Americans get wiser with age. Japanese are wise from the start
美國(guó)人年齡越大越聰明。日本人從小就聰明
ONE stereotype of wisdom is a wizened Zen-master smiling benevolently at
the antics of his pupils, while referring to them as little grasshoppers or some
such affectation, safe in the knowledge that one day they, too, will have been
set on the path that leads to wizened masterhood.
提到智慧的時(shí)候，人們腦海里總會(huì)出現(xiàn)這樣一個(gè)老套的畫面：一個(gè)削瘦的禪宗大師面容慈祥的對(duì)他的弟子微笑著，一邊叫他們小不點(diǎn)，心中十分確定他們遲早會(huì)走上這條通往智慧的禪宗之道。
But is it true that age brings wisdom?
但是智慧真的與年齡有關(guān)嗎?
A study two years ago in North America, by Igor Grossmann of the University
of Waterloo, in Canada, suggested that it is.
兩年前，加拿大滑鐵盧大學(xué)Igor Grossmann博士的研究顯示情況的確如此。
In as much as it is possible to quantify wisdom, Dr Grossmann found that
elderly Americans had more of it than youngsters.
由于智慧可以標(biāo)準(zhǔn)量化，他發(fā)現(xiàn)年長(zhǎng)的美國(guó)人的確比年輕人要聰明。
He has, however, now extended his investigation to Asia—the land of the
wizened Zen-master—and, in particular, to Japan.
但是，如今他將調(diào)查擴(kuò)展至整個(gè)亞洲—這個(gè)擁有禪宗大師的神奇土地—特別是日本。
There, he found, in contrast to the West, that the grasshoppers are their
masters' equals almost from the beginning.
在那里他發(fā)現(xiàn)，與西方相比，幾乎從一開始，這些弟子與大師在智力方面難分伯仲 。
Dr Grossmann's study, just published in Psychological Science, recruited
186 Japanese from various walks of life and compared them with 225
Americans.
Grossmann博士研究結(jié)果剛發(fā)表在《心理科學(xué)》。他招募了186個(gè)來(lái)自各行各業(yè)的日本人并且與225個(gè)美國(guó)人做對(duì)比研究。
Participants were asked to read a series of pretend newspaper articles.
他要求參與者閱讀一些假裝在報(bào)紙上發(fā)表的文章。
Half des cribed conflict between groups, such as a debate between residents
of an impoverished Pacific island over whether to allow foreign oil companies to
operate there following the discovery of petroleum.
其中一半描述了一些團(tuán)體斗爭(zhēng)，比如太平洋小島上當(dāng)?shù)鼐用耜P(guān)于是否允許外國(guó)石油公司開發(fā)剛發(fā)現(xiàn)的石油資源。
The other half took the form of advice columns that dealt with conflicts
between individuals: siblings, friends and spouses.
另一半文章以專欄的方式提供兄弟姐妹、朋友、配偶之間的個(gè)人斗爭(zhēng)解決建議。
After reading each article, participants were asked What do you think will
happen after that? and Why do you think it will happen this way? Their responses
were recorded and transc ribed.
在閱讀完文章之后，研究人員會(huì)問(wèn)參與者兩個(gè)問(wèn)題，分別是此事發(fā)生后，你認(rèn)為事態(tài)將會(huì)如何發(fā)展??和為什么你認(rèn)為事態(tài)會(huì)這樣發(fā)展?然后研究人員會(huì)記錄他們的答案。
Dr Grossmann and his colleagues removed age-related information from the
transc ripts, and also any clues to participants' nationalities, and then passed
the edited versions to a group of assessors.
Grossmann博士和同事們會(huì)在記錄中剔除與他們年齡和國(guó)籍相關(guān)的信息，然后將處理過(guò)的記錄版本交給經(jīng)過(guò)培訓(xùn)的一組評(píng)委，他們都對(duì)答案的有一致的評(píng)分標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。
These assessors were trained to rate trans cribed responses consistently,
and had been tested to show that their ratings were statistically comparable
with one another.
這些評(píng)估成員經(jīng)過(guò)訓(xùn)練，能夠始終以相同標(biāo)準(zhǔn)對(duì)紙上答案進(jìn)行評(píng)分;并且已通過(guò)測(cè)試表明其評(píng)出的分?jǐn)?shù)在統(tǒng)計(jì)方面相互具有可比性。
The assessors scored participants' responses on a scale of one to three.
