How Diversity Makes Us Smarter非英语专业研究生英语读写教程

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

首先，我们要承认，多元化这个问题很深奥。在美国，这个对各种观点包容性相对较高的国家，提到“多元化”，人们也会感到焦虑不安，矛盾重重。最高法院的法官们在多样性的优点和实现多样性的方法上存在分歧。他们努力去实现审判的多元化；企业为能在内外部形成并实现多元化散尽千金，尽管如此，它们仍就面临着歧视诉讼；商界的领导阶层，仍由白人和男性主导。

It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us. Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious—you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts—but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So what is the upside?

我们有理由提出这样的疑问，多元化对我们有什么益处。专业技术多元化的益处显而易见——想要研发一款新型汽车，工程师，设计师和质量控制专家缺一不可——那么社会多元化的益处是什么呢？种族，名族，性别和性取向方面的多元化，又会为我么带来怎样的益处呢？研究表明，团体中的社会差异会引起一系列问题，如：内心不安，交往困难，信任缺失，感知性人际冲突增强，交流减少，凝聚力降低，对不敬的敏感度增强等。那么，其优点又体现在何处呢？

The face is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity.Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving.Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations.Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. This is not just wishful thinking: it is the conclusion I draw from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers

事实是，如果你想建立一个有创新能力的团队或组织，你需要多样化多样性提高创造力。它鼓励人们寻找新的信息和视角，从而促使人们做出更好的决策和解决问题。多样化可以改善公司的下线，带来不受约束的发现和突破性创新。即使只是简单地接触多样性也会改变你的思维方式。这不仅仅是一厢情愿的想法:这是我从组织科学家、心理学家、社会学家、经济学家和人口学家数十年的研究中得出的结论

Information and innovation信息和创新

The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity.When people are brought together to solve problems in group, they bring different information, opinions and perspectives.This makes obvious sense when we talk about diversity of disciplinary backgrounds--think again of the interdisciplinary team building a car.The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender and other

dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand.A male and female engineer might have perspectives as different from one another as an engineer and a physicist--and that is a good thing.

理解多样性的积极影响的关键是信息多样性的概念。当人们聚在一起解决问题时，他们会带来不同的信息、观点和观点当我们谈到学科背景的多样性时，这是很有道理的——再想想制造汽车的跨学科团队。同样的逻辑也适用于社会多样性。不同种族、性别和其他维度的人会带来独特的信息和经验来承担手头的任务。男性和女性工程师的观点可能与工程师和物理学家的观点完全不同——这是件好事。

Research on large innovative organizations has shown repeatedly that this is the case. For example, business professors Cristian Desz? of the University of Maryland and David Ross of Columbia University studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor's Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms' top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” They also measured the firms' “innovation intensity” through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks.

对大型创新机构的研究，再次表明情况的确如此。举这样一个例子，马里兰大学的克里斯蒂安·德热与哥伦比亚大学的大卫·罗丝两位商业教授研究了在标准&普尔（一家为反映全美股票市场情况的公司）指数综合排名前1500名中的顶级公司中，性别差异的影响。首先，他们查看了从1992年至2006年公司顶尖管理团队的规模及性别组成。之后，他们又查看了公司的财政状况。他们发现，一般情况下，用他们自己的话来说“公司高管团队中有女性代表，会令公司的价值提升4200万美元。”同样，他们还通过研发费用与资产的比率来衡量公司的“创新强度”。，发现看重创新且顶尖领导团队中有女性的公司，财务收益更多。

Racial diversity can deliver the same kinds of benefits. In a study conducted in 2003, Orlando Richard, a professor of management at the University of Texas at Dallas, and his colleagues surveyed executives at 177 national banks in the U.S., then put together a database comparing financial performance, racial diversity and the emphasis the bank presidents put on innovation. For innovation-focused banks, increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance.

种族多元化有着类似的益处。在一项2003年实施的研究中，达拉斯德克萨斯大学管理学教授奥兰多·理查德及其同事调查了美国177家国家银行的高管，并汇总出一个数据库。这个数据库对比了银行的财政业绩，种族多元化及行长对创新的关注程度。在那些注重创新的银行中，财政业绩的增长明显与种族多元化的增加息息相关。

Evidence for the benefits of diversity can be found well beyond the U.S. In August 2012 a team of researchers at the Credit Suisse Research Institute issued a report in which they examined 2,360 companies globally from 2005 to 2011, looking for a relationship between gender diversity on corporate management boards and financial performance. Sure enough, the researchers found that companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity, lower gearing (that is, net debt to equity) and better average growth.

