听力课堂TED音频栏目主要包括TED演讲的音频MP3及中英双语文稿，供各位英语爱好者学习使用。本文主要内容为演讲MP3+双语文稿:为什么猴子和人类天生就对公平感兴趣，希望你会喜欢！

【演讲者及介绍】Sarah Brosnan

Sarah Brosnan的研究重点是动物如何以及为什么做出决定。

【演讲主题】为什么猴子和人类天生就对公平感兴趣

Why monkeys (and humans) are wired for fairness

【中英文字幕】

翻译者 Lilian Chiu 校对者 Melody Tang

My first year in graduate school, studying cooperation in monkeys, I spent a lot of time outside, just watching our groups of capuchin monkeys interact. One afternoon, I was out back feeding peanuts to one of our groups, which required distracting one of our males, Ozzie, enough so that the other monkeys could get some. Ozzie loved peanuts, and he always tried to do anything he could to grab some. On that day, however, he began trying to bring other things from his enclosure to me and trade them with me in order to get a peanut.

我在研究所的第一年研究的是猴子间的合作，我花了很多时间在户外，观看一群一群的卷尾猴如何互动。有一天下午，我回到户外拿花生去喂食其中一群猴子，需要做的是让其中一只公猴奥奇分心，给其他猴子有机会可以拿到一些花生。奥奇很爱花生，牠总是无所不用其极要拿到花生。然而，在那一天，牠开始尝试从牠的围栏内拿其他东西给我，想要用这些东西和我交换花生。

Now, capuchins are smart, so this wasn't necessarily a surprise. But what was a surprise was that some of the things that he was bringing me, I was pretty sure he liked better than peanuts. First, he brought me a piece of monkey chow, which is like dried dog food -- it was even made by Purina -- and for a monkey, is about as worthless as it gets. Of course, I didn't give him a peanut for that. But he kept trying, and eventually, he brought me a quarter of an orange and tried to trade it with me for a peanut. Now, oranges are a valuable monkey commodity, so this trade seemed, shall I say, a little bit nuts?

卷尾猴很聪明，这个举动并不让人意外。但，让人意外的是牠拿给我的某些东西，我很确定牠喜欢那些东西胜过花生。首先，牠拿给我一片猴食，就象是干狗粮一样——它甚至是普瑞纳公司制造的——对猴子而言，它的价值说多低就有多低。当然，我没有用花生跟牠换。但牠不断尝试，最终，牠拿给我四分之一个橙子，试图和我交换一颗花生。橙子是很有价值的猴子商品，所以这个交易可以说有点疯狂（和坚果同单字）。

Now you may be wondering how we know what monkeys prefer. Well, we ask them, by giving them a choice between two foods and seeing which one they pick. Generally speaking, their preferences are a lot like ours: the sweeter it is, the more they like it. So, much like humans prefer cupcakes to kale, monkeys prefer fruits, like oranges or grapes, to vegetables like cucumbers, and all of this to monkey chow. And peanuts are not bad. However, they definitely don't prefer them to a chunk of orange.

你可能会纳闷，我们怎么知道猴子偏爱什么。嗯，我们会问牠们，做法是给牠们两种食物来选择，看牠们会挑哪一种。一般来说，牠们的偏好和我们很像：越甜的食物牠们越爱。就像人类喜欢杯子蛋糕胜过甘蓝，猴子喜欢水果，如橙子或葡萄，胜过蔬菜，如小黄瓜，而所有这些都比猴食要好。花生也不差。然而，牠们肯定不会喜欢花生胜过一片橙子。

So when Ozzie tried to trade a quarter of an orange for a peanut, it was a surprise, and I began to wonder if he suddenly wanted that peanut because everybody else in his group was getting one. In case you're wondering, I did give Ozzie his peanut.

所以，当奥奇试图用四分之一个橙子交换花生时，那很让人意外，我开始好奇，牠会突然想要花生，是否是因为牠那群猴子每一只都有分到花生。如果你好奇，我确实把花生给了奥奇。

But then I went straight to my graduate adviser, Frans de Waal, and we began to design a study to see how the monkeys would respond when somebody else in their group got a better reward than they did for doing the same work.

