研究表明八卦或能助人成功？

近日，华盛顿州立大学（Washington State University）的一项研究发现，无论人们是在美国还是在印度的办公室工作，甚至是在非洲的偏远村庄工作，八卦（流言蜚语）都会影响人们是否获得好处。

🤔️小作业：

0. gossip的定义是什么？

A. It helps enforce social norms.

B. It serves as a form of entertainment.

C. It creates social hierarchy.

D. It promotes individualism.

A. They decided whether to give a relative some nice clothes they had inherited.

B. They evaluated a fictional worker hired to help with their garden.

C. They could either give a raise to one of their co-workers or an inherited painting to a family member.

D. They were asked to evaluate a colleague's willingness to work late to finish a project.

A. To investigate the impact of negative gossip.

B. To increase the study's ecological validity.

C. To evaluate participants' willingness to share resources.

D. To compare results to industrialized societies.

无注释原文：

Gossip influences who gets ahead in different cultures

From: Science Daily

Gossip influences if people receive advantages whether they work in an office in the U.S. or in India -- or even in a remote village in Africa, a Washington State University study found.

In a set of experiments, WSU anthropologists found that positive and negative gossip influenced whether participants were willing to give a person a resource, such as a raise or a family heirloom, especially when the gossip was specific to the circumstance. For instance, positive gossip concerning job-related behavior, such as saying the person worked well under pressure, increased the participants' willingness to give a work-related benefit compared to gossip about family relationships.

The researchers ran the experiment with 120 online participants workers in the U.S. and India, and after making some culturally appropriate adjustments, with 160 Ngandu horticulturalists, who make a living from small gardens in the Central African Republic. In all three groups, they found similar results.

"Gossip seems context relevant. People don't just say random things," said Nicole Hess, a WSU anthropologist and lead author on the study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. "Gossip that was relevant to the exchange and the relationship had the most impact on whether a person gave a resource, or not."

Anthropologists consider gossip, defined as exchanging reputational information about other community members, to be a feature of almost every human society, but it is less clear what function it serves. Some argue that talking about other people this way helps enforce social norms or serves as social bonding between the gossipers. This study lends evidence to yet another theory: that gossip is used competitively because it shows a direct relationship between gossip and the likelihood of receiving more resources.

"Up until this study, no one had even really asked 'what is the end result of gossip?' Gossip makes a person's reputation worse or better, so what is the result?" Hess said. "These findings support the competitive evolutionary model: that people are using gossip to compete with each other over valuable resources in their communities."

For this study, Hess and co-author Ed Hagen, also a WSU anthropologist, developed a set of experiments that provided participants with job- or family-related scenarios. For the office workers in the industrialized countries, the scenarios described a situation where they could either give a raise to one of their co-workers or an inherited painting to a family member.

They then were given a mix of gossip statements about how a theoretical co-worker or relative behaved at work or dealt with their family. For example, the work statement might be about whether the colleague was willing to work late to finish a project, or on the family side, whether they got along well with their siblings.

After reading a mix of these statements, the participants were asked whether they were willing to give that fictional person the resource.

For the Ngandu farmers, the work scenario was adjusted to have them evaluate a fictional worker they hired to help with their garden, and whether they would share some shirts with the worker that a produce buyer had given them. The family scenario involved deciding whether to give a relative some nice clothes the participant had inherited.

Both surveys showed a similar pattern: participants were more willing to give the resource when exposed to more positive, context-specific gossip statements about them, and less willing when exposed to more negative, context-specific gossip statements.

In this paper, the researchers also included an observational study of 40 Aka hunter-gatherers who live near the Ngandu horticulturists. This study was designed as a series of questions asked verbally about real people the participants knew, which increased the study's ecological validity, meaning it shows that the results can be generalized to real-life settings.

While not exactly parallel with the experimental studies, these observational results also indicated that an individual's positive reputation strongly influenced whether the Aka participants were willing to share a resource with them.

"The cultural contexts are different, but they have the same patterns of responses," said Hess. "This appears to be the universal psychology in how people evaluate reputation in allocating valuable things from industrial societies to small scale communities."

