Moral outrage is a very powerful emotion that motivates us to shame and punish people who have broken some social rule,
道德愤怒是一种很强大的力量 指引着我们去羞辱和惩罚那些破坏社会规则的人
who have harmed us or someone we care about in some way.
他们要么伤害了我们 要么是伤害了我们在乎的人
And there are many benefits of moral outrage, but there are also many costs.
道德愤怒能带来很多好处 但也会付出巨大代价
So the benefits can fall into two broad categories.
好处大致能分为两类
The first category of benefit is social benefits.
第一类就是给社会带来的好处
So when we express outrage about some kind of wrongdoing, that teaches others that that kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated,
当我们对某种错误行为表达出愤怒时 就会让别人明白他们的恶行并不会被容忍接受

and it can motivate other people to behave morally so that they can avoid getting shamed or punished for breaking the rules.
从而使他们的行为符合道德规范 避免因为破坏规则而被羞辱或惩罚
The other kind of benefit that moral outrage brings out is personal.
另一种好处就是给个人带来的好处
Moral outrage broadcasts to the rest of your social group that you are the kind of person who is not likely to break the rules.
你的道德愤怒会在自己的朋友圈中得以传播 让别人知道你不是会轻易破会社会规则的人
So these two benefits of expressing outrage have to be balanced against the costs of outrage.
但道德愤怒的这两大好处被其代价给抵消了
So expressing outrage carries some risks, particularly in the day to day world.
表达愤怒会引发一些风险 尤其是在日常生活中
If you approach a stranger on the street—let’s say for littering—there’s a chance they might retaliate against you.
如果你对街边的一个陌生人发火——比如说他在乱扔垃圾——那么他有可能会反驳你
There’s a chance that they could physically aggress against you.
他们可能会对你拳脚相向
We saw a really tragic case of the huge possible costs of expressing moral norms and trying to regulate bad behavior earlier this year in Portland when a couple of people,
今年早些时候在波特兰 一群非常勇敢的人试图控制那些在通勤列车上发表种族主义言论的人 他们为此付出了生命代价
really brave people lost their lives for trying to rein in someone who was expressing racist comments on a commuter train in Portland.
这就是说出道德规范并试图管制恶行潜在的巨大代价 真是个悲剧
So it can be risky to express outrage.
所以表达你的道德愤怒是有风险的
It can be uncomfortable, stressful; telling somebody to their face that they’ve done something wrong is just awkward sometimes.
它可能会让你身体不适 压力剧增；当着某人的面指出他们的不当行为总是令人尴尬
So when we are expressing outrage we really have to weigh these costs against the benefits.
所以我们在表达道德愤怒时 真的应该权衡利弊
And evolution has equipped us with a really fine-tuned calculus for making these kinds of decisions in interpersonal and face to face interactions.
进化让我们在人与人之间和面对面交流时做出这种决定方面具备了很有规则的计算方法
If moral outrage is a fire, the internet is like gasoline.
如果愤怒是火 那么网络就是油
So when we think about the costs, of benefits of expressing outrage, what social media does is it turns down all the costs and dials up the benefits.
如果我们想想想表达愤怒的利弊 那么网络的角色就是缩小它的代价 放大它的好
So expressing outrage on social media is way easier than expressing it offline.
所以在社交媒体上表达愤怒要比在现实生活中容易得多
It’s less costly. You can do it with the click of a button.
还不用付出那么大的代价 你只需按一下键就可以了
You can join a large crowd, so hiding amongst a lot of other people really takes down the riskiness of expressing outrage towards a person who has broken some norm.
你可以加入一个群体 混迹在一大群对破坏规则的人表达愤怒的风险视而不见的人里面
And, of course, it dials up the benefits.
当然 这也会放大好处
You’re getting social feedback, likes from your friends, retweets, shares.
你能得到社会回应 你的朋友们会点赞 转发 分享
And the audience, of course, is so much bigger on social media than it is offline.
至于观众 当然是比在现实生活中要多得多
So the reputational benefits of expressing outrage are massively bigger when you take it online.
所以你在网上表达愤怒所带来的声誉好处被放大了一千倍
So moral outrage is really interesting because of its reputational benefits.
这种声誉好处让道德愤怒变得极为有趣
And it can be contrasted with cyber bullying for example.
这可以与网络霸凌形成对比
Both are aggressive kinds of behaviors, but the one expresses that you are a morally good person, and the other has rather the opposite effect.
两种都是咄咄逼人的行为 只不过一种说明了你是有道德的人 另一种恰恰相反
So research on cyber bullying seems to suggest that anonymity that’s often found online increases cyber-bullying.
针对网络霸凌的研究表明 网上经常出现的匿名之徒会加剧网络霸凌
There are fewer studies on this, but it seems like the opposite occurs in the case of moral outrage expression online.
关于道德愤怒的研究相对少一些 但似乎表明人们在没有匿名时反而会表达更多道德愤怒
So there’s one recent study that looked at expressions of outrage in an online political forum in Germany.
德国最近对一个网上的政治论坛进行了表达愤怒的研究
And in this study they looked at the effects—of being anonymous versus identified—on how aggressive the language was in these posts that had to do with social policies.
在研究中 他们看了一下匿名和透露身份对人们在社会政策方面的不满言论的攻击性有何影响
And they actually found that people were expressing more outrage about these moral political issues when they were not anonymous.
最终发现 人们在没有匿名时 会对社会政策表达出更多的愤怒
So that seems to contrast with what is typically seen for cyber bullying.
这与网络霸凌的常态截然相反