但，接着，我立即去找我的研究所指导教授弗兰斯·德瓦尔，我们开始设计一项研究，来探究猴子的反应，当牠们发现同群的其他猴子明明做同样的工作却拿到更好的奖励时，会有什么反应。

It was a very simple study. We took two monkeys from the same group and had them sit side by side, and they would do a task, which was trading a token with me, and if they did so successfully, they got a reward. The catch was that one monkey always got a piece of cucumber, and the other monkey sometimes got a piece of cucumber, but sometimes got a grape. And if you'll recall, grapes are much preferred to cucumbers on the capuchin monkey hierarchy.

这是个非常简单的研究。我们从同一群猴子中挑出两只，让牠们并排坐，牠们要完成一项任务：用代币和我交易，如果牠们成功做到，就能得到奖励。我们故意让其中一只猴子总是拿到一片小黄瓜，另一只猴子有时拿到小黄瓜，有时拿到葡萄。如果你还记得，在卷尾猴的偏好等级中，葡萄是远高于小黄瓜的。

Now, I'm a scientist, and scientists are famously shy about reading too much into our studies, especially when it comes to what other animals are thinking or feeling, because we can't ask them. But still, what I was seeing in my monkeys looked an awful lot like what we humans would call a sense of fairness.

我是科学家，科学家很著名的特色就是对我们的研究总是想太多，特别是谈到其他动物的想法或感受，因为我们无法问牠们。但，尽管如此，我的猴子所展现的行为像极了人类所谓的「公平感」。

We humans are obsessed with fairness. I have a younger sister, and when we were little, if my sister got a bigger piece of the pie than me, even by a crumb, I was furious. It wasn't fair. And the childhood me is not alone.

我们人类对公平很执着。我有个妹妹，我们小时候，如果我妹妹拿到的派比我的还大块，即使只大一点点，我就会盛怒。那不公平。儿时的我并不独特。

We humans hate getting less than another so much that one study found that if humans were given a hypothetical choice between earning 50,000 dollars a year while others earned 25,000 dollars, or earning 100,000 dollars a year while others earned 250,000 dollars, nearly half the subjects prefer to earn 50,000 dollars a year less money to avoid earning relatively less than someone else. That's a pretty big price to pay.

我们人类相当讨厌不如别人，讨厌程度到了有一项研究发现如果给予人类一个假设性的选择，可以选择一年赚五万美金，而其他人赚两万五千美金，或者一年赚十万美金，而其他人赚二十五万美金，有近半的受试者会偏好一年只要赚五万美金，以避免自己赚的比其他人少。那么做要付出的代价很大。

What drives people to this sort of apparently irrational decision-making? After all, throwing away your cucumber because someone else got a grape only makes sense if it makes things more fair.Of course humans are not capuchin monkeys. But on the surface, sacrificing 50,000 dollars because somebody else is going to earn more money than you makes no more sense than throwing away that cucumber. Except maybe it does.

是什么原因让人做出这种明显不理性的决策？毕竟，因为别人得到葡萄，就丢掉自己的小黄瓜，除非这么做能让情况变公平，才会合理。当然，人类不是卷尾猴。但，表面上看来，牺牲五万美金，只因为别人会赚的比你更多，这种行为并不会比丢掉小黄瓜更合理。不过，是有可能有合理之处。

Some economists think that the sense of fairness in humans is tied to cooperation. In other words, we need that sense of fairness when we're working with somebody else to know when we're getting the short end of the stick. Think about it this way. Let's say you have a colleague at work who's having a hard time and needs a little extra help. You're probably more than happy to help out, especially if she does the same for you when you need it. In other words, if things even out. But now, let's say that colleague is always slacking off and dumping extra work on you. That's infuriating. Or worse, what if you're doing all the work, and she's getting paid more. You're outraged, right? As well you should be. That righteous fury is your sense of fairness telling you that, well, it's not fair. You need to get your fair share from the people you're working with, or it's exploitation, not cooperation.

有些经济学家认为，人类的公平感和合作相关。换言之，我们需要公平感，那么，当我们和其他人共事时才能知道何时我们吃了亏。可以这样想：比如，你工作上的一位同事很辛苦，需要一点额外的协助。你可能很乐意伸出援手，特别是因为在你有需要时她也会帮你。换言之，就是能扯平。但，现在，比如那位同事总是在懈怠，把额外的工作丢给你。那很让人恼火。或更糟，所有的工作都是你做，她赚的薪水却更多。你会火大，对吧？你应该要火大。那正当的怒火，就是你的公平感在告诉你，嗯，那不公平。你必须从你共事的人那里得到该属于你的份，要不然那就不是合作，是剥削。

You may not be able to leave every job where you're treated unfairly, but in a perfect world, one without racism and sexism and the frictions associated with finding a new job, it's your sense of fairness that would let you know when it was time to move on. And if you couldn't? Well, that smoldering frustration might make you throw your cucumbers too.

