Machiavelli was quite wrong about power. It isn’t something nasty that you get by being as devious as possible. Being feared is not better than being loved. And people aren’t, in general, fickle, hypocritical and greedy of gain.

马基雅弗利(Machiavelli)对权力的看法可谓大错特错。权力并不是靠不择手段取得的某种肮脏的东西。受惧怕并不比受爱戴好。而一般来说，人们也并不善变、虚伪、贪得无厌。

According to Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, power is something benign, a force for good, given willingly by decent humans to each other. He has reached this most soothing of conclusions after two decades spent studying power in the lab, the office and the dorm. He has looked at how people get it — and what happens when they have it.

美国加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)的心理学教授达谢•凯尔特纳(Dacher Keltner)认为，权力是善良的，是一种正义的力量，是正直的人们自愿赋予彼此的。他在实验室、办公室以及学生宿舍开展了20年的权力研究，得出了这个最令人欣慰的结论。他观察人们如何获得权力——以及他们得到权力后会如何。

Keltner starts by defining power in the usual way — as the ability to alter the states of others — but then interprets it more broadly as the underpinning of every relationship. People get power, he thinks, not by force, but by winning the approval of others. They do that not by frightening them, but by acting in accordance with the greater good.

凯尔特纳首先对权力采用通常定义——改变他人状态的能力——但接着给出了更广泛的解释，认为它是所有人际关系的基础。他认为，人们不是凭借武力获取权力，而是通过赢得他人的认可。而他们赢得认可，不是通过威吓，而是通过遵从大众的福祉行事。

To prove this he has infiltrated a Vanderbilt sorority, a Wisconsin fraternity, Berkeley dorms and a summer baseball camp and watched how teenagers acquire power. In every case the results were the same — it was the students who were enthusiastic, kind, focused, calm and open who rose to the top and stayed there.

为证明此观点，凯尔特纳分别到范德比尔特大学(Vanderbilt)的一个女生社团、威斯康辛大学(Wisconsin)的一个男生联谊会、伯克利大学(Berkeley)的学生宿舍以及一个棒球夏令营去观察青少年们如何获得权力。无论哪种情况，结果都一样——成为领导者并且保持领导地位的总是那些热情、善良、专注、冷静又坦诚的学生。

Keltner argues that there is nothing terribly original about nice guys finishing first — they always did. Man is predisposed to eat large animals, and, as it is hard to catch and eat these alone, it is natural to reward those who, being brave and generous, catch the food and share it around. Netsilik Eskimos have made such a cult of competitive altruism that the more food they give away, the higher their status.

凯尔特纳认为，好人受拥护并不足为奇——他们一贯如此。人类倾向于捕食大型动物，而这凭一己之力很难实现，人们很自然会嘉奖那些勇敢慷慨、能将捕获的食物分享给他人的人。奈特西里克爱斯基摩人(Netsilik Eskimos)向来崇尚竞争性利他主义，即奉献食物越多，地位越高。

It’s all very nice. But it is at odds not just with what Machiavelli has taught us, but with history, fiction and the world as commonly observed.

凯尔特纳的观点很不错。但它不仅与马基雅弗利的理论相左，也和历史、文学作品及公众所认知的世界大相径庭。

What about Donald Trump? What about Lord of the Flies? Keltner offers no view on the first and how he came to acquire power despite remarkable disregard for the greater good. On Lord of the Flies, he merely asserts that the way the evil Jack grabs power from Ralph is not in accordance with his experiments.

唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)该怎么讲？《蝇王》(Lord of the Flies)又该怎么讲？对特朗普本人及他何以全然无视大众福祉却获得了权力，凯尔特纳未置一词。至于《蝇王》，凯尔特纳只是说邪恶的杰克(Jack)从拉尔夫(Ralph)手中夺得权力的手段不符合他的实验。

But neither are my real-life tales from the classroom or dorm. In every school and university I’ve ever heard of, power is occasionally given to those wedded to the greatest good, but more often to the ones with the latest jeans, who have taken most drugs or who are the best at netball. The smartest, the coolest, the best-looking float to the top.

