This is it. Here we all are, together at last, to talk about optimism. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.
终于到了。 我们总算都聚集于此地, 来探讨乐观主义。 如果这还不算好, 我不知道什么才算了。
Here's the problem: it's 2021. We are living through a global plague, one that revealed our worst instincts at the worst times. We are so divided that public health has become a power struggle. We pioneered a vaccine, a moon-landing level innovation, and then kept it among wealthy countries while poor ones suffered.
问题在于:现在是2021年。 我们正经历一场全球性的瘟疫, 它在最坏的时期 暴露出了我们最糟的本性。 我们分裂到以至于公共卫生 已变成了一场权力争夺。 我们率先研发出了 堪比登月的创新疫苗, 然后把它留给富裕国家享有, 让贫穷的国家受苦受难。
Against this backdrop, isn't talking about optimism, like discussing pagers or horse-drawn carriages? Isn't optimism obsolete, backwards and naive, given all we've been through? Shouldn't it be replaced with a more up-to-date cognitive technology?
在此背景下谈论乐观主义, 不会像在现在去讨论 传呼机和马车一样吗? 鉴于我们所经历的这一切, 乐观主义难道不过时, 落后和天真吗? 难道它不应该 被一种更与时俱进的认知 所替换掉吗?
Well, lots of people have replaced it with cynicism: the notion that humanity is greedy, selfish and dishonest. In 1972, 45 percent of Americans thought that most people can be trusted. By 2018, that had dropped to about 30 percent. We are living through a cynicism epidemic. I should know -- last year, it infected me, and I'm supposed to be immune.
很多人将它换为了犬儒主义, 其认为人类是贪婪, 自私和不诚实的。 在1972年,45%的美国人 认为大多数人是可以信任的。 到了2018, 这个比例下跌到约30%。 我们正生活在犬儒主义盛行的世界中。 我应该知道的, 而在去年,我虽理应对此免疫, 但也受其影响。
I'm a psychologist and neuroscientist, and my whole career, I've studied the sunny side of human nature. My lab and I have found that giving away money activates similar parts of your brain as eating chocolate, and that helping other people through their stress calms our own. Our punch line is clear: there is good in us, and it does good for us.
我是一名心理学家和神经科学家, 而我的整个学术生涯, 都是在研究人性的善良面。 我和实验室的同事们发现 捐款会像吃巧克力一样 刺激大脑中的相似部分, 并且帮助他人渡过压力 也会让我们获得平静。 我们口号的点睛之笔很明确: 人性有善,善利人心。
Now, people love hearing this, but in 2020, I started to hate saying it. I was building hope in others while losing my own. I was evangelizing for human kindness all day and then doomscrolling at night. I was peddling something that I would never want to buy anymore. I felt like a fraud, or, at best, maybe a fax-machine salesman.
人们对此喜闻乐见, 但在2020年, 我开始厌恶说这样的话了。 我为他人建立希望的同时, 自己却在逐渐失去。 我整天传播人性之善 并在晚上 却不停地刷一屏又一屏的负面消息。 我就像在兜售 自己永远不会买的商品。 我感觉自己像个骗子, 或者说好听点, 像传真机销售员。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But here's the thing. You might think that cynicism is a system upgrade that allows us to see who we really are. It's not. It traps us in a version of the world we don't want to live in, and one we don't have to.
但重点来了。 你们可能觉得犬儒主义 是会让我们看清人类本质的 认知系统升级。 但并非如此。 它将我们困在了一个我们不愿 也不必生活其中的世界里。
One of my favorite studies of all time occurred in southeastern Brazil. Two fishing villages there are separated by just 30 miles. One sits by the ocean, where fishing requires large boats and heavy equipment. To make a living there, fishermen must work together. The other sits by a lake, where fishermen strike out alone on small boats and compete with one another. Years ago, researchers tested how people in each of these villages responded to a set of social experiments. Ocean fishermen trusted strangers and cooperated with their neighbors. Lake fishermen competed and mistrusted instead. But here's the crazy part. These folks didn't start out any different from each other, but the longer fishermen worked on the lake, the more they competed. The longer they worked on the ocean, the less they did.