你可能无法每次受到不公平对待时就辞职，但，在完美的世界中，没有种族主义和性别主义，找新工作不会有困难，此时，就是由你的公平感来负责告诉你何时该离开了。如果你无法离开呢？嗯，在心里闷烧的挫折感可能也会让你把小黄瓜丢掉。

And humans are not alone in this.It turns out that capuchins simply refuse to cooperate with other capuchins who don't give them their share after they worked together. And refusing to work together with another monkey is a pretty straightforward way of leveling the playing field. Apparently, no monkey getting anything at all is better than another monkey getting more. But much like you and your coworker, they're perfectly happy with a little short-term inequality as long as everything evens out over the long run.

且不只有人类会如此。结果发现，卷尾猴在和其他卷尾猴共事后，若发现牠们不会提供公平的待遇，就会拒绝和牠们合作。拒绝和其他猴子共事是一种让情况变公平的直接做法。很显然，与其让其他猴子得到更多，还不如让所有猴子都得不到任何东西。但，就像你和你的同事一样，牠们很乐意接受短期的小小不平等，只要长期来看还是能扯平就好。

This economic connection between fairness and cooperation makes sense to me as an evolutionary biologist. After all, your ancestors didn't get to pass on their genes because they did well in some absolute sense, but because they did better than others. We don't call it survival of the fit, we call it survival of the fittest. As in more fit than others. It's all relative.

在我这个演化生物学家看来，公平和合作之间的经济关联性是合理的。毕竟，你的祖先能把他们的基因传下来，并不是因为他们做到了绝对的「好」，而是因为他们做得比其他人好。这不叫「适者生存」，而是叫「最适者生存」。也就是说，要比别人更会适应。全都是相对的。

OK. So my capuchins don't like it when they get less than another. And they're perfectly happy to sacrifice their cucumbers to level the playing field. That's great. But what we would call a sense of fairness in humans also means that we care when we get more than someone else. What about my monkeys? It turns out that primates do notice when they get more than others, or at least some of them do. My capuchins do not. But in one of my studies, my chimpanzees would sometimes refuse a grape if another chimpanzee in their group got a cucumber, which is pretty impressive, given how much my chimpanzees like grapes. However, they were still more upset when they got less than another chimp as compared to when they got more. You may not think it's fair when you have more than your neighbor, but you really don't think it's fair when your neighbor has more than you.

好。所以我的卷尾猴不喜欢拿到比其他猴子差的东西。牠们非常愿意牺牲牠们的小黄瓜来让情况变公平。那很棒。但，当我们说人类有公平感，也表示我们会在乎自己拿得比别人多。我的猴子会吗？结果发现，灵长类动物确实会注意到自己得到的比较多，至少有些灵长类动物会。我的卷尾猴不会。但在我的其中一项研究中，我的黑猩猩如果发现同一团体内有其他黑猩猩拿到小黄瓜时，牠就会拒绝拿葡萄，这很让人印象深刻，毕竟我的黑猩猩很喜欢葡萄。然而，当牠们拿到的比其他猴子少，沮丧程度会高于拿到比较多的情况。当你拥有的比邻居多，你可能不觉得不公平，但当邻居拥有的比你多时，你就会认为不公平。

Here's an important question, though. Why do we care about inequality or unfairness when we are the ones who are unfairly benefiting? If evolution is about survival of the fittest, wouldn't it make sense to grab any advantage you can get? Here's the thing though. I do better if I get more than you, sure. But best of all is if you and I can work together and get more than either one of us could have gotten on our own. But why would you work with me if you don't think I'm going to play fair? But if you think I'm going to notice when I've got more than you and do something about it, then you will work with me.

不过，有个重要的问题要问。当我们是不公平的受益方时，为什么我们会在乎不平等或不公平？若演化的重点在于最适者生存，要尽可能抓住所有优势不是才比较合理吗？不过，重点来了。如果我拿到的比你多，我会过得比较好，的确。但最理想的是你和我能够合作，结果比我们任何一个人单独能得到的更多。但，如果你认为我不公平，你为什么会和我合作？但，如果你认为我会注意到我得到的比你多，并针对此采取行动，那么你就会和我合作。

Evolution has selected us to accept the occasional short-term loss in order to maintain these all-important long-term relationships. This is true in chimpanzees, but it is even more important in humans. Humans are incredibly interconnected and interdependent, and we have the advanced cognitive abilities to be able to plan far into the future. And to recognize the importance of maintaining these cooperative partnerships. Indeed, if anything, I think we are likely underplaying how important the sense of fairness is for people.