美国之外，多元化的益处同样随处可见。2012年8月，来自瑞士信贷研究所的一组研究人员发布了一项报告，报告中从2005年至2011年，他们对全球2360家公司进行了研究，探究公司管理董事会中性别多元化与公司财政表现的关系。果然，研究人员发现，那些董事

会中有一名甚至多名女性的公司，能实现更高的平均股本回报，举债经营的风险更低（既债务股本比），平均增长表现更好。

How Diversity Provokes Thought

Large data-set studies have an obvious limitation: they only show that diversity is correlated with better performance, not that it causes better performance. Research on racial diversity in small groups, however, makes it possible to draw some causal conclusions. Again, the findings are clear: for groups that value innovation and new ideas, diversity helps.

多元化怎样开拓思维

大量基于数据组的研究，存在一个明显的局限：它们仅仅表明多元化与一些更佳的表现有关，并不能说明它是造成更佳表现的原因。以小组为单位的种族多元化研究则可以令我们得出一些因果关系的结论。同样，探究结果很明确：那些重视创新和新理念的小组，多元化在其中起了作用。

In 2006 Margaret Neale of Stanford University, Gregory Northcraft of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and I set out to examine the impact of racial diversity on small decision-making groups in an experiment where sharing information was a requirement for success. Our subjects were undergraduate students taking business courses at the University of Illinois. We put together three-person groups—some consisting of all white members, others with two whites and one nonwhite member—and had them perform a murder mystery exercise. We made sure that all group members shared a common set of information, but we also gave each member important clues that only he or she knew. To find out who committed the murder, the group members would have to share all the information they collectively possessed during discussion. The groups with racial diversity significantly outperformed the groups with no racial diversity. Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective. This perspective, which stopped the all-white groups from effectively processing the information, is what hinders creativity and innovation.

2006年，我和斯坦福大学的玛格丽特·尼尔，伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳香槟分校的格雷戈里·诺斯克拉夫特共同设立了一项研究，旨在探索实验中，种族多元化对小型决策群体有何影响。对于这项实验，信息共享的成败决定了实验的成败。我们的实验主体是伊利诺伊大学进行商务课程学习的本科生。我们让他们三人一组（一些小组，组内成员都是白种人；另一些小组，成员为两个白种人和一个非白人种族）进行探索谋杀之谜的练习。我们确保所有组员共享同样一组信息，又单独给每个小组成员提供了一些仅他们自己知道的重要线索。为了找到凶手，小组成员们必须在讨论中共享他们获取的信息。存在种族多元化的小组明显要比全白人小组表现地更好。由于彼此相似，我们潜意识里会认为所掌握的信息相同，所持观点也相同。正是这样的观念，使得全白人小组无法高效地对信息进行处理，从而阻碍了创造力和新想法的发展。

Other researchers have found similar results. In 2004 Anthony Antonio, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, collaborated with five colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, and other institutions to examine the influence of racial and opinion composition in small group discussions. More than 350 students from three universities participated in the study. Group members were asked to discuss a prevailing social issue (either child labor practices or the death penalty) for 15 minutes. The researchers wrote dissenting opinions and had both black and white members deliver them to their groups. When a black person presented a dissenting perspective to a group of whites, the perspective was perceived as more novel and led to broader thinking and consideration of alternatives than when a white person

introduced that same dissenting perspective. The lesson: when we hear dissent from someone who is different from us, it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us.