This attempted to capture the degree to which they discussed what psychologists
consider five crucial aspects of wise reasoning: willingness to seek
opportunities to resolve conflict; willingness to search for compromise;
recognition of the limits of personal knowledge; awareness that more than one
perspective on a problem can exist; and appreciation of the fact that things may
get worse before they get better.
評(píng)委將參與者的答案按1至3分進(jìn)行評(píng)分。他們想通過(guò)這種方法把握心理學(xué)家認(rèn)為的五個(gè)有關(guān)于智慧方面的重要程度，分別是：尋求解決爭(zhēng)端機(jī)會(huì)的意愿;尋求折中方法的意愿;對(duì)個(gè)人知識(shí)有限的認(rèn)識(shí)度;對(duì)問(wèn)題存在多個(gè)方面的意識(shí)程度;和對(duì)事情在往好的方向發(fā)展前的趨壞傾向的估計(jì)程度。
A score of one on any aspect indicated a participant gave no consideration
to it.
1分代表參與者根本就沒(méi)有考慮過(guò)，
A score of two indicated some consideration.
2分代表參與者有了些思考但并不深入，
A score of three indicated a great deal of consideration.
3分代表參與者對(duì)這些問(wèn)題有深入的思考。
Each participant's scores were then added up and mathematically transformed
to create an overall value within a range of zero to 100 for both interpersonal
and intergroup wisdom.
將參與者的每個(gè)問(wèn)題的得分相加，再把總分從人際關(guān)系及團(tuán)體關(guān)系兩方面分別轉(zhuǎn)換為百分制。
The upshot was that, as Dr Grossmann had found before, Americans do get
wiser with age.
與Grossmann博士以前的結(jié)果一樣，美國(guó)人隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)智慧增加。
Their intergroup wisdom score averaged 45 at the age of 25 and 55 at
75.
25歲的美國(guó)人社會(huì)群體的判斷力平均數(shù)是45而75歲的美國(guó)人平均數(shù)是55。
Their interpersonal score similarly climbed from 46 to 50.
他們?nèi)穗H關(guān)系的判斷力平均數(shù)同樣隨年齡由46攀升至50。
Japanese scores, by contrast, hardly varied with age.
但是與美國(guó)人的結(jié)果相反，日本人的分?jǐn)?shù)與年齡并無(wú)太大關(guān)系。
Both 25-year-olds and 75-year-olds had an average intergroup wisdom of
51.
25歲和75歲的人的社會(huì)群體的判斷力平均數(shù)都是51;
For interpersonal wisdom, it was 53 and 52.
對(duì)于人際關(guān)系判斷力反而是25歲的是53,75歲的人是52.
Taken at face value, these results suggest Japanese learn wisdom faster
than Americans.
這些結(jié)果顯示日本人比美國(guó)人更早變聰明一些。
One up, then, to the wizened Zen-masters. But they also suggest a
paradox.
年輕人以一分的優(yōu)勢(shì)險(xiǎn)勝那些削瘦的禪宗大師們。但是卻有一個(gè)悖論：
Generally, America is seen as an individualistic society, whereas Japan is
quite collectivist.
通常說(shuō)來(lái)美國(guó)被視為是一個(gè)充滿了個(gè)人主義的社會(huì)，然而日本則更推崇集體主義。
Yet Japanese have higher scores than Americans for the sort of
interpersonal wisdom you might think would be useful in an individualistic
society.
但是日本人在人際關(guān)系能力這一項(xiàng)上的得分卻比美國(guó)人要高，而人際關(guān)系判斷力是大多數(shù)人認(rèn)為在個(gè)人主義社會(huì)中十分受用的能力。
Americans, by contrast—at least in the maturity of old age—have more
intergroup wisdom than the purportedly collectivist Japanese.
相反，美國(guó)人—至少在年齡比較高的那一組中—在群體判斷力的得分上比據(jù)稱崇尚集體主義的日本人要高。
Perhaps, then, you need individual skills when society is collective, and
social ones when it is individualistic.
也許，當(dāng)社會(huì)推崇集體主義的時(shí)候你也需要人際關(guān)系技巧，在推崇個(gè)人主義的社會(huì)里你同樣需要社交技巧。
All of which goes to show that the real root of wisdom is this: do not
assume, little grasshopper, that your prejudices are correct.
所有的這一切都表明，智慧的真正根源是：別事先假定你的成見(jiàn)是正確的，也別輕看了那些小不點(diǎn)。
