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身体接触能触发慷慨之情
A touch of generosity
Aug 14th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Touch can inspire munificence towards those you trust
PEOPLE touch each other a lot, even strangers. We shake hands, slap backs, kiss and caress. Such behaviour can increase co-operation, which is good from an evolutionary point of view. It has even been shown that waitresses who touch patrons tend to be tipped more generously.
It is known that stroking rats can raise the level of oxytocin, a hormone active in the brain and implicated in various social interactions, such as maternal attachment. In humans higher oxytocin levels have been linked to physiological phenomena like contractions during childbirth, or orgasm. But the link to physical contact is so far unclear. Interestingly, the level of hormone appears to rise in people who are trusted. And more of it seems to inspire greater generosity towards strangers.
This prompted Vera Morhenn of the University of California, San Diego, and her colleagues, to examine the physiological mechanism underlying this and to see whether munificence towards strangers could be manipulated through touch. In their experiment, published in Evolution and Human Behavior, they split 96 male and female graduate students into three groups. The first and second received a professional massage but the third did not. Then the first and third group took part in a “trust game”.
Participants were paired at random and seated in front of a computer, physically removed from their anonymous partner. Each also got $10 in cash, supposedly for showing up. The rules stipulated that for each pair, one person, the giver, could cede a part of their money to the other, the trustee. This amount would then be tripled and credited to the trustee, who was subsequently prompted by the computer to sacrifice a part of his stash by returning some to the giver.
Standard game theory predicts that in an anonymous one-off exchange like this the trustee ought to keep the gift and not reciprocate. The giver, too, ought to refrain from donating, since his sacrifice is bound to remain unrequited. Yet that is not what tends to happen with real people. Givers often give and trustees frequently return the favour. (Studies of identical and non-identical twins suggest that co-operative behaviour in trust games is heritable.) In effect, the giver’s donation reflects his confidence in the trustee’s willingness to reciprocate. In other words, it signals trust.
To test the physiology, Dr Morhenn took blood samples at the start and end of each game and looked for changes in oxytocin levels. She found no effect in the massaged group who did not participate in the game, implying that trust does indeed act as some sort of trigger. But in the players the hormone rose in those who were massaged and fell slightly in those who were not.
Despite receiving statistically identical trust signals from givers, the massaged trustees with their higher oxytocin levels returned a whopping 243% more than their unrubbed counterparts. A clue to why evolution might favour such a double-trigger mechanism may come from the other finding that women appear more susceptible than men to tactile manipulation. Perhaps that is to ensure maternal care of their own brood. If so, such effects seem to extend beyond the mother’s bosom. 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 A touch of generosity
Aug 14th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Touch can inspire munificence towards those you trust.
对于你信任的人，身体接触能激发他们的慷慨之情。
PEOPLE touch each other a lot, even strangers. We shake hands, slap backs, kiss and caress. Such behaviour can increase co-operation, which is good from an evolutionary point of view. It has even been shown that waitresses who touch patrons tend to be tipped more generously.
人们经常互相接触，甚至对于陌生人也如此。我们握手、击掌、亲吻、拥抱。这些行为能够增进合作，从进化的观点来看，这些接触是有益的。人们甚至发现，女服务员与顾客的接触会让他们获得更多小费。
It is known that stroking rats can raise the level of oxytocin, a hormone active in the brain and implicated in various social interactions, such as maternal attachment. In humans higher oxytocin levels have been linked to physiological phenomena like contractions during childbirth, or orgasm. But the link to physical contact is so far unclear. Interestingly, the level of hormone appears to rise in people who are trusted. And more of it seems to inspire greater generosity towards strangers.
人们已经知道，通过对小鼠的抚摸能增高其体内催产素的水平，催产素是一种在大脑内具有生物活性的激素，并能在社会活动中产生作用，比如对母亲的依恋。在人类，高的催产素水平与一些生理现象有关，比如分娩时的子宫收缩和性高潮时。但催产素产生与身体接触的联系机制目前还不清楚。有趣的是，在被信任的人身上，激素水平要相对较高，更高的激素水平看起来会使人们在对待陌生人时更加慷慨。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-06-21 05:11
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