其他研究人员也得到了相似的结论。2004年，斯坦福大学教育学院的教授安东尼·安东尼奥和来自加利福尼亚大学，洛杉矶及其它研究机构的五位同事共同探究了在小组讨论中，种族多元化对最终意见组成的影响。来自三所大学的超过350名学生参加了此项研究。研究要求小组成员就普遍的社会问题（关于雇佣童工或死刑）进行15分钟的讨论。研究人员将不同意见记录下来并让小组中的白人和黑人成员分别将这些不同意见传递回小组。当黑人成员将不同意见传递回白人小组时，组内成员会觉得这样的观点更加新奇，引起更加广阔的思考及对可替代方法的思考。然而白人组员将同样的意见传递回白人小组时，效果并没有如此明显。我们可以从这个实验中得出这样的结论：从不同于自己的人那里听到不同意见，会比从同我们相似的人那里听到不同意见，更容易开拓思维。

This effect is not limited to race. For example, last year professors of management Denise Lewin Loyd of the university of Illinois, Cynthia Wang of Oklahoma State University, Robert B.Lount, Jr., of Ohio State University and I asked 186 people whether they identified as a Democrat or a Republican, then had them read a murder mystery and decide who they thought committed the crime.

这种影响并不局限于种族。例如，去年伊利诺伊大学(university of Illinois)的管理学教授丹尼斯?卢因?洛伊德(Denise Lewin Loyd)、俄克拉荷马州立大学(Oklahoma State university)的辛西娅?王(Cynthia Wang)、罗伯特?B。我和俄亥俄州立大学的小朗特对186人进行了调查，询问他们是民主党人还是共和党人，然后让他们读一篇谋杀悬疑小说，并且决定他们认为是谁犯了罪。

Next, we asked the subjects to prepare for a meeting with another group member by writing an essay communicating their perspective.More important, in all cases, we told the participants that their partner disagreed with their opinion but that they would need to come to an agreement with the other person

接下来，我们要求受试者写一篇文章，表达他们的观点，为与另一组成员的会议做准备。更重要的是，在所有情况下，我们告诉参与者，他们的伴侣不同意他们的观点，但他们需要与另一个人达成一致

Everyone was told to prepare to convince their meeting partner to come around to their side; half of the subjects, however, were told to prepare to make their case to a member of the opposing political party, and half were told to make their case to a member of their own party 每个人都被告知要准备说服他们的会议伙伴站到他们这边来;然而，一半的受试者被告知准备向对立政党的一名成员陈述自己的观点，另一半被告知向自己政党的一名成员陈述自己的观点

The result is the Democrats who were told that a fellow Democrat disagreed with them prepare less well for the discussion than Democrats who were told that a Republican disagreed with them. Republicans showed the same pattern. When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.

结果是，被告知与自己意见相左的民主党人在讨论时准备得不如被告知与自己意见相左的共和党人。共和党人也表现出了同样的模式。当不同社会背景的人产生分歧时，我们就会更努力地工作。多样性促使我们采取认知行动，而同质性则不会。

For this reason, diversity appears to lead to higher-quality scientific research. This year

Richard Freeman, an economics Phone.D. candidate, examined the ethnic identity of the authors of 1.5 million scientific papers written between 1985 and 2008 using Thomson Reuters's Web of science, a comprehensive database of published research.

由于这个原因，多样性似乎会导致更高质量的科学研究。今年，经济学家理查德·弗里曼，使用汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)的“科学网”(Web of science)数据库（一个全面的综合科研数据库），调查了1985年至2008年间发表的150万篇科学论文的作者的种族。

They found that papers written by diverse groups receive more citations and have higher impact factors than papers written by people from the same ethnic group.Moreover,they found that stronger papers were associated with a greater number of author addresses;geographical diversity,and a larger number of references,is a reflection of more intellectual diversity 他们发现，不同群体的论文被引用的次数和影响因素都比同一种族的论文要多。此外，他们发现，较强的论文与更多的作者地址有关;地理多样性和更多的参考文献反映了更多的知识多样性

The Power of Anticipation

Diversity is not only about bringing different perspectives to the table.Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people believe that differences of perspective might exist among them and that belief makes people change their behavior

.多样性不仅仅是把不同的观点带到谈判桌上。简单地将社会多样性添加到一个群体中，就会使人们相信他们之间可能存在着不同的观点，这种信念会使人们改变他们的行为。

Members of a homogeneous group rest somewhat assured that they will agree with one another;that they will understand one another's perspectives and beliefs;that they will be able to easily come to a consensus.But when members of a group notice that they are sociall different from one another,they change their expectations.They anticipate differences of opinion and perspective.They assume they will need to work harder to come to a consensus. This logic helps to explain both the upside and the downside of social diversity:people work harder in diverse environments both cognitively and socially.They might not like it,but the hard work can lead to better outcomes.