演化的天择，让我们能接受偶尔发生的短期损失，目的是要维持极重要的长期关系。在黑猩猩当中是如此，但，在人类当中，这点更是重要。人类是非常相互连结、相互依赖的生物，且我们有先进的认知能力，能够为很远的将来做打算，并且能够了解维持这些合作关系的重要性。的确，如果有的话，我认为我们很可能低估了公平感对人类的重要性。

One of the biggest differences between humans and capuchin monkeys is the sheer magnitude and ubiquity of cooperation in humans. In other words, we're a lot more cooperative than capuchin monkeys are. Legal and economic systems literally only exist if we all agree to participate in them. And if people feel left out of the rewards and benefits of those systems, then they stop participating, and the whole system falls apart.

人类和卷尾猴最大的不同点之一就是人类无时无刻都需要大量的合作。换言之，比起卷尾猴，我们更乐于合作。法律和经济体制能够存在，是因为我们全都同意参与其中。如果有人觉得那些体制在奖赏或提供利益时漏掉了他们，他们就会停止参与，整个体制就会崩坏。

Many of the protests and uprisings we're seeing, both in the US and around the globe, are explicitly framed in terms of fairness, which is not surprising to me. Whether it's about disproportionate access to resources, or that some groups are being disproportionately impacted by the legal system or the effects of a virus, these protests are the logical outcome of our long evolutionary tendency to reject unfairness combined with our long history of social stratification. And the systemic inequalities that have resulted from that stratification. Layer on top of this the fact that by many measures economic inequality is skyrocketing.

我们所见到的许多抗议和起义，包括在美国以及在世界各地，都很明确是用公平性来解读，对我来说这是意料之中。不论是资源的取得不成比例或者有些族群受到法律体制或病毒影响的冲击不成比例，这些抗议都是合逻辑的结果，因为我们长期演化成倾向排拒不公平，再加上社会阶层有着漫长的历史，此外还有因为那阶层而导致的体制不平等。除此之外，从许多测量方式来看经济不平等都还在剧烈增加。

Chris Boehm wrote a book called "Hierarchy in the Forest," in which he argued that humans have reverse hierarchies in which those at the bottom band together to keep those at the top from taking advantage of them. Perhaps these protests are simply the latest manifestation of humans' tendency to rebalance the hierarchy. Perhaps the biggest difference between us and capuchin monkeys is that we can recognize this problem and actively work to do something about it. Of course we recognize when we're disadvantaged. But we can and we must also recognize when we're advantaged at the expense of someone else, and recognize fairness as the balance between these two inequalities, because our society literally depends upon it.

克里斯·保汉写了一本书，叫做《森林中的阶层》，在书中，他主张人类有反转过来的阶层，在这种阶层中，底层的人集结起来，防止顶层的人占他们便宜。也许，这些抗议就是人类想要重新平衡阶层的呈现吧。也许，我们和卷尾猴最大的不同点在于我们能够看清这个问题，并能主动努力设法处理它。当然，我们会注意到自己处于不利。但我们能够也必须要留心，有时我们是以他人为代价才得到优势，我们要认清，公平是这两种不平等之间的平衡，因为我们的社会还要仰赖它。

Indeed, my research shows that not all primate species care about inequality. It's only those that rely on cooperation, which most definitely includes humans. We evolved to care about fairness because we rely on each other for our cooperative society. And the more unfair the world gets, and the less we care about each other, the more peril we will face. Our issues are more complex than grapes and cucumbers, but as the capuchins have taught us, we will all do better when we all play fair.

的确，我的研究发现，并非所有的灵长类物种都会在乎不平等。只有仰赖合作的物种才会在乎，那肯定就包括人类在内。我们演化成会在乎公平，因为我们要仰赖彼此才能建立合作的社会。当世界变得越不公平，我们越不在乎彼此，我们就会面对更多危险。我们的问题远比葡萄和小黄瓜更复杂，但卷尾猴教导我们，当大家都能公平行事时，大家会一起共荣。

Thank you.

谢谢。