我最喜爱的一个研究 发生在巴西东南部。 那里有两个相隔仅30英里的渔村。 其中之一坐落于捕鱼需要大型船只 和重型设备的海边。 渔民们必须协同工作以谋求生计。 另一个渔村位于河边, 那里的渔民驾驶小船独自谋生 并且相互竞争。 多年前, 研究人员测试了这两个村子的人们 对一系列社会实验进行如何反应。 海边的渔民信任陌生人 并愿意与邻里合作。 而河边的渔民相互竞争 且不信任彼此。 但最荒唐的是, 这些渔民们在一开始时 并没有任何不同, 但他们在河上工作的时间越长, 他们的竞争越是激烈。 他们在海上工作的时间越长 则竞争就越少。
Some families, schools and companies are like ocean villages. People trust, because they know others will earn it. Some are like lake towns -- people look out for themselves, because no one else will. Our social worlds shape us, like clay, into hopeful or cynical versions of ourselves. And right now, many of us are living in a lake town of historic proportion. Inequality has soared, injustice is all around, self-interest might as well be pumped into the water supply. These forces raise cynicism, and so do times of disaster. After the last 18 months, there's a real chance we could tip into a sort of cynical permafrost.
有些家庭、学校和公司 就好似海边的渔村。 人们相互信任, 因为他们知道别人值得信任。 另一些就像河边的渔村, 人们只为自己着想, 因为没有其他人会关心他们。 我们的社会生活如塑黏土般 将我们变为满怀希望 或愤世嫉俗版本的自我。 此时此刻, 史无前例多的人们生活在河边小镇。 不平等程度加剧, 不平等现象无处不在。 自私自利就像在水供给里一样 非常普遍。 这些因素和灾难 一同推高了愤世嫉俗。 在经历了过去的18个月后, 我们可能真的会永久陷入犬儒主义里。
Now, I'm going to guess there may be some proud cynics in the audience today, and you might be thinking, "Good. More people should turn to the dark side. Optimism might feel nice -- so would calling tiramisu a health food, but we don't get to go around believing whatever we like." George Bernard Shaw tells us that the power of accurate observation is commonly called "cynicism" by those who haven't got it.
现在, 我猜测今天的观众中 可能会有骄傲的愤世嫉俗者, 而你可能会想, “很好,更多人应该转向黑暗面。 乐观主义者可能感觉良好, 就像他们把提拉米苏 称为健康食品一样。 但我们不能凭着我们的喜好认知一切。” 乔治 · 伯纳德 · 萧告诉我们, 对于没有准确的洞察力的人而言, 准确的洞察力 通常就被叫做愤世嫉俗。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
107 years later, the cartoon philosopher Lisa Simpson taught us that as intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. Maybe hope does, too. Maybe cynicism is the price of being right.
在那107年后, 漫画哲学家丽莎 · 辛普顿 告诉我们越聪明就越不幸福。 可能同样也越不怀有希望吧。 也许犬儒主义就是作为正确的代价。
Most people think so. 70 percent think cynics are smarter than noncynics; 85 percent think they would make better lie detectors. Most people are wrong. It turns out that cynics tend to perform less well than noncynics on cognitive tests. They earn less money, and they lose more often in negotiations. They're not even good at spotting bad guys. In one study, researchers conducted mock job interviews, asking half the candidates to lie and half to tell the truth. Cynics and noncynics watched videos of these interviews and guessed who was lying. And cynics did way worse. More generally, they assume liars are everywhere so can't pick real ones out of a crowd.
大部分人都是这么想的。 70%的人认为愤世嫉俗者 比非愤世嫉俗者更聪明; 85%的人则认为愤世嫉俗者 更能看穿谎言。 他们都错了。 事实证明愤世嫉俗者在认知测试中 往往表现得更差。 他们的收入更少 并且他们更容易在谈判中失利。 他们甚至都不擅长发现坏人。 在一项研究中, 研究人员进行了模拟面试, 要求一半应聘者说谎 而另一半人说实话。 愤世嫉俗者和非愤世嫉俗者 观看这些面试 然后猜测谁在说谎。 愤世嫉俗者表现得要差得多。 更概括地说, 因为他们认为骗子无处不在, 所以他们没法从人群中 辨别出真正的说谎者。
So cynicism might not be as smart as you think it is, but it's still powerful, because our stories about each other become self-fulfilling. Cynics are more likely to refuse intimacy and cooperation. They hurt others to avoid being hurt. They tend to spy on their colleagues and suspect their friends, and other people, unsurprisingly, react badly -- sometimes, acting selfishly in response. In other words, by mistreating others, cynics create the exact conditions they fear. They tell a story full of villains and end up living in it. I call this the cynicism trap, and my lab explores ways that people fall into it. In one study, we asked people how happiness works. Some thought that it's a zero-sum game, meaning that as one person's happiness goes up, another person's must go down. Now they're wrong. It turns out that when we act generously towards others, that tends to increase our happiness. But cynics acted on their illusion. When given chances to help strangers, they were less likely to do so. They ended up less happy as well. By hoarding well-being, they lost out on one of its key ingredients -- other people.