同质群体的成员在某种程度上确信他们将彼此同意;他们将理解彼此的观点和信仰;他们将能够很容易地达成共识。但是当一个群体的成员注意到他们的社交方式彼此不同时，他们就会改变自己的期望。他们预料到不同的意见和观点。他们认为他们需要更加努力才能达成共识。这种逻辑有助于解释社会多样性的好处和坏处:人们在不同的环境中工作更努力，无论是在认知上还是在社会上。他们可能不喜欢这样，但努力工作可以带来更好的结果。

In a 2006 study of jury decision making,social psychologist Samuel Sommers'of Tufts University found that racially diverse groups exchanged a wider range of information during deliberation about a sexual assault case than all-white groups did.In collaboration with judges and jury administrators in a Michigan courtroom,Sommers conducted mock jury trials with a group of real selected jurors.Although the participants knew the mock jury was a court-sponsored experiment,they did not know that the true purpose of the research was to study the impact of racial diversity on jury decision making.

塔夫茨大学(Tufts University)的社会心理学家萨缪尔?萨默斯(Samuel Sommers)在2006年一项关于陪审团决策的研究中发现，在审议一起性侵案件时，种族多元化的群体比白人群体交换的信息范围更广。在与法官和陪审团管理人员的合作下，Sommers在密歇根的一个法庭上与一组真正挑选出来的陪审员进行了模拟陪审团审判。虽然参与者知道模拟陪审团是由法

院赞助的实验，但他们不知道研究的真正目的是研究种族多样性对陪审团决策的影响Sommers composed the six-person juries with either all white jurors or four white and two black jurors.As you might expect,the diverse juries were better at considering case facts,made fewer errors recalling relevant information and displayed a greater openness to discussing the role of race in the case.These improvements did not necessarily happen because the black jurors brought new information to the group-they happened because white jurors changed their behavior in the presence of the black jurors.In the presence of diversity,they were more diligent and open-minded.

陪审团由六人组成，要么全部是白人陪审员，要么是四名白人和两名黑人陪审员。正如你所预料的那样，多样化的陪审团更善于考虑案件事实，在回忆相关信息时犯的错误更少，在讨论种族在案件中的作用时表现出更大的开放性。这些改进并不一定会发生，因为黑人陪审员给这个群体带来了新的信息——之所以会发生，是因为白人陪审员在黑人陪审员在场时改变了他们的行为。在多样性面前，他们更加勤奋和开放。

Group Exercise

Consider the following scenario:You are writing up a section of a paper for presentation at an upcoming conference.You are anticipating some disagreement and potential difficulty communicating because your collaborator is American and you are Chinese.Because of one social distinction,you may focus on other differences between yourself and that person,such as her or his culture,upbringing and experiences-differences that you would not expect from another Chinese collaborator.How do you prepare for the meeting?In all likelihood,you will work harder on explaining your rationale and anticipating alternatives than you would have otherwise .考虑以下场景:您正在撰写一篇论文的一部分，准备在即将召开的会议上发表。因为你的合作者是美国人而你是中国人，所以你预计会有一些分歧和潜在的沟通困难。因为一个社会差异，你可能会关注你和那个人之间的其他差异，比如她或他的文化、教养和经历——这些差异是你从其他中国合作者那里得不到的。你如何准备会议?十有八九，你会更努力地解释你的基本原理和预测替代方案。

This is how diversity works:by promoting hard work and creativity;by encouraging the consideration of alternatives even before any interpersonal interaction takes place.The pain associated with diversity can be thought of as the pain of exercise.You have to push yourself to grow your muscles.The pain,as the old saw goes,produces the gain.In just the same way,we need diversity-in teams,organizations and society as a whole-if we are to change,grow and innovate.

这就是多样性的运作方式:通过促进努力工作和创造力;通过鼓励在任何人际交往发生之前就考虑其他选择。与多样性相关的痛苦可以被认为是锻炼的痛苦。你得强迫自己长肌肉。常言道，痛苦会带来收获。同样地，如果我们要改变、成长和创新，我们需要多样化——在团队、组织和社会中作为一个整体。