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注：中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Gossip influences who gets ahead in different cultures

From: Science Daily

Gossip influences if people receive advantages whether they work in an office in the U.S. or in India -- or even in a remote village in Africa, a Washington State University study found.

华盛顿州立大学（Washington State University）的一项研究发现，无论人们是在美国还是在印度的办公室工作，甚至是在非洲的偏远村庄工作，八卦（流言蜚语）都会影响人们是否获得好处。

gossip /ˈɡɒsɪp/ 表示“流言飞语；闲言碎语”，英文解释为“informal talk or stories about other people's private lives, that may be unkind or not true”。

In a set of experiments, WSU anthropologists found that positive and negative gossip influenced whether participants were willing to give a person a resource, such as a raise or a family heirloom, especially when the gossip was specific to the circumstance. For instance, positive gossip concerning job-related behavior, such as saying the person worked well under pressure, increased the participants' willingness to give a work-related benefit compared to gossip about family relationships.

在一系列实验中，华盛顿州立大学的人类学家发现，正面和负面的流言蜚语会影响参与者是否愿意给予某人资源，比如加薪或传家宝，尤其是当流言蜚语是针对特定情况的时候。例如，与工作相关的正面流言蜚语（例如说这个人在压力下工作得很好），相比于和家庭关系相关的流言蜚语，参与者更愿意给予其工作相关的好处。

anthropologist /ˌænθrəˈpɒːlədʒɪst/ 表示“人类学家”，英文解释为“a person who studies anthropology”

📍anthropology /ˌænθrəˈpɒlədʒɪ/：the study of the human race, especially of its origins, development, customs and beliefs 人类学。

heirloom /ˈeə.luːm/ 表示“传家宝，祖传之物”，英文解释为“a valuable object that has been given by older members of a family to younger members of the same family over many years”举个🌰：This ring is a family heirloom. 这枚戒指是家里祖传的。

The researchers ran the experiment with 120 online participants workers in the U.S. and India, and after making some culturally appropriate adjustments, with 160 Ngandu horticulturalists, who make a living from small gardens in the Central African Republic. In all three groups, they found similar results.

研究人员对120名来自美国和印度的在线参与者进行了实验，并在做了一些符合文化习惯的调整后，对160名恩甘杜（Ngandu）的园艺工人进行了实验。这些园艺工人在中非共和国的小花园中谋生。在三个小组中，研究人员都发现了相似的结果。

horticulturist /ˌhɔː.tɪˈkʌl.tʃər.ɪst/ 表示“园艺家，园艺师”，英文解释为“a person who studies or grows garden plants”

make a living 表示“谋生”，英文解释为“to earn enough money to buy the things you need”举个🌰：Everyone has to make a living. 每个人都要谋生。

"Gossip seems context relevant. People don't just say random things," said Nicole Hess, a WSU anthropologist and lead author on the study published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. "Gossip that was relevant to the exchange and the relationship had the most impact on whether a person gave a resource, or not."

“流言蜚语似乎与语境相关。人们不会随意说话，”华盛顿州立大学人类学家、发表在《进化与人类行为》（Evolution and Human Behavior）期刊上的这项研究的第一作者妮可·赫斯（Nicole Hess）说，“与交流和关系相关的流言蜚语对一个人是否提供资源的影响最大。”

1）表示“（事情存在、发生的）背景，环境”，英文解释为“the situation within which something exists or happens, and that can help explain it”举个🌰：It is important to see all the fighting and bloodshed in his plays in historical context. 结合历史背景解读他戏剧作品中所有的争斗和流血事件，这点很重要。

2）表示“上下文；语境”，英文解释为“the text or speech that comes immediately before and after a particular phrase or piece of text and helps to explain its meaning”。

补充：

📍out of context表示“脱离上下文”，英文解释为“If words are used out of context, only a small separate part of what was originally said or written is reported, with the result that their meaning is not clear or is not understood.”举个🌰：The reporter took my remarks completely out of context. 记者引用我的话完全是断章取义。

🎬 电影《凯文怎么了》（We Need to Talk About Kevin）的台词中提到：Listen buddy, it's easy to misunderstand something when you hear it out of context. 如果你听到的东西脱离了上下文就很容易产生误解。

🎬 电影《钢铁侠2》（Iron Man 2）的台词中提到：You do understand that reading a single paragraph out of context does not reflect ... 你知道，如果脱离上下文只读一段是不能体现...

