Greed and Fear Hamper Cooperation贪婪与恐惧会妨碍合作

孙美萍

Everyone benefits when cooperation runs smoothly. However， people often act obstructively. Why do they do that？ Professor of Social Psychology Carsten de Dreu researches this issue using a wide variety of methods， from brain scans to the role of religion.

Fear of being exploited

From winning a complex war to developing a life-saving drug： there are so many things that can only be achieved if people work together in harmony. They can then achieve impressive performances that also benefit the individual. So， why do colleagues or others so often make things difficult for one another？ Empirical research carried out by De Dreu has shown that greed and fear are the basic reasons underlying problems with teamwork. “People are afraid that their contribution will mainly benefit those people who themselves contribute nothing. That’s why people hold back and invest in self-protection rather than cooperation.”

Experiments

De Dreu examined the strategies people use to maximise the benefits for themselves and to reduce the risk of being exploited. He conducts experiments where the participants can invest in self-protection or attacks on others， or they can choose to do nothing. When motivated by greed， people seem to invest mainly in self-protection and less in attacks on others. “Fear is almost always present as a brake on cooperation， but it’s more difficult to predict when greed will crop up.” The paradox is that fear among rival groups tends to result in people working better together.

What does our brain look like？

As Professor of Employment and Organisation Psychology at the University of Amsterdam， De Dreu has conducted a lot of research on cooperation within organisations. In Leiden he intends to approach the subject at a higher level of abstraction. “We know a lot about what makes the best kind of leaders. Now I want to examine what our brain looks like when we are working together. I’m interested in that because cooperating with one another relies on very basic systems that we also use for other tasks， such as child-rearing.”

Oxytocin， the cuddle hormone

He intends to use brain scans to look at which neurohormones play a role in cooperation， such as the “cuddle hormone” oxytocin. Is more oxytocin produced when people are working together successfully？ And can you influence cooperation by administering a dose of this hormone？ “This neurobiological approach has only really been used by psychologists in the past five years， and there are a lot of important research questions that have to be answered.”

The effect of religion and rules

De Dreu draws attention to his multidisciplinary approach. He is also interested in the effect of such “institutions” as religion and legislation because these have an obvious influence on our behaviour. He will be working together with fellow scientists from other disciplines： sociologists， political scientists， legal specialists， religious experts and also biologists who will be examining the behaviour of rats， for example.

Managers in the scanner

De Dreu doesn’t exclude the possibility that he will again be conducting some of his research in organisations. “I would love it if a lot of managers were willing to have scans while making decisions about their companies. But then they’d have to come in their masses， and that’s not easy to achieve.”

合作順利进行时，每个人都会从中受益。然而，人们常常会有妨碍合作之举。为什么会这样呢？社会心理学教授卡斯滕·德德勒在研究这一现象时采用了大量方法，从脑部扫描到宗教研究，多种多样。

害怕被剥削

从赢得一场复杂的战争到发明一种救命药物，许多事情只有通过人们融洽合作才能实现。合作会带来不小的成就，个体也会从中受益。那么，为什么同事或者他人经常会给彼此制造麻烦？德德勒的实证研究表明，贪婪与恐惧是团队合作出现问题的基本原因。“人们担心自己的付出主要会使那些毫无作为的人受益。因此人们踯躅不前，投入自我保护而不是团队合作。”

实验

德德勒调查了人们在最大化自身利益、减少被剥削危险时所采取的策略。在实验中，参与者可以选择自我保护或伤害他人，或是什么都不做。当被贪婪所驱使时，人们似乎主要投入自我保护，较少伤害他人。“恐惧作为合作的阻碍因素几乎一直都在，而贪婪则很难预料什么时候会滋长。”矛盾的是，在相互竞争的各个团队之间，恐惧往往会使人们更好地合作。

我们的大脑会是什么样？

作为阿姆斯特丹大学就业与组织心理学领域的教授，德德勒已经开展了大量关于组织内部合作的研究。在莱顿大学，他计划从一个更高的抽象层面来研究这一问题。“如何成为最优秀的领导人，关于这个问题我们知道得很多。现在我想研究的是当合作时我们的大脑什么样。我对此感兴趣是因为人们彼此合作有赖于非常基础的系统，而这些系统同样被用于其他任务，比如抚养孩子。”

垂体后叶素——“拥抱激素”

他计划通过脑部扫描来观察哪些神经激素在人们合作时发挥了作用，例如被称作“拥抱激素”的垂体后叶素。人们成功合作时会产生更多的垂体后叶素吗？可能通过注入一剂此类激素来影响合作吗？“这种神经生物学的方法只在过去五年间被心理学家真正使用过，还有许多重要的研究问题亟待解答。”

宗教与规则的影响

德德勒的多学科研究方法引人关注。他还对宗教和立法等“体制”所起的作用感兴趣，因为它们对我们的行为有着明显影响。他将和来自其他领域的科学家合作，包括社会学家、政治科学家、法律专家、宗教专家，同时还有生物学家，生物学家的工作将包括研究老鼠的行为。

管理者脑部扫描

德德勒并不排除再次在组织中开展一些研究的可能性。“如果许多管理者愿意在为公司做决策时接受脑部扫描，我将非常开心。但这需要大批管理者参与，因此并不容易实现。”□

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者;译者单位：北京外国语大学）