因此犬儒主义可能没有你想象中 那么有智慧, 但它仍然影响深远, 因为我们对彼此的叙述 会成为现实。 愤世嫉俗者更可能 拒绝亲密关系和协同合作。 他们伤害别人以避免自己受伤。 他们会暗中监视同事并怀疑朋友, 而其他人毫无疑问会做出不好的反应 —— 有时他们作为回应会表现得自私。 换句话说,愤世嫉俗者通过欺负他人 恰恰创造了他们担忧的环境。 他们认为四处都是恶棍, 最终却生活这样的世界中。 我称之为犬儒主义陷阱, 而我的实验室 研究人们是如何陷入其中的。 在一项研究中, 我们问人们幸福感是怎么回事。 有些人认为这是一种零和博弈, 意思是当一个人的幸福感上升时, 那么另一个人的幸福感必然下降。 他们错了。 事实证明当我们慷慨待人时, 我们的幸福感会增加。 但愤世嫉俗者 会根据他们的幻想行事。 在有机会帮助陌生人时, 他们不太会去提供帮助。 最后他们也不会感到快乐。 将善意隐藏在心中, 他们错失了幸福感的一个关键要素 —— 他人。
In other work, we asked Republicans and Democrats what it would mean to empathize with the other side. Some people saw politics as a war, and thought empathy would be as useful as bringing cotton candy to a gunfight. These folks didn't want to cooperate with the other side, or even to know them at all. In one study, we measured college students' cynicism about empathy and asked about the friends they made on campus. Here, each dot is a person, coded blue to red based on ideology, and each line is a friendship. Now, this was a pretty liberal campus, but nonetheless, noncynics managed to find ideologically diverse friends. Cynics stuck to their own kind. Now that's, of course, their right. But most of us wish our country was less divided, and empathy is critical to moving us towards that goal. By giving up on it, cynics lose that chance.
在另一项研究中, 我们询问共和党人和民主党人 设身处地理解对方意味着什么。 有的人把政治视为一场战争, 他们认为拥有同理心 就像带棉花糖参加枪战一样毫无用处。 这样的人不想与对方合作, 甚至根本不想了解他们。 还有一项研究, 我们评估了大学生 对于同情心的愤世嫉俗程度 并问及了 他们在学校里结交的朋友。 这里的每个点代表一个人, 这些点根据意识形态 被分为蓝色到红色, 每条线则代表朋友关系。 这个学校的学生非常偏向自由主义, 尽管如此,非愤世嫉俗者 还是会结交意识形态不同的朋友。 而愤世嫉俗者只与同类交往。 当然他们有权这么做。 但我们大多数人 都希望我们的国家少一些分裂, 并且同理心对于这一目标的实现 至关重要。 愤世嫉俗者对同理心不抱希望。 致其失去了减少分裂的机会。
Our studies and many others give us a clear picture of the cynicism trap. When we decide everyone's out for themselves, we stop seeing their kindness. When we think the world is zero-sum, everyone becomes a potential enemy. These views spread across us, too. Parents pass on their suspicions to their kids. Politicians act in bad faith and damage voters' faith in each other. Media companies trade in judgment and outrage. Our cynicism is their product, and it is a growth industry.
我们的和许多其他的研究 都清晰地描绘了犬儒主义的陷阱。 当我们认为每个人只为自己着想时, 我们就会对他人的善良视而不见。 当我们认为世界是零和的时, 那每个人都会成为自己潜在的敌人。 这些观点也在我们之中传播。 父母把他们的怀疑传递给孩子, 政客的行为背信弃义 并损害了选民的相互信任。 媒体公司靠判断力 和愤怒情绪做生意。 我们的愤世嫉俗 就是他们的产品 而且这个产业还在不断增长。
So no, cynicism doesn't help us see reality more clearly, but it does change reality, poisoning our relationships, our lives and our culture. It is not a system upgrade, it's mental malware.
