分类标签如何影响人的个性和潜力—生肖对成就的影响 [美国媒体]

What is it that makesyou...you? How much of a person's personality and potential are based on theexpectations of others? NPR's Shankar Vedantam explores new research thatsuggests the labels we use to categorize people affect not just who they arenow, but who they'll become in the future.

什么让你成为你？一个人的个性和潜力多少取决于他人的期望？ NPR的Shankar Vedantam探索了一些新的研究，这些研究表明我们用来对人们进行分类的标签不仅影响他们的现在，还影响他们的未来。



ROBERTSIEGEL, HOST: We begin this next item withthe question, what is it that makes you you? A person's personality andpotential can be tricky things to pinpoint and measure. On today's MorningEdition, NPR's Shankar Vedantam looked at the world of personality testing andwhat these tests can and cannot tell us about ourselves. And now he exploresnew research that asks another question - can the ways we categorize peopleaffect not just who they are now, but who they'll become in the future?
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE:Our story begins in Anhui province in China in 1987. A young Chinese couple,Xiaoqi and Youngsheng, were ready to start a family. The timing was right. Itwas soon going to be 1988, a most significant year in the Chinese zodiac. After11 years of rats and roosters and snakes and sheep, it was finally going to bethe year of the dragon.

罗伯特·西格尔，主持人：
我们从这个问题开始下一个节目，什么让你成为你？确定和测量一个人的个性和潜力可能是棘手的事情。在今天的早间新闻，NPR的Vedantam介绍了人格测试方法，以及这些测试方法的准确性。而现在他又探索了新的研究，提出了另外一个问题 - 我们对人们的分类方式不仅影响到他们的现在，还影响他们未来的成就。
我们的故事始于1987年的中国安徽省。一对中国年轻夫妇晓琪和杨生准备组建一个家庭。时机是正确的。很快就要到1988年，这是中国十二生肖中最重要的一年。经过11年的老鼠，公鸡，蛇，羊，终于到了龙年。

VEDANTAM: According toChinese tradition, there's no better year for a child to be born. Dragon kidsare destined for greatness. When Xiaoqi and Youngsheng's son Han Yu arrived,they already had big plans for him. Xiaoqi, a doctor, wanted Han Yu to be even bettereducated than himself, ideally at a top-ranked university in the United States.Great things were expected from the little boy.
HAN YU: This idea is kind ofindoctrined (ph) in my mind. So when they - when people ask me what I want todo, I really think that I want to be a Ph.D. in the future. I want to be adoctor.

VEDANTAM：根据中国的传统，没有比这更好的生肖。属龙的孩子注定是伟大的。晓琪和杨生的儿子于涵出生了，他们已经有了很大的计划。晓琪，一个博士，希望于涵接受比他自己更好的教育，理想的情况是在美国排名靠前的大学。小男孩身上寄托了很大的期望。
于涵：这个想法在我脑海中是被灌输的。所以当他们 - 当人们问我想做什么时，我真的认为我想成为一名博士。在将来。我想成为一名博士。

VEDANTAM: When Han Yu was inmiddle school, his father came home one day bearing an armful of textbooks.
H. YU: And he just came backand put some books in my bookcase. And I asked him, hey, Dad, what did you buy?He told me that those are some textbooks for master degree students to practicetheir English. You know, at that time I was 13.
VEDANTAM: Han Yu finishedcollege and his master's degree in China and enrolled in an economics Ph.D.program at Louisiana State University. That's where he met a mentor, theeconomist Naci Mocan. When Han Yu told Mocan about life in China, they talkedabout the Chinese zodiac and the power of the year of the dragon. They startedthinking about whether it was better or worse to be born a dragon kid. Mocansays their hunch was that it was actually a disadvantage.

VEDANTAM：于涵中学的时候，父亲有一天带着一堆教科书回家。
于涵：他刚回来把书放在我的书柜里。我问他，嘿，爸爸，你买了什么？他告诉我这些是一些硕士学位的学生练习英语的教科书。你知道，那时我13岁。
VEDANTAM：于涵在中国完成了本科和硕士学位，并在路易斯安那州立大学获得了经济学博士学位。那就是他遇到他的博士导师，经济学家莫坎的地方。当于涵告诉莫坎他在中国的生活时，他们谈到了中国的十二生肖和龙年的力量。他们开始考虑属龙是好还是坏。莫坎说，他们的直觉是这实际上是不利的。

NACI MOCAN: If there is halfa million extra kids born in the year of the dragon, those kids will have morepeers in the classrooms. There would be fewer resources per child in theschools. The classrooms will be a little bit more crowded, et cetera. We wouldexpect worse educational outcomes rather than better.
VEDANTAM: They decided totest their hypothesis. The Chinese government has a trove of data about theacademic performance of middle schoolers, demographic surveys, interviews withparents and household income. The two researchers found to their surprise thatdragon kids did better than their peers.
MOCAN: They actually havehigher test scores in middle school.
VEDANTAM: These kids alsooutperform their classmates in high school.
MOCAN: Even at thesestandardized nationwide university entrance exams dragon kids score better.
VEDANTAM: At first, Han Yuand Mocan came up with a straightforward explanation - teachers who believed inthe zodiac were probably granting higher grades to dragon kids. Butcollege-level entrance exams are graded by a computer, not humans. The twoeconomists found that dragon kids didn't have higher self-confidence. Surveysfound that these students didn't think they were smarter than other kids. Infact, they weren't smarter. They scored the same on IQ tests. So what explainedtheir success?

