How Diversity Makes Us Smarter中文译文_共7页

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter 多元化怎样令我们更聪明

Being around people who are different 身边的人与我们不同，使我们更具创 from us makes us more creative, more 造性，更勤勉，也更努力。

diligent and harder-working

By Katherine W. Phillips on October 1, 2014 凯瑟琳·威廉姆·菲利普

2014·10·1

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

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。

最高法院的法官们对多元化的原则难 以达成一致意见，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。 externally, yet they still face

the

discrimination lawsuits, and leadership ranks of the business world

remain predominantly white and male.

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

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 from

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？ diversity? What good comes 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?

The fact is that if you want to build

事实表明，要想构建创造力十足 teams or organizations capable of 的团队和组织，多元化必不可少。多 innovating, you need diversity. Diversity 元化会使创造力增强。它推动了对新 enhances creativity. It encourages the 颖信息和观点的探索，成就更好的决 search for novel information and 策，从而使问题得以解决。多元化能 perspectives, leading to better decision 改善公司的财务状况，造就自由的探 making and problem solving. Diversity 索及突破性的革新。听取不同的意见 can companies discoveries improve and the lead and bottom line of 会改变你的思维方式。这可不是一厢 to unfettered 情愿的空想：通过对科学家，心理学 breakthrough 家，社会学家，经济学家及人口统计 innovations. Even simply being exposed 学家团体数十年的追踪研究，我最终 to diversity can change the way you 得出了这样的结论。

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.

Information and Innovation

The key to understanding the positive influence 信息与创新

of diversity is the concept of informational 要想理解多元化的积极影响，关键在 diversity. When people are brought together to 于理解信息多元化的概念。当人们聚 solve problems in groups, they bring different 集在一起以小组为单位解决问题时， information, opinions and perspectives. This 不同的人带来了不同的信息，主张和 makes obvious sense when we talk about 观点。我们讲到学科背景多元化时， diversity of disciplinary backgrounds —think 这一点尤为明显——不妨回头想想刚 again of the interdisciplinary team building a 才提过的跨学科团队造车的情形。同 car. The same logic applies to social diversity.样的逻辑也适用于社会多元化。种族， People who are different from one another in 性别和其它方面各不相同的人们会为 race, gender and other dimensions bring unique 手头的工作带来独到的信息和经验。 information and experiences to bear on the task 男性工程师和女性工程师从工程师和 at hand. A male and a female engineer might 机械专家的角度，可能对同一事物持 have perspectives as different from one another 有不同的观点——这是件好事。

as an engineer and a physicist —and that is a

good thing.

Research on large, innovative 对大型创新机构的研究，再次表organizations has shown repeatedly that明情况的确如此。举这样一个例子，this is the case. For example, business马里兰大学的克里斯蒂安·德热与哥professors Cristian Desz?of the伦比亚大学的大卫·罗丝两位商业教University of Maryland and David Ross授研究了在标准&普尔（一家为反映全

of Columbia University studied the effect美股票市场情况的公司）指数综合排

of gender diversity on the top firms in名前1500名中的顶级公司中，性别差Standard & Poor's Composite 1500 list, a异的影响。首先，他们查看了从 1992 group designed to reflect the overall U.S.年至2006年工资顶尖管理团队的规模equity market. First, they examined the及性别组成。之后，他们又查看了公size and gender composition of firms' top司的财政状况。他们发现，一般情况management teams from 1992 through下，用他们自己的话来说“公司高管2006. Then they looked at the financial团队中有女性代表，会令公司的价值performance of the firms. In their words,提升420亿美元。”同样，他们根据they found that, on average, “female调查比率及资产的扩展费用对公司的representation in top management leads创新强度进行了评估，发现看重创新

to an increase of $42 million in firm且顶尖领导团队中有女性的公司，财value.” They also measured the firms'务收益更多。

“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.

Racial diversity can deliver the same

kinds of benefits. In a study conducted in种族多元化有着类似的益处。在一项2003, Orlando Richard, a professor of 2003年实施的研究中，达拉斯德克萨management at the University of Texas at斯大学管理学教授奥兰多·理查德及Dallas, and his colleagues surveyed其同事调查了美国177家国家银行的executives at 177 national banks in the高管，并汇总出一个数据库。这个数U.S., then put together a database据库对比了银行的财政业绩，种族多comparing financial performance, racial元化及行长对创新的关注程度。在那diversity and the emphasis the bank些注重创新的银行中，财政业绩的增presidents put on innovation. For长明显与种族多元化的增加息息相关。innovation-focused banks, increases in

racial diversity were clearly related to

enhanced financial performance.

Evidence for the benefits of

美国之外，多元化的益处同样随 diversity can be found well beyond the 处可见。2012年 8月，来自瑞士信贷 U.S. In August 2012 a team of 研究所的一组研究人员发布了一项报 researchers at the Credit Suisse Research 告，报告中从 2005年至 2011年，他 Institute issued a report in which they 们对全球 2360家公司进行了研究，探 examined 2,360 companies globally from 究公司管理董事会中性别多元化与公 2005 to 2011, looking for a relationship 司财政表现的关系。果然，研究人员 between gender diversity on corporate 发现，那些董事会中有一名甚至多名 management performance. boards Sure and enough, financial 女性的公司，能实现更高的平均股本 the 回报，举债经营的风险更低（既债务 researchers found that companies with 股本比），平均增长表现更好。

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.

