我們為什麼好勝心這麼強
作為家長，別人家的孩子表現好，你就著急。
工作時候，周圍人提拔比你快，你又著急。
學習的時候，你不怕第一名領先你100分，就怕原先排你後面的超過了你。
這，究竟是為啥？
Why We Compete
作者 MATTHEW HUTSON | 編者 Hugo TANG
OCTOBER 2015 ISSUE 總字數 502 words 估計閱讀時間 3 min
英文全文 + 中文翻譯
向上滑動閱覽全文
It』s said that when chased by a bear, you don』t need to outrun the bear; you just need to outrun your friend. Similarly, to win a championship, a promotion, or a date, you need only to beat the immediate competition, whether a team, a colleague, or a fellow suitor.
有一種說法是，你不需要超過熊，只要跑過你的朋友就好。同樣的獲得冠軍，晉陞或者約到對象，我們只需要打敗直接競爭對手。
No wonder we constantly measure ourselves against our peers. In a survey of faculty, students, and staff at the Harvard School of Public Health, nearly half of the respondents said they』d prefer to live in a world where the average salary was $25,000 and they earned $50,000 than one where they earned $100,000 but the average was $200,000. Similarly, a majority favored relative over absolute advantage when it came to their own intelligence and attractiveness, their child』s intelligence and attractiveness, or praise from a superior. Apparently the survey respondents would rather the planet be filled with stupid, ugly children than have their own child left behind [1].
難怪我們老是和同伴比較。一個來自哈佛公共健康學院的調查顯示，將近1半的調查者願意選擇5萬的收入，當平均是2.5 萬，而不是，自己輸入10萬，平均是20萬的情況。同樣的，大多數的人喜歡相對的聰明，相對的漂亮，而不是絕對的。 包括對於自己孩子的期許。相對好就好。
H. L. Mencken was on to something when he defined wealth as 「any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one』s wife』s sister』s husband.」 According to one analysis of labor statistics, sisterly competition may have contributed to rising female employment after World War II. Among grown sisters not in the workforce, a woman was more likely to get a job if her brother-in-law outearned her husband [2].
根據勞工部的數據，女性之間的競爭促進了2戰後的女性就業。當看到自己的姐夫或者妹夫的收入超過自己的另一半的時候，女性更有可能選擇就業。
People also suffer from a phenomenon known as 「last-place aversion.」 Although players in an economics game tended to give money to those with fewer assets, this tendency waned when a player was ranked second-to-last. The researchers who ran the game also found that in real life, people making just above the minimum wage were among the least supportive of a minimum-wage hike [3].
人們還有「末位報復」的問題。比如人們一般都贊同要提高最低工資，但是對於這個提議熱忱度最低的是那些工資比最低工資稍微高一些的。
And yet, competitive though we clearly are, we underestimate the influence of social comparison. In one study, call-center employees said that achieving mastery at their job was more important than achieving superiority (ranking better than peers). But in reality, relative rankings affected their self-evaluations, and mastery did not [4].
但我們可能還是低估了比較帶來的影響。在一個研究里，人們發現外呼中心裡，人們雖然口頭覺得最的好才是最重要的，但是事實人們在乎的是做的比周圍人好。
Our desire for relative advantages is not irrational: Such advantages may make us happier. In 1974, Richard Easterlin, an economist, found that although a country』s richer citizens are happier than its poorer ones, as countries become richer, their citizens do not become happier—a contradiction known as the Easterlin paradox. Happiness, Easterlin reasoned, must depend on one』s wealth relative to one』s compatriots: When everyone gets richer, no one gets happier [5]. A study of 12,000 British citizens would seem to support Easterlin』s conclusion, revealing that increased income boosted life satisfaction only when income rose relative to peers of a similar age, educational level, or region [6].
當然人們對於相對好的追求不是沒道理的：這樣可以給我們幸福感。研究顯示，幸福感的重要來源是過的比周圍人好。
And so it goes. We decry the goal of keeping up with the Joneses, even as we struggle ferociously to keep one step ahead of them. Perhaps this is with good reason. If we don』t, our rivals will win all the glory, and we』ll become bear food.
因此，我們不屑和周圍人比，及時我們瘋狂的想比周圍人好。 也許這也是一種生存之道，畢竟，如果你跑慢了，你可能就成了熊的晚餐。
LAB 出品
語言：
keep up with the Joneses：try to emulate or not be outdone by one"s neighbors.
hike n. 大幅度上升
no wonder 的使用：No wonder we constantly measure ourselves against our peers.
金句
Similarly, a majority favored relative over absolute advantage when it came to their own intelligence and attractiveness, their child』s intelligence and attractiveness, or praise from a superior.
Bonus 任務
翻譯以下句子：
H. L. Mencken was on to something when he defined wealth as 「any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one』s wife』s sister』s husband.」
·END·
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