The kindness of strangers
Bruce Hood
We often help others in situations where there is no immediate benefit to ourselves or indeed there is no reward in the future. We are even willing to help strangers. Young children start to help strangers surprisingly early. At 18 months, they will spontaneously pick up dropped items and open doors or boxes to help an experimenter even when they are not told to do so or given a reward. In fact, rewarding children makes them less helpful because we generally do not like having our acts of kindness reduced to something that was done for obvious gain. It is unlikely that children have been trained to help, but rather, they do so because it is in our human nature. Animals can help other members of their own species, but the observations of helping in non-human primates are sporadic and open to alternative interpretations that divide the scientific community. In fact, some argue that the basic principle of helping others out of good will is uniquely human.
我们经常帮助别人的情况下，没有立即的利益，或确实没有回报的未来。我们甚至愿意帮助陌生人。孩子们很早就开始帮助陌生人。在18个月大的时候，他们会自发地捡起掉落的物品，打开门或箱子来帮助实验者，即使他们没有被告知这样做或得到奖励。事实上，奖励孩子会让他们更不乐于助人，因为我们通常不喜欢自己的善举沦为为了明显的利益。孩子们不太可能被训练去帮助别人，相反，他们这样做是因为这是我们人类的天性。动物可以帮助自己物种中的其他成员，但对非人类灵长类动物的帮助观察是零星的，而且有不同的解释，这在科学界是有分歧的。事实上，一些人认为，出于善意帮助他人的基本原则是人类独有的。
Chimpanzees will reliably help a human retrieve an out-of-reach object, but the helping may have been shaped during their captivity. Whenever we see domesticated animals performing feats that are not observed regularly in their natural habitat, we have to ask whether those abilities are part of their repertoire or rather demonstrations of the power of learning and expectations. After all, researchers have been arguing that domestication changes brains and behavior. Semi-wild chimpanzees and other non-human primates appear to cooperate, but they do not necessarily think of helping as a selfless act. There are many reports of animals working in collaboration but ultimately these are strategies to benefit the individual.
黑猩猩确实可以帮助人类找回一个够不到的物体，但这种帮助可能是在它们被囚禁期间形成的。每当我们看到驯养的动物表演在它们的自然栖息地通常看不到的技艺时，我们不得不问，这些能力到底是它们表演的一部分，还是学习和期望的力量的展示。毕竟，研究人员一直认为驯化会改变大脑和行为。半野生黑猩猩和其他非人类灵长类动物似乎会合作，但它们并不一定认为帮助是一种无私的行为。有很多关于动物合作的报道，但最终这些策略都是有利于个体的。
Chimpanzees will lend a hand to help another gain access to food, but not if they have to give up food that is already in their possession. Not only do chimpanzees fail to share food with non-relatives but that selfishness also applies to mothers and their babies. When their baby is begging for food, it has been observed that mothers will pass on a morsel, but when they do, it is usually done reluctantly and she gives the less nutritious and appetizing parts of the plant to her baby. Of course, chimpanzee mothers possess a maternal instinct to protect their babies, but apparently that nurturing does not reliably extend to readily giving up a treat or two. Can you imagine a human mother behaving like that at the local nursery group?
黑猩猩会帮助其他黑猩猩获得食物，但如果它们必须放弃已经拥有的食物，它们就不会伸出援手。黑猩猩不仅不与非亲属分享食物，这种自私也适用于母亲和她们的孩子。当它们的宝宝乞讨食物时，我们观察到，妈妈们会递上一小口，但当它们这么做时，通常是不情愿的，妈妈们会把营养价值较低、让宝宝开胃的部分给它们。当然，黑猩猩妈妈拥有保护自己孩子的母性本能，但很明显，这种养育并不会可靠地延伸到轻易放弃一两个食物。你能想象一个人类母亲在当地托儿所的表现吗?
For humans, helping is all about emotions. We help others out of the goodness of our hearts. As Abraham Lincoln said, "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." The kindness of strangers reminds us that humans are an altruistic species willing to help others even when there is no obvious payoff. We do so because it seems right but also because we feel better about ourselves and worse when we do not. When we help others we get a "warm glow"— an experience that registers in the pleasure centers of our brain.
对于人类来说，帮助他人完全是情感上的。我们是出于好心帮助别人的。正如亚伯拉罕·林肯所说:“当我做好事时，我感觉很好。”当我做得不好的时候，我感觉很糟糕。这就是我的宗教。”陌生人的善意提醒我们，人类是一种利他的物种，即使没有明显的回报，也愿意帮助别人。我们这样做是因为它看起来是正确的，但也因为我们感觉更好，当我们不这样做时，我们感觉更糟。当我们帮助别人的时候，我们会得到一种“温暖的光辉”——一种记录在我们大脑愉悦中枢的体验。
The other mechanism that promotes altruism is not pride, but the fear of criticism from others for not helping. Two famous economists, Ernst Fehr and Simon Gächter developed a cunning game to test people's motives to help the group. They had teams of adults play a game where they were given tokens worth money that they could either keep or put into a collective pot as an investment that would be paid out to everyone irrespective of whether they contributed to the pot or not. The best strategy is for everyone to contribute, but someone who wants to get the most out of game — in other words, to be a freeloader — should not contribute any of their own money and just reap the benefits of all the other players willing to make a contribution. The game was played anonymously, but after each round of the game it was revealed who had contributed what Now players were given the chance to "fine " those who had not contributed sufficiently to the pot. The twist was that whoever imposed the fine also had to pay for the privilege even though they would not get their money back.
另一个促进利他主义的机制不是骄傲，而是害怕别人因为不帮忙而批评。两位著名的经济学家恩斯特·费尔(Ernst Fehr)和西蒙Gächter开发了一个狡猾的游戏来测试人们帮助群体的动机。他们让一组成年人玩一个游戏，在游戏中，他们得到了价值不菲的代币，他们可以把这些代币保存起来，也可以把它们作为一种投资放入一个集体的罐子里，无论他们是否为这个罐子做出了贡献，这些代币都会被支付给所有人。最好的策略是对每个人都做出贡献,但是有人想要的游戏——换句话说,是一个不速之客——不应该贡献任何他们自己的钱,获得收益的其他玩家愿意做出贡献。游戏是匿名,但在每一轮的比赛是揭示造成现在玩家有机会“罚款”那些没有做出了足够的贡献。转折是谁实施罚款还必须支付特权,即使他们不会把钱拿回来。
As the study progressed, something interesting happened. Even though it came at a cost to impose a fine, players were more willing to pay up in order to punish freeloaders. Over time, freeloaders started to contribute more to the pot as the rounds continued. Punishment was changing their behavior. We prefer to punish transgressors even when it comes at a cost to ourselves, but that punishment eventually changes selfish people's behavior.
随着研究的进展，有趣的事情发生了。尽管罚款是要付出代价的，但球员们更愿意付钱来惩罚揩油者。随着时间的推移，白吃白喝的人会随着回合的继续而做出更多的贡献。惩罚改变了他们的行为。我们宁愿惩罚违规者，即使这需要付出代价，但这种惩罚最终会改变自私的人的行为。