【CNN】中国幼童事件暴露了“志愿者困境”的问题

译者 3yan2yu

Toddler incident in China shows 'volunteer's dilemma'

中国幼童事件暴露了“志愿者困境”的问题

By Joachim Krueger, Special to CNN

作者：约阿希姆·克鲁格（Joachim Krueger），CNN的特派员

October 18, 2011 -- Updated 1922 GMT (0322 HKT)

2011年10月18日 - 更新于格林尼治标准时间19:22（香港时间03:22）

A screen grab of an incident on a China street where a toddler was run down shows a rescuer finally helping her

屏幕所采集到发生在中国街头的一个意外事故，一个被撞倒的幼童最终还是被救援人员救了起来。

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

新闻报道的概要：

Joachim Krueger says video of a toddler run over twice in China has shocked, horrified many

约阿希姆·克鲁格（Joachim Krueger） 说，中国的一个蹒跚学步的幼童被汽车辗压了两次的录像震惊和吓坏了许多人。

He says we wonder why it took so long for someone to help and ask are people in China callous?

他说，我们不知道为什么要等这么长的时间才来人来救助，并问在中国的人们是不是冷酷无情。

He says what researchers call "volunteers dilemma" not unique to China; cites NY case

他说，研究人员所称的“志愿者困境”并不为中国所特有; 他引用了发生在纽约发生过的案件。

Krueger: "Bystander effect" sometimes less when a group is needed, as in United Flight 93

约阿希姆·克鲁格说，在需要一群人的帮助时，“旁观者效应”有时会少一些， 如联合航空93号班机上所发生的事件。

Editor's note: Joachim I. Krueger is professor of psychology at Brown University who studies self-perception and social perception. He is the editor of Rationality and Social Responsibility.

编者按： 约阿希姆·克鲁格是布朗大学的心理学教授，他研究自我认知和社会知觉。他是《理性和社会责任》的编辑。

(CNN) -- A security camera video of a toddler being run over twice on a street in China has swept across the Web in recent days and has drawn a chorus of horrified denunciations. How, we wonder, could so many passers-by have so callously ignored the girl's plight?

(CNN)——中国的一个学步幼童在街道上两次被汽车碾压的保安摄像机视频，于最近几天里已经在网络上广泛传播,  并已经引起了人们令人震惊的齐声谴责。我们想知道, 怎么可能会有那么多的过路人那样冷酷无情地不去理睬这个小女孩所遇到的困境。

As humans, we are horrified when we learn that a person in distress is not helped, even when, as in this case, many potential helpers are present. Our horror increases if the person is victimized in a particularly vicious or careless way by fellow human beings. Our horror is further heightened when we learn that the victim is helpless and the kind of person who normally stimulates our instinct to aid and protect.

作为人类, 当我们可以了解到，一个人在遇难过程中竟然得不到救助, 甚至, 于在场还有着许多人可以救助的情况下 ，我们都被吓坏了。如果这个人是被其他人以特别恶毒或极不小心的方式而受到灾难时，我们的恐惧就会更为增加。 当我们知道了受害者完全处于无助的状态，而竟有这样一种人大模大样地刺激着我们帮助和保护别人的本能时，我们的恐惧又进一步提高了。

Our spontaneous reaction is to say: "Had I been there, I would have helped; what is wrong with these people?" If an incident occurs in a foreign country or culture, it is easy -- maybe tempting, as we grapple with something so baffling -- to conclude that the particular culture is to blame, that it is being callous, uncaring or egotistical.

我们自发反应地想说: “如果我在那里的话,我就会去救助, 而这些不去救助人究竟犯有那些错误?”  如果一个偶然事件发生在国外或者在外国文化的环境里, 要回答这个问题是容易的——也许诱人的，正如我们努力去克服一些令人困感的事情那样——总而言之这种特定文化应承担责任，它是冷酷无情、漠不关心或自我本位的。

It is true that cultural differences exist in many aspects of human behavior, and many of these differences are not trivial. But in the Chinese incident, in which the small child was gravely injured before someone finally carried her away, it would be too facile to think that apathy in the face of others' suffering is a signature of the local culture.

