Greed and Fear Hamper Cooperation貪婪與恐懼會妨礙合作

孫美萍

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.”

合作順利進行時，每個人都會從中受益。然而，人們常常會有妨礙合作之舉。為什么會這樣呢？社會心理學教授卡斯滕·德德勒在研究這一現象時采用了大量方法，從腦部掃描到宗教研究，多種多樣。

害怕被剝削

從贏得一場復雜的戰爭到發明一種救命藥物，許多事情只有通過人們融洽合作才能實現。合作會帶來不小的成就，個體也會從中受益。那么，為什么同事或者他人經常會給彼此制造麻煩？德德勒的實證研究表明，貪婪與恐懼是團隊合作出現問題的基本原因。“人們擔心自己的付出主要會使那些毫無作為的人受益。因此人們躑躅不前，投入自我保護而不是團隊合作。”

實驗

德德勒調查了人們在最大化自身利益、減少被剝削危險時所采取的策略。在實驗中，參與者可以選擇自我保護或傷害他人，或是什么都不做。當被貪婪所驅使時，人們似乎主要投入自我保護，較少傷害他人。“恐懼作為合作的阻礙因素幾乎一直都在，而貪婪則很難預料什么時候會滋長。”矛盾的是，在相互競爭的各個團隊之間，恐懼往往會使人們更好地合作。

我們的大腦會是什么樣？

作為阿姆斯特丹大學就業與組織心理學領域的教授，德德勒已經開展了大量關于組織內部合作的研究。在萊頓大學，他計劃從一個更高的抽象層面來研究這一問題。“如何成為最優秀的領導人，關于這個問題我們知道得很多。現在我想研究的是當合作時我們的大腦什么樣。我對此感興趣是因為人們彼此合作有賴于非常基礎的系統，而這些系統同樣被用于其他任務，比如撫養孩子。”

垂體后葉素——“擁抱激素”

他計劃通過腦部掃描來觀察哪些神經激素在人們合作時發揮了作用，例如被稱作“擁抱激素”的垂體后葉素。人們成功合作時會產生更多的垂體后葉素嗎？可能通過注入一劑此類激素來影響合作嗎？“這種神經生物學的方法只在過去五年間被心理學家真正使用過，還有許多重要的研究問題亟待解答。”

宗教與規則的影響

德德勒的多學科研究方法引人關注。他還對宗教和立法等“體制”所起的作用感興趣，因為它們對我們的行為有著明顯影響。他將和來自其他領域的科學家合作，包括社會學家、政治科學家、法律專家、宗教專家，同時還有生物學家，生物學家的工作將包括研究老鼠的行為。

管理者腦部掃描

德德勒并不排除再次在組織中開展一些研究的可能性。“如果許多管理者愿意在為公司做決策時接受腦部掃描，我將非常開心。但這需要大批管理者參與，因此并不容易實現。”□

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者;譯者單位：北京外國語大學）