所以犬儒主义并不能帮我们 更透彻地认清现实, 但它确实改变了现实。 它损害了我们的人际关系、 生活和文化。 这是心理上的恶意软件 而非认知系统的升级。
But we don't have to accept it. We can take control of our stories. To escape the cynicism trap, we have to. My lab tries to help. In one study, we taught people that happiness is not a zero-sum game, and that helping others helps us, too. These folks, compared to those in a cynical condition, donated more to charity afterwards, and they ended up happier as well. In other work, we changed how people thought about empathy in politics. Some people were randomly chosen to read a cynical essay. It began, and I'm paraphrasing, "You might think empathy is a weakness that will make you lose every argument, and you'd be right." Afterwards, we asked these folks to write a note about gun control to someone they disagreed with, and they sniped at each other. Here’s a voice actor reading what one Democrat wrote to a Republican.
但我们不必接受它。 我可以掌控自己的生活。 为摆脱犬儒主义陷阱, 我们必须这么做。 我的实验室试图提供帮助。 在一项研究中, 我们告诉人们 幸福不是零和博弈, 并且帮助他人也是在帮助自己。 与那些愤世嫉俗的人相比, 这些事后向慈善机构捐款更多的人 最终也变得更幸福。 在其他研究中, 我们改变了人们对政治中同理心的看法。 一些人被随机选中 去读愤世嫉俗的文章。 它开头的大致意思是这样的, “你可能认为同理心 是一种会让你输掉每场辩论的弱点, 的确是这样的。” 之后,我们要求这些人 向他们观点相反的人 就枪支管制话题进行写作, 然后他们就开始互相攻击了。 这是一位配音演员读民主党人 写给共和党人的信的录音。
Recording: “It’s hard not to state this bluntly. You should be in favor of stricter gun laws because you should care about the lives of other people more than your outdated feelings of machismo."
“隐约其辞地指出枪支管理是很难的。 你应该支持更严格的枪支法 因为你更应该关心其他人的生命 而不是你过时的大男子主义。”
Jamil Zaki: And here’s a Republican writing to a Democrat.
接下来是一位共和党人 写给一位民主党人的信的录音。
Recording: "People need to know they're able to have the freedom to bear arms in order to protect themselves. You democrats don't get to take that away from us."
“人们需要知道 他们应有自由携带武器 以保护自己。 你们民主党人 不能剥夺我们的权利。”
JZ: Basically, we recreated Twitter, by accident.
基本上, 我们无意中重建复刻了推特。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Other people read a different essay. It began, "You might think empathy is a weakness that will make you lose every argument, and you'd be wrong." ... and went on to describe empathy as a strength in politics. Again, we asked these folks to write to an opponent about gun control, but this time, things changed. Here’s a Democrat.
其他人则读到了不同的文章。 它的开头是, “你可能认为同理心是一种弱点, 会让你输掉每场辩论, 但你错了。” 接着,文章将同理心 描述为政治中的一种优势。 同样,我们要求这些人给反对者 就枪支管制写作, 但这一次,事情有所变化。 这是一位民主党人所写的。
Recording: "There are some common-sense regulations that we should implement to keep people safe. We all want what is best for the country, and there are things we can meet in the middle on to tackle the issue of gun violence."
录音是: “我们应该实施一些常识性的规定 以保证人们的安全。 我们都希望做出对国家最有利的事, 以及我们可以找到折中的方法 以着手解决枪支暴力问题。”
JZ: And a Republican.
这是一位共产党人写的。
Recording: "Horrible crimes can be committed using guns ... everything from school shootings to murders because of racism and white supremacy. It's very understandable that you think it makes sense to make gun laws more strict. We're all reasonable people, and we just want what's best for our loved ones."