🎬 电影《三代人》（3 generations）的台词中提到：This is not helpful, you can't take things out of context. 这样做没用，你不能断章取义。

Anthropologists consider gossip, defined as exchanging reputational information about other community members, to be a feature of almost every human society, but it is less clear what function it serves. Some argue that talking about other people this way helps enforce social norms or serves as social bonding between the gossipers. This study lends evidence to yet another theory: that gossip is used competitively because it shows a direct relationship between gossip and the likelihood of receiving more resources.

人类学家认为，流言蜚语是几乎每个人类社会的特征，它的定义是交换关于其他社会成员的声誉信息，但它的作用不太清楚。一些人认为，这样谈论别人有助于加强社会规范，或者成为流言蜚语者之间的社会纽带。这项研究为另一种理论提供了证据：流言蜚语被竞争性地使用，因为它显示了流言蜚语与获得更多资源的可能性之间的直接关系。

reputational /ˌrep.jəˈteɪ.ʃən.əl/ 表示“名誉的；声望的；名望的”，英文解释为“related to someone's or something's reputation (= the opinion that other people have about them or it)”举个🌰：The reputational damage of having a director or other employee prosecuted for bribery will be significant. 因贿赂而被起诉的董事或其他员工，由此对公司带来的名誉损害将是巨大的。

enforce 表示“使服从（法律）；（强制）实行，执行，把…强加于”，英文解释为“to make people obey a law, or to make a particular situation happen or be accepted”举个🌰：The new teacher had failed to enforce any sort of discipline. 这位新教师一点都管不住学生，搞得纪律涣散。

表示“规范；行为标准”，英文解释为“standards of behaviour that are typical of or accepted within a particular group or society”，如：social/cultural norms 社会/文化规范。

📍the norm 表示“常态，正常行为”，英文解释为“a situation or type of behaviour that is expected and considered to be typical”举个🌰：One child per family is fast becoming the norm in some countries. 每个家庭一个孩子在一些国家正迅速普遍起来。

熟词僻义，表示“增添，添加”，英文解释为“If something lends a particular quality to something else, it adds that quality to it.”举个🌰：Vases of flowers all around the room lent the place a cheerful look/lent a cheerful look to the place. 几瓶花给这个房间增添了一些欢乐的气氛。These events lend support to the view that the law is inadequate. 这些事件进一步证明了法律还不健全的观点。

"Up until this study, no one had even really asked 'what is the end result of gossip?' Gossip makes a person's reputation worse or better, so what is the result?" Hess said. "These findings support the competitive evolutionary model: that people are using gossip to compete with each other over valuable resources in their communities."

“在这项研究之前，甚至没有人真正问过‘流言蜚语的最终结果是什么？’流言蜚语会让一个人的名声变得更糟或更好，那么结果是什么？”赫斯说。“这些发现支持了竞争进化模型：人们正在利用流言蜚语来争夺他们社区的宝贵资源。”

For this study, Hess and co-author Ed Hagen, also a WSU anthropologist, developed a set of experiments that provided participants with job- or family-related scenarios. For the office workers in the industrialized countries, the scenarios described a situation where they could either give a raise to one of their co-workers or an inherited painting to a family member.