莫坎：如果在龙年出生的孩子多了50万，那么这些孩子在课堂上会有更多的同龄人。学校每个孩子的资源会减少。教室会更拥挤一些，等等。我们预计教育成果会更糟，而不是更好。
VEDANTAM：他们决定测试他们的假设。中国政府拥有大量有关中小学生学业成绩的数据，人口调查，家长访谈和家庭收入的数据。两位研究人员惊奇地发现，龙年的孩子比同龄人做得好。
莫坎：他们中学的考试成绩确实比较高。
VEDANTAM：这些孩子在高中时也比同学好。
VEDANTAM：即使在高考中，龙年孩子的成绩也会更好。
VEDANTAM：起初，于涵和Mocan提出了一个简单的解释 - 相信十二生肖的老师可能会给龙的孩子更高的成绩。但是高考成绩是由计算机来分级的，而不是人类。两位经济学家发现，龙年的孩子没有更高的自信心。调查发现，这些学生并不认为他们比其他孩子聪明。事实上，他们并不聪明。他们在IQ测试中得分相同。那么怎么解释他们的成功？

H. YU: Yeah, it's just thesoftware. Basically every Chinese use this - uses this thing. (SpeakingChinese).
YOUNGSHENG YU: (SpeakingChinese).
VEDANTAM: From his office atLouisiana State University Han Yu calls his parents in China. It turns out thesuccess of dragon babies lies not with the schools or the teachers or even thekids themselves. It's because of parents like Xiaoqi Yu and Youngsheng. Fromthe moment Han Yu was born, his parents had sky-high expectations for him.These beliefs became a self-fulfilling prophecy. As Han Yu chatted with hisparents, I asked if he could translate a question for me.
Could you ask your parentswhether they think that your success is partly because you were born in theyear of the dragon?

于涵：是的，这只是个软件。基本上每个中国人都用这个东西 - 用这个东西。 （说中文）（译者注：指微信）
于杨生：（说中文）
VEDANTAM：从他在路易斯安那州立大学的办公室，于涵打电话给他在中国的父母。事实证明，龙宝宝的成功不在于学校，教师，甚至是孩子本身。这是因为像晓琪和杨生这样的家长。从于涵出生的那一刻起，他的父母对他就有了天高的期望。这些信念成了自我实现的预言。当于涵跟父母聊天时，我问他能否给我翻译一个问题。你能问你的父母，他们是否认为你的成功部分是因为你是出生在龙年？

H. YU: (Speaking Chinese).
XIAOQI YU: (SpeakingChinese).
H. YU: He said that duringthose years when I grew up, perhaps this also affect - potentially affect theirbehaviors they invest on me.
VEDANTAM: Han Yu and hisparents, in other words, were the living embodiment of the research that Han Yuwas doing. I asked Han Yu's father what his reaction was seeing that his dreamfor his child had come true.
X. YU: (Speaking Chinese).
VEDANTAM: The answer?
H. YU: My father said thatactually, his dream has not completely become true because - and he wish - heexpects that I should have more and better accomplishment. And also, he expectsme to continue study in the U.S. So I guess for me it's going to be a postdoc.Yeah.
VEDANTAM: And what's yourreaction to that, Han?
H. YU: Well, I guess I'llwork harder. I don't want my parents to - I don't want to let them down, Ithink. And to get a postdoc in a good - better university is also my dream,so...
VEDANTAM: Throughout ourlives, we uate our children, our students, our friends and our colleagues.What isn't always clear to them or to us is the power of these expectations totransform people's lives. Sometimes our expectations attach leaden weights towings and keep dreams from taking flight. Other times our beliefs can liftpeople up, make them run harder and reach for more. Shankar Vedantam, NPR News.
SIEGEL: And Shankar Vedantamis the host of the Hidden Brain podcast and radio program.

于涵：（说中文）
于晓琪：（说中文）
于涵：他说，在我长大的那些年里，也许这也会影响到他们对我投资的行为。
VEDANTAM：换句话说，于涵和他的父母是于涵研究的生动体现。我问于涵的父亲，看到孩子为自己实现梦想的感想。
于：（说中文）
VEDANTAM：答案是？
于涵：我的父亲说，其实他的梦想并没有完全成真，因为 - 他希望 - 他希望我应该有更了不起的成就。并且他希望我能继续在美国读书。所以我猜我要做博士后。
VEDANTAM：你的感想是什么？
于涵：我猜我得更努力了。我不想让父母失望。在一所更好的大学读博士后也是我的梦想。
VEDANTAM：在我们的生活中，我们评价我们的孩子，学生，朋友和同事。我们并不清楚这些期望对人们的生活能产生巨大的影响。有时候我们的期望会让翅膀变重，使梦想不能起飞。其他时候，我们的信赖可以让人们振奋起来，让他们更努力地奔向更远的地方。