signaling effort?

花在展示自己的努力上？

And how often are we Jeff,

我們又有多常扮演傑夫？

wearing workaholism as a badge of honor,

把工作狂當作榮譽獎章配戴著，

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

用這種方式來向別人 保證我們是好人，

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

即使需要這個保證的 其實只是你自己？

The anthropologist David Graeber wondered

人類學家大衛‧葛雷伯想知道

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

資本主義如何能維持 這麼多他直言不諱的

「狗屁工作」。

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

做這些工作的當事人 都認為他們的工作無意義，

accomplishing nothing of societal worth.

不會成就任何社會價值。

A capitalistic system should root out those inefficiencies,

資本主義體系應該排除那些低效，

but it doesn't.

但卻沒有。

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

沒有的原因是因為，除了資本主義，

we also operate under another system.

我們也在另一個體系下運作：

What the journalist Derek Thompson calls workism.

新聞記者德瑞克‧湯普遜 稱之為「工作主義」。

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

工作主義的重點是，你的工作 不僅是你的薪水來源，

but the source of your identity

也是你的身分來源，

and your pathway to self-actualization.

以及讓你自我實現的途徑。

Now that works for some people,

對某些人行得通，

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

但工作主義之所以會成為一種文化，

是因為我們都被迫參與。

夥伴的選擇不只是要 成為好的合作夥伴，

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

but a better cooperation partner than the next guy.

還要成為比別人更好的合作夥伴。

Not just hard working, but harder working.

不只是要努力工作， 還要更努力工作。

And this can create these arms races of workism.

這會導致工作主義的軍備競賽。

So you can imagine two office workers,

各位可以想像兩位在辦公室 工作者都渴望展現自己的勤奮，

both keen to show how industrious they are,

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

都想搶著成為早上 第一個進辦公室的人。

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

他們開始互相競爭， 早上越來越早抵達。

and earlier in the morning.

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

所有其他人則看起來 每天都更懶散一些。

The culture punishes us for not keeping up.

我們如果不跟進， 這種文化就會懲罰我們。

And so we end up putting more and more in

我們最後就會投入更多更多，

regardless of what comes out the other side.

不論會產生出什麼樣的結果。

And the culture maintains the most laborious aspects of our jobs

這種文化保有我們工作中 最辛苦的一面，

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

因為當它看到我們付出 辛勞時才會最欣賞我們。

And as a consequence, every other aspect of our job

結果就是，我們工作的其他面向，

and our lives, however great,

以及我們的生活，不論有多棒，

is made just a little less important.

都變得比較沒那麼重要了。

Now, this is not an argument against hard work.

這個論點並不是要反對 努力工作。並不是。

It's not.

在有目標的情況下， 努力工作是非常有意義的。

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

Hard work built civilization.

文明的建造就是靠努力工作。

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

但我們現在付出的多少努力只是在

but our own moral reputations.

建造我們自己的道德名聲？

To just convince other people that we are hard workers.

只是在說服別人， 我們是努力工作的人？

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

而我們對別人的仰慕， 有多少成份只是對努力的迷戀？

In one of his more candid moments,

我的一位研究生有次 很坦率地說，他注意到

one of my graduate students said that he noticed

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

我會在一天的任何時段 發送電子郵件：

1 am, 2 am, 3 am.

早上一點、早上兩點、早上三點。

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

這是因為，身為教授讓我可以維持

an adolescent sleep schedule deep into my 30s.

青少年的睡眠時間表， 一直到我將近四十歲。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But what he then did was he got some app

但他接下來的做法是去找某個 app，

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

將他的回信排程到早上 一、兩點才寄出給我，

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

讓他看起來也是 一整天隨時都在工作。

I'd clearly sent the wrong message,

很明顯我傳遞了錯誤的訊息，

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

甚至讓我的學生願意拖延工作，

to make it seem like he was more industrious.

讓他看起來顯得更勤奮。

It was literally bullshit work.

這真的是狗屁工作。

I had to change my lab's culture.

我得改變我的實驗室裡的文化。

I had to convince my students

我得說服我的學生，

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

我們不只是要展現出工作，

but what we were actually producing.

還要關注我們實際的產出。

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

這不是件簡單的事。

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

將努力和道德連結在一起的心理迴路

有可能十分固執。

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

當我教我的心理學入門課學生 什麼是心理偏見時，

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

我告訴他們，你不見得 都能學會抗拒偏見，

they can be very deeply ingrained,

偏見可能根深蒂固，

but you can learn to notice them

但你可以學會注意到偏見的存在，

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

在做重要決策時，可以考量到它們。

We may not be able to break that mental circuit,

我們可能無法打破那種心理迴路，

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

但我們可以學習辨識我們的偏見，

不讓它們主導我們的人生。

There is a story, almost certainly apocryphal,

有個故事，幾乎可以肯定是虛構的，

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

講的是英國統治印度時期的 反常激勵誘因。

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

因為急著要處理在殖民地 德里四處橫行的眼鏡蛇，

a bounty was put up

政府設立了賞金，

for every cobra skin that was brought in.

每張眼鏡蛇皮都可以換取獎金。

But the plan backfired

但這個計畫產生了反效果， 因為有事業心的印度人開始

because enterprising Indians started breeding more cobras to kill them,

飼養更多眼鏡蛇，再宰殺牠們，

bring in the skins and collect the bounty.

拿蛇皮去換獎金。

And when the government finally abandoned the plan,

根據這個故事，當政府 最終放棄這個計畫時，

as the story goes,

the breeders then released the cobras into the city

飼養者把眼鏡蛇放生到城市中，

and the snake problem was worse than ever.

蛇的問題就比先前更嚴重了。

Oops.

哎呀。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

這個計畫會出差錯， 是因為他們想要的目標，

which was fewer cobras,

即減少眼鏡蛇數目的目標 和他們的索求之間，相差很大，

and what they asked for,

which was an imperfect signal of fewer cobras,

他們的索求是減少 眼鏡蛇數目的不完美信號，

dead cobras.

死的眼鏡蛇。

But I fear we've done something very real

但恐怕我們已經

在工作上做出了非常真實 且非常類似的事。

and very similar with work.

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

我們所建立的文化， 索求的方向錯誤。

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

如果我們對彼此的要求 都只是要投入努力，

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

我們創造出來的世界， 會有滿滿的努力、

辛勞，以及眼鏡蛇。

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

但如果我們對彼此的要求

是產生出有意義的結果，

we will create a world full of meaning.

我們會創造出滿是意義的世界。

And what could be more moral than that?

有什麼比那更道德呢？

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）