而我在课堂和学生宿舍的亲身经历也与他的实验相悖。在我听说的每一所学院和大学，那些秉承上善之道的人偶尔也会被授予权力，但更多时候，还是由那些身穿新潮牛仔裤的瘾君子或篮球高手掌握权力。最精、最酷、最好看的那些人总能平步青云。

Not only has Keltner evidently been hanging out in nicer universities than me, but in nicer offices too. At work he says the good guys automatically rise, and the bad fall. If you are a good egg, you will have the reputation of being one, and therefore get more resources. If you are horrid, no one will want to work with you, they will savage your reputation with gossip and you’ll get nowhere.

显而易见，不仅凯尔特纳待的大学比我的更友善，他待的办公室也比我的更友善。他说在工作中好人会自动高升，而坏人则会一败涂地。如果你心眼好，你的口碑也会不错，因此你将获得更多的资源。如果你令人讨厌，就没人愿与你共事，你的风评也会不佳，最终你将无处容身。

In Keltner’s world, even investment bankers who aren’t good colleagues quickly acquire bad reputations and lose whatever power they had. Yet in my experience, successful bankers are very good at dissembling and behaving in different ways to different audiences. They may convince their bosses that they are forces for good, while being anything but. Those who make the most money get rewarded, the greater good be damned.

在凯尔特纳的世界里，就连投资银行家都会因为不是好同事而迅速招致恶名，最终权力尽丧。而以我的个人经验，成功的投资银行家都精于见人说人话，见鬼说鬼话。他们也许会令老板相信，他们是正义的力量，即便并非如此。那些最能挣钱的得到奖励，上善之道则被摒弃。

Indeed, not only in investment banks but in all workplaces, the research suggests that the people we reward with our trust are not only the nice guys. They are those with regular features, who are taller and with deeper voices.

事实上，研究显示，不仅在投行，在所有工作场合，除了那些好人，我们还信任一些人，他们有一些基本的特征——个儿高，且嗓音低沉。

The second half of The Power Paradox deals more convincingly — though less controversially — with what power does to us. It turns out that power corrupts. We get power by being good but having power makes us bad, hence the book’s title.

《权力的悖论》(The Power Paradox)后半部分论述权力对人的影响，颇具说服力，争议较少。事实证明，权力使人腐化。人们通过当好人获得权力，但拥有权力却使人们变坏。本书书名即由此而来。

In a series of amusing experiments, the author shows how the feeling of power makes us inclined to take the last biscuit, to eat with our mouths open, to drive aggressively and to disregard others, and even to take sweets from children. This is right but scarcely news.

作者通过一系列有趣的实验表明，权力感使我们想要抢最后一块饼干、大张贪婪之口、开车横冲直撞、且目中无人，甚至对孩子的糖果下手。这种观点没错但并不新鲜。

Yet there is, according to the ever upbeat Keltner, hope for even the most power-crazed. All they need to do is remind themselves of how awful it is to be powerless, and of the dangers of power, and that will act as a corrective influence. Again, this is a nice thought. I fear it will be about as successful as telling children who won’t eat their broccoli that they must think of the starving millions.

但据永葆乐观的凯尔特纳所言，即便是最狂热的权力追逐者也仍有希望。他们只需提醒自己没有权力是多么可怕，再提醒自己权力多么危险，就可以得到纠正。这又是一个不错的想法。我担心它的效果就好比让不爱吃西兰花的孩子去想想数百万的饥民一样。

The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, by Dacher Keltner,Allen Lane ￡16.99/Penguin Press $26, 240 pages

《权力的悖论：我们如何获得和失去权力》(The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence)，达谢•凯尔特纳著，艾伦莱恩出版社(Allen Lane)，售价16.99英镑/企鹅出版社(Penguin Press)，售价26美元，240页