在这项研究中，赫斯和同为华盛顿州立大学人类学家的共同作者埃德·哈根（Ed Hagen）设计了一系列实验，为参与者提供与工作或家庭相关的场景。对于工业化国家的上班族来说，这些场景描述了这样一种情况，即他们可以给同事加薪，或者把传家画作给家人。

inherit /ɪnˈher.ɪt/ 1）表示“经遗传得到（父母的性格、外貌、品质、特征）”，英文解释为：to have the same character or appearance as your parents，举个🌰：I inherited my mother's curly hair. 我遗传了母亲的鬈发。

2）表示“继承（财产）”，英文解释：If you inherit money or property, you receive it from someone who has died. 举个🌰：He has no son to inherit his land. 他没有儿子来继承他的土地。

They then were given a mix of gossip statements about how a theoretical co-worker or relative behaved at work or dealt with their family. For example, the work statement might be about whether the colleague was willing to work late to finish a project, or on the family side, whether they got along well with their siblings.

然后，研究人员会告诉他们一系列流言蜚语，关于虚构的同事或亲戚在工作中的表现或与家人相处的方式。例如，工作相关的流言蜚语可能是该同事是否愿意加班完成项目，或者在家庭方面，是否与兄弟姐妹相处融洽。

sibling /ˈsɪb.lɪŋ/ 表示“兄；弟；姐；妹”，英文解释为“a brother or sister”

After reading a mix of these statements, the participants were asked whether they were willing to give that fictional person the resource.

在阅读了这一系列流言蜚语后，参与者被问及他们是否愿意给那个虚构的人提供资源。

For the Ngandu farmers, the work scenario was adjusted to have them evaluate a fictional worker they hired to help with their garden, and whether they would share some shirts with the worker that a produce buyer had given them. The family scenario involved deciding whether to give a relative some nice clothes the participant had inherited.

对恩甘杜的农民来说，工作场景被调整为让他们评估他们雇用来帮助他们的花园的虚构工人，以及他们是否愿意与该工人分享一个农产品买家给他们的一些衬衫。家庭场景则是决定是否愿意把继承下来的一些漂亮衣服给亲戚。

熟词僻义，不可数名词，表示“产品，（尤指）农产品”，英文解释为“Produce is fruit and vegetables that are grown in large quantities to be sold.”举个🌰：We manage to get most of our produce in farmers' markets. 我们设法在农贸市场弄到大部分我们需要的农产品。

Both surveys showed a similar pattern: participants were more willing to give the resource when exposed to more positive, context-specific gossip statements about them, and less willing when exposed to more negative, context-specific gossip statements.

这两项调查都显示了类似的模式：当参与者接触到更多正面的、特定情境的流言蜚语时，他们更愿意提供资源，而当接触到更多负面的、特定情境的流言蜚语时，他们的意愿就会降低。

In this paper, the researchers also included an observational study of 40 Aka hunter-gatherers who live near the Ngandu horticulturists. This study was designed as a series of questions asked verbally about real people the participants knew, which increased the study's ecological validity, meaning it shows that the results can be generalized to real-life settings.

在这篇论文中，研究人员还对住在恩甘杜园艺工人附近的40名阿卡狩猎采集者进行了一项观察性研究。这项研究被设计成口头问答方式，问题是关于参与者所认识的真实人物，增加了该研究的生态效度，也就是说，它表明研究结果可以推广到现实生活环境中。

hunter-gatherer 表示“采猎者，狩猎采集者（指靠野生动植物为生的部族成员）”，英文解释为“a member of a society that lives by hunting and collecting wild food, rather than by farming”

verbally 表示“口头上（而非书面或行动上）”，英文解释为“in spoken words and not in writing or actions”

While not exactly parallel with the experimental studies, these observational results also indicated that an individual's positive reputation strongly influenced whether the Aka participants were willing to share a resource with them.

虽然与实验性研究不完全相同，但这些观察结果也表明，个人的正面声誉强烈影响了阿卡参与者是否愿意与他们分享资源。

"The cultural contexts are different, but they have the same patterns of responses," said Hess. "This appears to be the universal psychology in how people evaluate reputation in allocating valuable things from industrial societies to small scale communities."

“文化背景不同，但他们有相同的反应模式，”赫斯说。“这似乎是人们在分配有价值的东西时如何评估声誉的心理共性，从工业社会到小规模社区都是如此。”

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