“威胁”之下的社会文明(双语有声)

作者：amber_cy 来源：沪江论坛 2011-07-20 07:00

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Threats Drive Cultural Norms

“威胁”之下的社会文明

Do you come from a country that has, let’s say, a history of environmental disasters or conquests? Then your culture is probably “tight”—it has strong social norms and doesn’t tolerate much deviance from those norms. And your society is probably autocratic with few political and civil liberties. Or, a happier history probably led to your culture being “loose,” with more rights and openness. So says a study in the journal Science. [Michele Gelfand et al, Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study]

你的国家是否有过一段生态灾害或者被侵略的历史？那么你所接受的的文明很可能就是一种“绷紧”的文明——有力的社会准则，不能容忍许多脱离准则的行为。而你所处的社会也可能是少数政党专制的社会，不能享受许多公民权利。或者稍微“欢乐”一点的历史又会让它的文明变得“宽松”且更加开放，公民也能享受更多的权利。这项研究发表在《科学》期刊上。[Michele Gelfand et al, Differences Between Tight and Loose Cultures: A 33-Nation Study]

Researchers surveyed almost 7,000 people in 33 countries. They asked respondents to scale the truth of statements such, “In this country, if someone acts in an inappropriate way, others will strongly disapprove.” Participants also rated the acceptability of activities such as kissing in public.

研究人员对33个国家近7千人进行调查。他们要求调查对象对一些言论的真实度进行评估，比如说“你所处的国家中，如果有人行为不当，其他人会强烈反对。”受试者同时也需为一些行为比如说公众场合接吻的可接受度做出评判。

Then the researchers correlated those answers with current and historical data about ecological and societal threats, population density, even the prevalence of diseases. They found that the more stresses a society has faced—whether ecological or human-made—the more likely that culture is to be a tight one.

接着，研究人员将这些答案与现下和历史上的生态社会威胁、人口密度，甚至是流行疾病的数据结合分析，发现一个社会所面对的压力越大，不管是天灾还是人祸，这个社会所形成的文化越为“绷紧”。

The scientists say that its threat history could explain why a given culture finds others to be alien or immoral. And that appreciating the roots of cultural differences could improve international communication.

科学家们表示这种受到威胁的历史可以解释为什么一种已知的文明会认定其他文明为异文明，邪恶的文明。所以，学会欣赏文化根源的差异才能更好的促进各种族的文化交流。

—Cynthia Graber