(单词翻译:单击)
Kindness Can Have Unexpectedly Positive Consequences
善举可以带来意想不到的正面结果
People who engage in random acts of kindness may not fully recognize the impact of their behavior on others.
随机行善的人可能无法完全认识到他们的行为对他人的影响。
Scientists who study happiness know that being kind to others can improve well-being. Acts as simple as buying a cup of coffee for someone can boost a person's mood, for example. Everyday life affords many opportunities for such actions, yet people do not always take advantage of them.
研究幸福的科学家们知道，善待他人可以提高幸福感。举个例子，和为某人买杯咖啡一样简单的行为就能让人心情好起来。日常生活中有很多这样的机会，但人们并不总是利用它们。
In a set of studies published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Nick Epley, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and I examined a possible explanation. We found that people who perform random acts of kindness do not always realize how much of an impact they are having on another individual. People consistently and systematically underestimate how others value these acts.
在《实验心理学杂志：总论》在线发表的一系列研究中，我和芝加哥大学布斯商学院的行为科学家尼克·埃普利研究了一种可能的解释。我们发现，那些随机做善事的人并不总是意识到他们对另一个人有多大的影响。人们一贯地、系统地低估了别人对这些行为的评价。
Across multiple experiments involving approximately 1,000 participants, people performed a random act of kindness--that is, an action done with the primary intention of making someone else (who isn't expecting the gesture) feel good. Those who perform such actions expect nothing in return.
在涉及大约1000名参与者的多个实验中，人们做了一个随机的善举----也就是说，一个行为的主要目的是让其他人（这些人并不期待这种善举）感觉良好。做这种事的人不求任何回报。
From one procedure to the next, the specific acts of kindness varied. For instance, in one experiment, people wrote notes to friends and family "just because." In another, they gave cupcakes away. Across these experiments, we asked both the person performing a kind act and the one receiving it to fill out questionnaires. We asked the person who had acted with kindness to report their own experience and predict their recipient's response. We wanted to understand how valuable people perceived these acts to be, so both the performer and recipient had to rate how "big" the act seemed. In some cases, we also inquired about the actual or perceived cost in time, money or effort. In all cases, we compared the performer's expectations of the recipient's mood with the recipient's actual experience.
从一个程序到下一个程序，具体的善举各不相同。例如，在一项实验中，人们给朋友和家人写了"没什么原因，就是爱你"这样一个便条。在另一项实验中，他们赠送纸杯蛋糕。在这些实验中，我们要求做出善举的人和接受善举的人填写问卷。我们请表现做出善举的人报告自己的经历，并预测接受者的反应。我们想了解人们如何看待这些行为，因此做出善举的人和其接受者都必须评价这些行为看起来有多"大"。在某些情况下，我们还询问了时间、金钱或精力方面的实际成本或感知预计成本。在所有情况下，我们都将做出善举的人对接受者情绪的期望与接受者的实际体验进行了比较。
Across our investigations, several robust patterns emerged. For one, both performers and recipients of the acts of kindness were in more positive moods than normal after these exchanges. For another, it was clear that performers undervalued their impact: recipients felt significantly better than the kind actors expected. The recipients also reliably rated these acts as "bigger" than the people performing them did.
在我们的调查中，出现了几种稳健的模式。一种模式是，在这些善举交互之后，行善的人和其接受者的情绪都比平时更积极高昂。另一个模式是，很明显，行善者低估了他们的影响：接受者感觉比行善的人预期的要好得多。接受者还坚定地声称这些善举远比行善者所想的还要"大"。
We initially studied acts of kindness done for familiar people, such as friends, classmates or family. But we found that participants underestimated their positive impact on strangers as well. In one experiment, participants at an ice-skating rink in a public park gave away hot chocolate on a cold winter's day. Again the experience was more positive than the givers anticipated for the recipients, who were people that just happened to be nearby. While the people giving the hot chocolate saw the act as relatively inconsequential, it really mattered to the recipients.
我们最初研究了对朋友、同学或家人等熟悉的人所做的善举。但我们发现参与者也低估了他们对陌生人的积极影响。在一项实验中，参与者在一个寒冷的冬日在公园的溜冰场赠送热巧克力。再一次，这种体验比给予者对接受者的预期更加积极，这些接受者是恰好在附近的人。虽然赠送热巧克力的人认为这种行为相对无关紧要，但对接受者来说却很重要。
Our research also revealed one reason that people may underestimate their action's impact. When we asked one set of participants to estimate how much someone would like getting a cupcake simply for participating in a study, for example, their predictions were well-calibrated with recipient reactions. But when people received cupcakes through a random act of kindness, the cupcake givers underestimated how positive their recipients would feel. Recipients of these unexpected actions tend to focus more on warmth than performers do.
我们的研究还揭示了人们可能低估其行为影响的一个原因。例如，当我们要求一组参与者估计某人仅仅因为参与一项研究而想要得到一个纸杯蛋糕时，他们的预测与接受者的反应是较为准确的。但是当人们通过随机的善举收到纸杯蛋糕时，送纸杯蛋糕的人低估了接受者的积极感受。这些意料之外的善行的接受者往往比行善者更关注温暖。