How Diversity Provokes Thought

多元化怎样开拓思维 Large data-set studies have an 大量基于数据组的研究，存在一个明

obvious limitation: they only show that 显的局限：它们仅仅表明多元化与一 diversity is correlated with better 些更佳的表现有关，并不能说明它是 performance, not that it causes better 造成更佳表现的原因。以小组为单位 performance. Research on racial diversity 的种族多元化研究则可以令我们得出 in small groups, however, makes it 一些因果关系的结论。同样，探究结 possible to draw some causal 果很明确：那些重视创新和新理念的 conclusions. Again, the findings are 小组，多元化在其中起了作用。

clear: for groups that value innovation

and new ideas, diversity helps.

In 2006 Margaret Neale of Stanford University, Gregory Northcraft of the 丽特·尼尔，伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳香 Urbana-槟分校的格雷戈里·诺斯克拉夫特共

2006年，我和斯坦福大学的玛格 University of Illinois at Champaign and I set out to examine the 同设立了一项研究，旨在探索实验中， impact of racial diversity on small 种族多元化对小型决策群体有何影响。 decision-making groups in an experiment 对于这项实验，信息共享的成败决定 where sharing information was a 了实验的成败。我们的实验主体是伊 requirement for success. Our subjects 利诺伊大学进行商务课程学习的本科 taking 生。我们让他们三人一组（一些小组， were undergraduate students business courses at the University of 组内成员都是白种人；另一些小组， Illinois. We put together three-person 成员为两个白种人和一个非白人种族） groups —some consisting of all white 进行探索谋杀之谜的练习。我们确保 members, others with two whites and one 所有组员共享同样一组信息，又单独 nonwhite member —and had them 给每个小组成员提供了一些仅他们自 perform a murder mystery exercise. We 己知道的重要线索。为了找到凶手， made sure that all group members shared 小组成员们必须在讨论中共享他们获

a common set of information, but we also 取的信息。存在种族多元化的小组明 gave each member important clues that 显要比全白人小组表现地更好。由于 only he or she knew. To find out who 彼此相似，我们潜意识里会认为所掌 committed the murder, the group 握的信息相同，所持观点也相同。正 members would have to share all the 是这样的观念，使得全白人小组无法 information they collectively possessed 高效地对信息进行处理，从而阻碍了 during discussion. The groups with racial 创造力和新想法的发展。

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.

Other researchers have found similar

results. In 2004 Anthony Antonio, a 其他研究人员也得到了相似的结论。 professor at the Stanford Graduate School 2004年，斯坦福大学教育学院的教授 of Education, collaborated with five 安东尼·安东尼奥和来自加利福尼亚 colleagues from the University of 大学，洛杉矶及其它研究机构的五位 California, Los Angeles, and other 同事共同探究了在小组讨论中，种族 institutions to examine the influence of 多元化对最终意见组成的影响。来自 racial and opinion composition in small 三所大学的超过 350名学生参加了此 group students discussions. from More three than universities 社会问题（关于雇佣童工或死刑）进

350项研究。研究要求小组成员就普遍的 participated in the study. Group members 行 15分钟的讨论。研究人员将不同意 were asked to discuss a prevailing social 见记录下来并让小组中的白人和黑人 issue (either child labor practices or the 成员分别将这些不同意见传递回小组。 death penalty) for 15 minutes. The 当黑人成员将不同意见传递回白人小 researchers wrote dissenting opinions and 组时，组内成员会觉得这样的观点更 had both black and white members 加新奇，引起更加广阔的思考及对可 deliver them to their groups. When a 替代方法的思考。然而白人组员将同 black person presented a dissenting 样的意见传递回白人小组时，效果并 perspective to a group of whites, the 没有如此明显。我们可以从这个实验 perspective was perceived as more novel 中得出这样的结论：从不同于自己的 and led to broader thinking and 人那里听到不同意见，会比从同我们 consideration of alternatives than when a 相似的人那里听到不同意见，更容易 white person introduced that same 开拓思维。

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.

文章点评：

该篇文章属于说明题材的文章，译者对文章的把握很好，用增译，意译法使原文想表达的意思清晰易懂，使语意衔接更加流畅。如，

“The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult.”

“首先，我们要承认，多元化这个问题很深奥。”

译者增译了句子的主语，更加符合汉语式的表达，使句子表达完整通顺，将“difficult”一词意译为“很深奥”更传神地表现了句子所传达的意思。

“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.”

“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。”

译者将“the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced”译为“对各种观点包容

性相对较高”，译得很好，“包容性”一词与之后提到的多元化相呼应，

“you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality- control experts.”

“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。”

“缺一不可”这四个字用得非常好，使句子更加通俗易懂。

“Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. This is not just wishful thinking:…”

“听取不同的意见会改变你的思维方式。这可不是一厢情愿的空想：……”

将“This is not just wishful thinking”译为“这可不是一厢情愿的空想”很贴切，

又带有一种趣味性。

“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.” 句中将

“then put together a database comparing…”直接译为“这个数据库对比了……”简洁明了

“Sure enough, the researchers found that companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity…”

“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……”

译者这里“果然”二字用的非常好，很符合语境。

整体来说译者对该篇文章的翻译较好，既补充了句子的完整性，增添了趣味性，又使语义衔接很连贯。