“枪支可以用来犯下可怕的罪行, 从校园枪击案 到种族主义和白人至上主义导致的谋杀, 无所不包。 非常可以理解 你们认为制定更严格的枪支法 是有意义的。 我们都是通情达理的人, 我们只是希望 我们所爱的人得到最好的。”
JZ: To us, this was wild. Remember, just like ocean and lake fishermen, these people did not start out any different, but just reading one essay turned some of them into new optimists and others into new cynics. This shaped how they acted, and their effect on other people. We sent all of these notes to people who really disagreed with the writer about gun control, and found that notes written by new optimists were more persuasive than those written by new cynics, more likely to make other people change their mind. In other words, we taught these people that empathy was useful, they used it, and it became useful.
对我们来说,这太出乎意料了。 记住, 就像是在海边和在河边的渔民, 这些人在一开始时并没有什么不同, 但仅仅通过读一篇文章, 一些人就变成了新的乐观主义者 而另一些变成了新的愤世嫉俗者。 这塑造了他们的行为方式 以及对其他人的影响。 我们把所有写的东西 发给在枪支管制问题上 与作者意见完全相左的人, 并且我们发现 新的乐观主义者写的东西 比新的愤世嫉俗者的更有说服力。 更可能改变其他人的想法。 换句话说, 我们告诉这些人同理心是有用的, 他们开始换位思考, 同理心就变得有用了。
This is what I want you to remember and what I want you to know: that if cynical stories can become self-fulfilling, our work shows that hopeful ones can as well.
这就是我想让你们记住 和知道的事: 如果愤世嫉俗的叙述 会最终实现, 我们的实验证明 充满希望的也可以。
Now, cynicism is not the only root of our problems, and optimism alone will not fix them. But it's hard to change a broken system if you think it's a mirror reflecting our broken nature. If people are selfish to our core, then toxic laws and practices are here to stay. But we can all choose to tell a different story. We can be skeptical -- demanding evidence before we believe in people -- but hopeful, knowing they can change for the better. We can notice their kindness even when the media doesn’t and envision systems built on that kindness. We can find other people in our neighborhoods, unions and faith communities who want the same thing. We can use our collective optimism to build pockets of solidarity and mutual aid, miniature ocean villages that can grow over time.
愤世嫉俗并不是问题的唯一根源, 仅靠乐观主义也不能解决这些问题。 但如果你认为这个破碎的系统 是一面能反映我们破碎本性的镜子, 那么就很难将它改变。 如果人在本性上就是自私的, 那么有害的法律 和行为会仍继续存在。 但我们可以选择做出不同的诠释。 我们可以在相信别人之前要求提供证据 以保持持怀疑的态度, 但要心怀知道他们可以变得更好的希望。 即使媒体没有注意到, 我们也能关注到他人的善良 并设想在这种善良的基础上 建立认知体系。 我们可以在我们的社区、 工会和宗教团体中 找到其他追求同样东西的人。 我们可以利用我们的集体乐观主义 来建立团结互助的小团体, 就像是随着时间的推移而成长的 海边渔村的缩影。
Now, this is the part of the talk where I'm supposed to tell you how I cured my own cynicism. But the truth is, I still struggle. Depending on the day or the hour, I promise, I can be as cynical as anyone here. But I see cynicism for what it is -- a psychological quicksand that will pull me in deeper, the more I move through it.
到了演讲里我应该告诉你们, 我是如何治愈自己的犬儒主义的部分了。 但事实是, 我仍在与之斗争。 我保证在时间的推移下, 我可以和任何人一样变得 愤世嫉俗。 但我看到了犬儒主义的本质, 它是一种我越往前走 就越会让我陷得更深的 心理上的流沙。
So I fight to believe in people, not because it feels good, but because stories matter, and we're telling ours all the time, together. We all get stuck in quicksand -- sometimes, that's OK. But the next time you manage to pull yourself out, and find some faith in humanity, try to remember to reach back and grab someone else who's stuck, until more of us can make it to solid ground. Because optimism is not a relic of the past. It's one key to building a better future by letting us see it more clearly.
因此我努力去相信别人, 不是因为这样让我感觉很好, 而是因为这背后的经历很重要 并且我们一直在一起讲述我们的故事。 我们都被困在流沙中, 有时候这样没关系。 但下次你设法抽身 并找到对人性的一些信任时, 记得向后伸手, 抓住其他被困住的人 直到大部分人能踏上坚实的地面。 因为乐观主义不是过时的产物。 它是让我们能更清楚地看到前景 从而建立更美好未来的关键。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
(鼓掌声)