Can you be rich and caring?
杰夫•贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)最近谈到每年要在太空上花费10亿美元。“要有效地利用这么多资金，我能想到的唯一办法就是把我在亚马逊(Amazon)的奖金用于太空旅行。”今年4月阿克塞尔•施普林格集团(Axel Springer)在柏林举行的颁奖典礼上，他这样解释说。Jeff Bezos recently spoke of spending a billion dollars a year on space. “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel,” he explained during an Axel Springer awards ceremony in Berlin in April.
这番话立刻招致批评，一些人认为，如果把这些“资金”分配给成千上万依靠食品券来维持收支平衡的亚马逊员工可能更好。意思很明白：贝索斯是个对普通人缺乏同情心的富人。Criticism was swift, with some suggesting that this “financial resource” might be better deployed to the thousands of Amazon employees who rely on food stamps to make ends meet. The implication was clear: Bezos was a rich guy who lacked empathy for ordinary people.
事实上，像贝索斯这样的失言之举时有发生，而许多研究表明，富人确实比较没有同情心。In fact, gaffes such as Bezos’s come amid plenty of research that suggests the rich really do have less empathy than others.
加州大学(University of California)2017年发表的一项研究发现，较上层阶级的个体往往会感受到更“以自我为导向”的积极情绪，而较底层的人则往往会更多地“以他人为导向”来感受这些积极情绪。A study at the University of California published in 2017 found that upper-class individuals tended to experience more “self-orientated” positive emotions whereas those in lower classes tended to experience these feelings in a more “other-orientated” way.
2015年亚利桑那大学(Arizona University)的心理学家也发现，虽然富人们自认为比较有同情心，但让他们一边观看苦难照片一边给他们做核磁共振成像(MRI)扫描时，却显示并非如此。这些心理学家写道：“社会经济地位(SES)较高的人对他人苦难的神经反应降低。”相比之下，社会经济地位较低的人“似乎更能体谅他人”。In a similar vein, psychologists at Arizona University in 2015 found that, while the rich rated themselves as more empathetic, MRI scans taken while looking at pictures of suffering told a different story. The authors wrote: “People who are higher in socio-economic status (SES) have diminished neural responses to others’ pain”. By contrast those lower in SES “appear to be more attuned to others”.
2012年伯克利两位心理学家完成的一系列研究或许是近年来最为著名的。其中一项研究显示，豪车司机更有可能冲撞其他司机，给别的司机让路的可能性更低。两人还发现富人更有可能在工作中欺骗、撒谎、偷窃以及支持不道德行为。Perhaps the most famous recent series of studies was done by a pair of Berkeley psychologists in 2012. One of these showed that drivers of luxury vehicles were more likely to cut up other motorists and less likely to let other drivers through. The duo also discovered the rich were more likely to cheat, lie, steal and endorse unethical behaviour at work.
那说明了什么呢？有钱和同情心不可兼得？显然不是。比尔•盖茨(Bill Gates)和沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)只是捐出财富的众多超级富豪中最近的两位，这些超级富豪可以追溯到罗马时期的参议员赫罗狄斯•阿提库斯(Herodes Atticus)。公平地说，贝索斯确信太空探索对人类的未来至关重要，所以或许他对全人类抱有某种博爱。So what gives? Is it impossible to be rich and caring? Clearly not. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are just two of the latest in a long line of the super-rich stretching back to the Roman senator Herodes Atticus who have given fortunes away. In fairness to Bezos, he does believe that space exploration is vital to the future of humanity, so he may have some generalised feeling for our species.
但即便是在富人的世界里，亿万富翁也属凤毛麟角。那么，更“普通的”富人呢，比如那些备受诟病的1%？But even in the world of the rich, multi-billionaires are rare. So what about more “everyday” rich people, like the much maligned 1 per cent?
如果你属于这个群体，金钱确实能将你与社会中其他（通常是比较穷的那些）群体隔离开来。如果你碰不到他们，就更容易一概而论地说出“穷人都是懒蛋”这样的评语。If you belong to this group, money does allow you to isolate yourself from other (usually poorer) groups in society. When you don’t meet people, it is easier to make sweeping generalisations such as “the poor are all lazy”.
还有其他因素在起作用。金钱使你不那么依赖别人，让你认为自己是独立的。你会说：“我的成功是靠自身努力获得的，我谁也不需要。”以照看孩子为例。穷人很可能依靠一个由邻居、家人及朋友组成的关系网来帮衬；有钱人则会雇个保姆。此外也可能存在“邻近效应”——有些人认为没那么富的人给的小费更多，因为他们会移情（“我曾经也是个服务员”），虽然这并无定论。There are other factors at work too. Money makes you less reliant on others and allows you to see yourself as independent. It lets you say: “I got where I am through my own hard work. I don’t need anyone else.” Take childcare as an example. The poorer person is likely to have a network of neighbours, family and friends who pick up the slack; the rich person hires a nanny. There may also be a proximity effect at work — some think the less wealthy tip servers better because they empathise (“I used to be that waitress”) although this is far from conclusive.
不过，可以肯定的是，有没有同情心，关键在于能不能设身处地为他人着想。What must surely be correct, though, is that the key to empathising is the ability to put yourself in others’ shoes.
不足为奇的是，在这方面都市生活也许是有益处的。哈佛大学(Harvard University)经济学教授爱德华•格莱泽(Edard Glaeser)提出“邻近能培养同理心”。如果你生活在一个混杂的城区，即便你非常富有，也更有可能了解并因此同情那些不如你富的人。城市也造就了富人和穷人做同样事情的场合（比如搭乘公共交通）。Unsurprisingly, city living may be good for you here. Edward Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, has suggested that “proximity breeds empathy”. If you live in a mixed urban neighbourhood, even as a very rich person, you are more likely to know and therefore empathise with those less wealthy than you. Cities also create situations where rich and poor do the same things (such as taking public transport).
研究还表明，同理心能够以正规的方式被教授。有项研究叫做“这么多人在挣扎：通过模拟贫困培养社会同理心”，其中的意思不言而喻。这显然是有效的。Research also suggests you can be formally taught empathy. One self-explanatory study was called, “So many people are struggling: developing social empathy through a poverty simulation”. Apparently it worked.
然而，要想真正具有同情心，你必须与你所在的社会经济圈子以外的人真实地相处一些时间。这相当困难，因为富人往往缺少时间，并习惯于用钱解决问题。但没办法——如果你不希望自己像一个自私的富人，最好的方法就是别像一个自私的富人。没人说这很容易。To become truly empathetic though, you have to spend real time with people outside your socio-economic bubble. This is rather harder as wealthy people tend to be time poor and are used to buying their way out of problems. But there you are — the best way not to be like a selfish rich person is not to be like a selfish rich person. Nobody said it was going to be easy.
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