人类行为在许多方面确实存在着文化上的差异, 许多这些差异也并非微不足道。然而在中国所发生的事件中，那个小女孩最后被人带走前就受了重伤，我们就认为漠不关心地对待别人所受的苦难是当地文化的特征，那就过于肤浅了。

First, the public outcry and outrage within China was quite the same as what one would see in other countries. Second, there have been, of course, similar cases in other countries. Indeed, there was the torture and murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York, in a 1964 street attack. Early reports, which may not have been entirely accurate, indicated that many people listened to or watched the attack and did nothing to stop it, and so a media blitz followed . Commentators asked: What is wrong with New York City, what is wrong with these times, and what is wrong with the particular neighborhood?

首先，由此在中国内部所引起的公众强烈抗议和愤怒与人们在其他国家里所能看到的一模一样。第二,  当然，在其他国家也发生过类似的情况。事实上, 1964年发生在纽约皇后区的街头袭击凯蒂·吉诺维斯（Kitty Genovese）案件， 也存在过折磨和谋杀。当时早期的报告,可能不完全准确, 曾经指出过许多人在收听或收看到这次袭击时并没有设法去阻止它, 因此一个媒体紧随其后采取了闪电式的行动。评论员问：纽约市错在那里，这些岁月错在那里，这些特定的街坊又错在那里？

The incident spawned research on the so-called bystander effect: a set of brilliant experiments conducted by John Darley and Bibb Latané, who showed in their 1968 study that as the number of bystanders goes up, the probability of any individual bystander intervening goes down. This is so because each bystander is trying to solve a so-called "volunteer's dilemma." If everyone responds, the cost could be high and the volunteers might get in each others' way. It would be best if only one bystander responded, the thinking goes. If this is so, it is reasonable to ask who it will be and why it should be me.

这一事件引发了所谓旁观者效应的研究：约翰·达利（John Darle）和比伯·莱丹原（Bibb Latané）开发了一套杰出的实验, 他们在1968年的研究就表示,  随着事件旁观者数量的增加，任何个别旁观者的介入此事件的概率就会降低。这是因为每一个旁观者正在努力解决一个所谓“志愿者困境”的问题。如果每个人都作出的反应，所花的代价就很高, 而志愿者可能会陷入与其他人共同的解决方案。基于这样的考虑，最好只有一个旁观者来作出反应。如果情况是这样, 我们就有理由问，谁会去？为什么应该是我？

Since the original experiments, many studies have explored the bystander effect. Recently, I was part of a research team brought together by Peter Fischer of the University of Regensburg, Germany. We surveyed the existing scientific literature and statistically integrated the findings from 105 data sets. We found that the bystander effect is quite robust, that it has declined somewhat in magnitude over time, and that there are certain conditions under which it disappears or is even reversed.

从原始的实验开展以来，许多研究探索了这个旁观者效应。最近, 我就是德国雷根斯堡大学的彼得·菲舍尔（Peter Fischer）所邀集的研究该问题的团队成员。我们调查了现有的科学文献和从统计学角度整合了来自105个数据集的结果。我们发现的旁观者效应相当强劲, 它在一定程度上会随着时间的推移而有所减小，而且有某些条件下，它会消失或者甚至转变成对事件发展有利的一面。

For example, in a situation in which several bystanders need to band together to overwhelm a perpetrator, they will be more likely to act collectively than to act alone. The heroic effort of the passengers on United Flight 93, which was suspected to be in line to strike a Washington target on 9/11/2001, comes to mind.

例如, 就有这样一种情况， 在只有几个旁观者需要联合起来才能压倒一个罪犯的情况下, 他们就可能会更多地采取集体行动。当我想到，联合航空93号班机上的乘客，于2001年9月13日那一天，当被他们怀疑飞机正处在攻击华盛顿的一个目标的航线上时，他们的英雄献身的奋斗精神就会在我的脑海中涌现。

It is these extreme cases, the callous injury of a helpless toddler and the heroic revolt of ordinary people in the face of terrorism, that capture our attention. With a bit of luck, most of us will not find ourselves in such existential situations.

这是两个极端的情况, 一个无助的幼童受到冷酷无情的伤害，和普通民众面对恐怖主义的英雄起义, 引起了我们的注意。好在我们还有那么一点运气，我们中的大多数人不会发现自己也会碰到这样有关生死存亡的局面。

We must ask ourselves, however, how we will respond in more mundane situations that present us with fellow human beings who are in need. Will we help or hope that someone else will?

然而，我们必须反躬自问,  当更现实的局面提出我们的人类同胞需要帮助时，我们应该怎样来承担起责任。我们会提供帮助吗？或者我们只是希望其他人来提供帮助？