还剩2页未读,继续阅读
文本内容:
练习双语科学家发现猴子也会〃理财〃:研究人员做了一个实验,发现猴子像人一样,也会〃理财〃,也许,这个〃猴子经济学〃反映出一个现象,即天性中的一些怪异特质不会随着进化而消退On aisland offthe coastof PuertoRico,a fascinatingsimian experimenthas takenplace.The resultscould giveus adeeper understandingof behaviouraleconomics,the psychologyof riskand mayexplain whyour economiessuffer fromperiodic financialcrises.在波多黎各海岸的一个岛上,有人做了一次有意思的猴类实验实验结果可以加深人们对行为经济学和风险心理学的了解,同时,它可能也解释了为什么人类的经济会遭遇周期性的金融危机It involvedsix Capuchinmonkeys namedafter JamesBond characters.这项实验用了6只卷尾猴,以007詹姆斯・邦德的角色命名Researchers trainedthe monkeysto exchangesmall metaltokens forfood.They wereput ina makeshifttiny marketwhere experimenterswould offerdifferent foodsat differentprices.研究人员以小型金属代币交换食物对这些猴子进行了训练,然后安排它们到一个临时的小市场进行实验,他们会提供标记不同价格的食物One ofthose tradingwith monkeyswas LaurieSantos,a professorof cognitivescience andpsychology atYale University.We coulduse thatset upto reallyask,do the monkeys payattention tothings likeprice-are theytrying tomaximise theirmonkey tokendollar sheexplains.劳丽・桑托斯是与猴子进行交易的人员之一,她是美国耶鲁大学的认知科学和心理学教授她解释说〃我们想利用这种设置来解开疑团,猴子们会关注价格之类的东西吗?它们会最大化利用手中的代币吗?〃“What wefound surprisingwas,with verylittle training,the monkeysshopped atexperimenters whogave themfood morecheaply.So ifthey gottwice asmuch foodfor onetoken withan experimenter,the monkeysshopped theremore often/她说〃我们发现,令人惊奇的是,猴子虽然受了很少的训练,但它们购物时总是到给它们的食物较便宜的研究人员那里因此,如果它们在某位研究人员处用一个代币能买到两倍多的食物,它们就会多光顾〃The monkeysalso displayedother human-like traitssuch asopportunism.They triedto grabany tokensthat wereleft lyingaround whilethe scientistswere notpaying attention.Primates engagingin somemonkey businessno doubt.Nevertheless,it alsoshowed that the monkeysconsidered thetokens asvaluable items.猴子还表现出其他类似人类的行为,例如机会主义它们尝试抓取科学家们留下来的一些无人看管的代币毋庸置疑,灵长类动物的行为常常都是胡闹的不过,实验也证明,猴子视那些代币为有价值的物品However,it isthe monkeysattitude torisk thatmight holdthe mostintriguing lessonsfor ushumans.然而,正是猴子对待风险的态度,可能为人类上了最有趣的一课The researchersintroduced anelement ofchoice intotheir experiment.They couldtrade withone oftwo people.One wouldgive themtwo piecesof food,grapes inthis case,for theirtoken,every timethey traded.It wasa no-lose,safe option.研究人员在他们的实验中引入了一种选择成分猴子可以和两人中的一个交易在其中一人那里,每次交易时,代币都可以换得两份食物,比如说葡萄这是一个没有损失的,安全的选择But the other gavethem eitherone grapeor threegrapes,in exchangefor theirtoken.The seconddeal carriedmore riskas halfthe timeit wasone grape,theotherhalf three.而在另一个人那里,猴子的代币有时可换得一份葡萄,有时是三份这第二种交易就风险更大,因为一份葡萄和三份葡萄的概率各占一半Translated intohuman terms,look atit likethis:You have a choice,you couldget aguaranteed$2000or havea50%chance ofgetting$1000and a50%chance of$
3000.把这个与人类的行为比对,看起来是这样的一种情况下,你能万无一失的得到2000块,另一种情况,你可能得到1000块或是3000块,概率分别是50%.To gambleor notto gamble-which optionwould youchoose要不要博一下——如果是你,你会怎样选择?Most peoplewill gofor thesafe option-they takethe$
2000.That isalso whatmonkeys do.大多数人都会做出最安全的选择一一拿走2000块猴子也是这样做的So farso good.Apes andmonkeys are,after all,our nearestanimal relatives.We sharea commonevolutionary history.However,once theexperiment wasadjusted sothatthe monkeys hadthe sameoptions butfrom adifferent startingpoint,something fascinatinghappened.毕竟,目前来看,猿和猴子是与人类关系最亲近的动物了我们有着共同的进化史然而,一旦这个实验做出调整,使开头不同,让猴子有着同样的购物选择,有趣的事就发生了Professor LaurieSantos explains〃So the monkeys comein andit lookslike bothexperimenters[are]kind ofholding three[grapes]so thismonkey brainis probablythinking zoh theresa chanceto getthree/One guy is safe,he doesthe samething everytime...themonkeytrades withthis guy[and]hes holdingthree buthe takesone away and gives the monkeystwo soits kindof a sure loss-a smallloss butasureone/says Santos.The secondguyisrisky-sometimes hegivesthemonkeys allthree butsometimes hetakes twoawayandonly givesthemonkeysone.”桑托斯教授解释说,〃猴子来了,它看到两个实验前都有三份葡萄,此时,这只猴子的大脑里很可能就在琢磨,’噢!我有机会得到三份葡萄,到其中一人那里去,很安全,他每次都做一样的事一一猴子与他交易,他拿走一份,剩余两份给了猴子,所以猴子必然是损失了一一小小的损失但确保了手中有吃的〃她又说,〃而到第二个人那里去是有风险的一一有时他把三份全给猴子,有时他拿走两份只给猴子一份〃Again,lets lookat thatanother way:You startwith$3000,now youhaveachoice.Either youtake aguaranteed lossof$1000leaving youwith only$2000or yougamble.If yougamble halfthe time,you willlose$2000leaving youwith just$1000but halfthe timeyou willnot loseanything.What wouldyou do再一次,让我们换个角度来看一开始那儿就有3000块,现在你面临一个选择拿走2000失去1000,还是去博一下得到全部?如果你赌一把,你有可能得到1000,失去了2000,也有可能3000全到手你会怎么办?Most peoplewill gambleand gofor theriskier choice.Surprisingly,so dothemonkeys.The thoughtof losingout isso painfulthat theywill riska biggerloss justfor achance ofno loss.大多数人都会赌一把,选择风险更高的让人吃惊的是,猴子居然也是这么做的损失的感受是如此痛苦,以至于他们会冒更大的风险用来止损When stocksand sharescrash orhouse pricescollapse,you mightexpect peopleto becomemore cautious.In fact,they takemore risks.People willhold ontostock thatis losingvalue,speculating theprice willrise again,because wecant bearthe thoughtof havingless thanwe havenow.This isloss aversion.当股票跳水或者房价暴跌时,你可能会认为人们会变得更加谨慎事实上,他们承担了更高的风险人们会认为股价会反弹起来的,从而购买正在缩水的股票,因为我们无法忍受我们将来拥有的比现在还少这就是〃损失规避〃。