VOA慢速英语2011--Looking at the 'Dark Side' of Creativity

Health Report - Looking at the 'Dark Side' of Creativity

 

健康报道 - 创造力的“阴暗面”

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。

Not all cheaters are creative. But apparently¹ enough creative people cheat to interest researchers like Francesca Gino. Professor Gino is a behavioral economist² at the Harvard Business School in Massachusetts. Behavioral economists³ use ideas from psychology⁴ to study how people make economic choices.

并非所有的骗子都富有创造力。但显然他们已经足够引起弗朗西斯卡·吉诺（Francesca Gino）一类研究人员的兴趣。吉诺教授是马萨诸塞州哈佛商学院的行为经济学家。行为经济学家使用心理学观点研究人们如何做出经济抉择。

FRANCESCA GINO: "Interestingly, there are actually a lot of examples in the literature, novels, movies, comic books about this idea of the evil genius, but really no empirical evidence for this relationship."

吉诺：“有趣的是，实际上文学、小说、电影、漫画中有很多关于这种邪恶天才的例子，但这种联系确实没有任何实证证据。”

BATMAN (ADAM WEST): "He's terrorized Gotham City, he's baffled the police department and he's held us up to public ridicule⁵."

蝙蝠侠：“他让哥谭城人心惶惶，让警察倍感挫折，也让我们遭受公众嘲笑。”

Fans of old TV shows might recognize Batman and Robin⁶, struggling to catch one of those evil geniuses -- the Joker.

老电视迷可能知道蝙蝠侠和罗宾，他们竭力追捕邪恶天才之一的“小丑”。

BATMAN: "Gloating on his own success, he may be planning some super crime and stumble on his own pride."

蝙蝠侠：“他对自己的成功沾沾自喜，他可能正策划一些超级犯罪，并栽倒在自己的骄傲上。”

ROBIN (BURT WARD): "And how do we go about stopping him?"

罗宾：“我们如何阻止他？”

BATMAN: "Just go about our normal routine and let the venomous viper⁷ trap himself."

蝙蝠侠：“我们以不变应万变，让他自陷囹圄。”

ROBIN: "And when he does."

罗宾：“这时候呢”

BATMAN: "Snap!"

蝙蝠侠：“我们迅速出击！”

ROBIN: "Caught in a bat trap!"

罗宾：“抓住他！”

BATMAN: "Right."

蝙蝠侠：“对。”

An English examination at Dongguan Technology Institute in Guangdong province, China, in 2007. Students were given different test versions in an effort to prevent cheating.

Professor Gino was less interested in catching⁸ cheaters than understanding them. She tested volunteers to see how creative they were. Then she tested them in situations involving small amounts of money, where they could earn extra by cheating.

与抓骗子相比，吉诺教授更乐意去了解他们。她对志愿者进行测试，看他们创造力怎么样。然后她在涉及小额钱的状况下对他们进行测试，如果他们作弊（即行骗）会赢得更多钱。

For example, they took a test and had to copy their answers onto another paper. But on that other paper the correct answers were already lightly marked, supposedly by mistake. The test-takers knew they would earn more for correct answers. They were led to believe they could cheat without getting caught.

例如，他们参加一项测试，必须将他们的答案抄到另一张纸上。但在这另一张纸上，装作工作失误，答案已经被轻微的标记出来了。被测试者知道正确答案可以赢得更多钱，并被引导相信自己可以作弊而不被抓到。

The results showed that the more creative people were more likely to cheat. By comparison, people who were more intelligent but less creative were not more likely to cheat. Professor Gino says creative people are better at creating excuses to justify⁹ their actions to themselves.

结果表明，更富创造力的人更可能作弊。相比之下，更聪明但创造力较差的人更不可能作弊。吉诺教授称，富有创造力的人更能制造借口为自己的行为做自我辩护。

FRANCESCA GINO: "What we find is that that creativity leads people to be more morally flexible, so they are much more able to come up with justification¹⁰ for the behavior that they're about to engage in and as a result, they are more likely to cheat."

吉诺：“我们发现，创造力导致人们在道义上更为灵活，所以他们更能够为自己准备进行的行为做辩护，结果就是，他们更容易作弊。”

She says workplaces that value creativity also create openings for that moral flexibility¹¹. Original thinkers may be less likely to follow all the rules.

她说，看重创造力的工作场所也为这种道义上的灵活性制造了空当。有创造力的思想者可能更不太可能遵循所有规则。”

FRANCESCA GINO: "We think that creativity really helps people resolve this conflict between something that is more longer term --which is the idea of being good and moral -- and then something that is more short term, and is the idea of advancing your own self-interest. And that does not necessarily mean getting money out of cheating, but it could also be getting other types of pleasures or utilities."

吉诺：“我们认为，创造力的确可以帮助人们解决两者之间的冲突，即长远上的品行端正和短期上的自私自利两者之间的冲突。而且这并不仅仅是指通过行骗获得金钱，还包括获得其它形式的享受或功利。”

The study shows the "dark side" of creativity, she says.

她说，研究彰显出了创造力的“阴暗面。”

FRANCESCA GINO: "So it's not that we are trying to say that people shouldn't be creative, we are trying to say that they should be creative but they should be thinking about the fact that their creativity can be used for the wrong reasons."

吉诺：“所以我们并不是想说人们不应该富有创造力，我们想说的是，他们应该富有创造力，但他们应该考虑到一个事实，那就是他们的创造力也可能被用到歧途。”

Her research with Dan Ariely at Duke University appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

她与杜克大学丹·阿雷利（Dan Ariely）的这一研究发表在个性与社会心理学杂志上。

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Christopher Cruise.
__

Contributing: Rose Hoban

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 ridicule   

v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄

参考例句：

• You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
• Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。

6 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

7 viper   

n.毒蛇；危险的人

参考例句：

• Envy lucks at the bottom of the human heart a viper in its hole.嫉妒潜伏在人心底，如同毒蛇潜伏在穴中。
• Be careful of that viper;he is dangerous.小心那个阴险的人，他很危险。

8 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

9 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

10 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

11 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。