Animal and human behavior 动物与人类行为

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Animal and human behavior 动物与人类行为

Dogs improve office productivity 狗提高办公室的工作效率

Aug 12th 2010

OK. Here’s the plan

THERE are plenty of studies which show that dogs act as social catalysts, helping their owners forge intimate, long-term relationships with other people. But does that apply in the workplace? Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right. They wondered in particular if the mere presence of a canine in the office might make people collaborate more effectively. And, as they told a meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 2nd, they found that it could.

很多研究表明：狗充当社会润滑剂，有助于它们主人同他人建立长期密切的关系。但是这能应用于职场吗？芒特普林森的中密歇根大学的Christopher Honts与同事们已惊讶地发现：这问题几乎没有人涉足，进而决定尝鲜。他们特别想知道：是否在办公室仅有狗类的存在可能使人们合作更有效？他们已于8月2日在威斯康辛的麦迪逊市召开的国际人类行为学协会大会上宣布这是可能的。

To reach this conclusion, they carried out two experiments. In the first, they brought together 12 groups of four individuals and told each group to come up with a 15-second advertisement for a made-up product. Everyone was asked to contribute ideas for the ad, but ultimately the group had to decide on only one. Anyone familiar with the modern “collaborative” office environment will know that that is a challenge.

为得出这样的结论，他们进行了2次试验。首先他们组建了12个4人小组，要求每个小组设计出一个15秒的化妆品广告。每个试验对象必须为广告出谋划策。但最终每个小组只能采用一个构思。任何熟悉办公室现代合作环境的人都意识到这是一大挑战。

Some of the groups had a dog underfoot throughout, while the others had none. After the task, all the volunteers had to answer a questionnaire on how they felt about working with the other—human—members of the team. Mr Honts found that those（ who had had a dog to slobber and pounce on them） ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy than those who had not. 注pounce on sth 2

pounce on sth (ACCEPT) phrasal verb

to accept something quickly and with enthusiasm:

I think if she were given the opportunity to work here, she'd pounce on it.

一些小组有一只不断晃悠的狗，其他小组则没有。任务完成后，所有的自愿者都必须参加一个关于团队合作感受的问卷调查。Honts先生发现：那些（人狗关系互动甚好的）小组在信任的角度上更加重视与队友的合作，其凝聚力与融洽关系胜于那些没有狗的小组。

In the other experiment, which used 13 groups, the researchers explored how the presence of an animal altered players’ behaviour in a game known as the prisoner’s dilemma. In the version of this game played by the volunteers, all four members of each group had been “charged” with a crime. Individually, they could choose (without being able to talk to the others) either to snitch on their team-mates or to stand by them. Each individual’s decision affected the outcomes for the other three as well as for himself in a way that was explained in advance. The lightest putative sentence would be given to someone who chose to snitch while the other three did not; the heaviest penalty would be borne by a lone non-snitch. The second-best outcome came when all four decided not to snitch. And so on.

在另一个13个小组参与的试验中，研究人员探索在一个名为“囚徒困境”游戏中，动物的存在是如何改变玩家的行为的。这个版本的游戏由自愿者亲自参加，每组4名成员均被“指控犯罪”。就个体而言，他们（不能与他人交谈）可以选择告发队友，或与守口如瓶。游戏开始前，大家均被告知：每一个人决定将影响另外3名队友的“命运”同时也影响他自己的结果。其他三人都守口如瓶而一人告密的一组会被处以众人认可的最轻惩罚；只有一人守口如瓶而其他三人均告密的一组会被处以最重惩罚；第二名的则是四名组员都决定不告密的那组。以此类推。

Having a dog around made volunteers 30% less likely to snitch than those who played without one. The moral, then: more dogs in offices and fewer in police stations.

狗在身边晃悠使自愿者告发率比没有狗存在的小组低30%。进而得到一个原则：让更多的狗存在于办公室，而在警察局，狗还是越少为妙！