道德约束
在一场决定哪支队伍可以进入决赛的比赛的最后关键时刻,大学教练约翰·钱尼决定孤注一掷。他派一名身高192厘米、体重113公斤的球员上场,让他去犯规,故意冲撞对方球员。结果,其中的一次犯规使对方的一名球员胳膊骨折,直接被送进了医院,也告别了剩下的赛季。
赛后,钱尼决定暂时辞去主教练的职务。他打电话向那位受伤球员和他的父母道歉,表示自己愿意承担医疗费用。[28] 他事后告诉记者,“我真是追悔莫及”,“我非常、非常懊悔”。
钱尼的行为体现了犯错的普通人与“黑三类”的主要区别。懊悔和羞愧,以及与它们类似的尴尬、内疚等都是“社会”或者“道德”的情感。即使“黑三类”能够体会到这些情感,程度也是相当轻的。
社会情感的产生离不开同理心,也就是说,我们需要同理心才能意识到别人会怎样衡量我们的行为。社会情感监督着我们内心的协调,使我们的话语和行为符合某个特定场合的行为规范。比如,骄傲可以鼓励我们去尝试能够得到别人赞美的事情,而羞愧和内疚则提醒我们不要去做有悖社交常理的事。
当然,如果我们打破了社交惯例,比如口无遮拦,或者说错了话、做错了事等,尴尬就不可避免了。比如,一位绅士同刚刚在舞会上认识的一位先生聊天时,尖刻地嘲讽了某位女演员的演技,后来他才知道自己的谈话对象正是那位女演员的丈夫。他当时的感觉肯定非常尴尬。
另一方面,社会情感也可以帮助人们弥补自己的这种过失。比如,当一个人感到尴尬因而脸红时,人们就会推断出他正在为自己的不恰当行为感到后悔,这也是一种无声的道歉。举例来说,一项研究发现,如果一个人在超市里撞翻了陈列的货品后面带愧色,那么他就比较容易得到人们的谅解。[29]
科学家们曾经研究过一些行为异常的神经病患者的生理基础,他们有的行为不检,有的无法正确评价自己或者存在其他违反社交准则的行为。
结果发现他们的眶额区都有损伤,这些病人在社交中非常鲁莽,而且经常出丑。[30]一些神经学家认为,这些病人已经丧失了心智,因此根本无法了解别人对他们的看法。另外一些人认为,他们已经不能辨别出别人反对或者失望的表情,因此无法正确了解别人的反应。还有些人认为,他们的异常社交行为是由缺少内部情感信号引起的。
愤怒、恐惧或者喜悦等基本情感都是与生俱来或者出生后不久就具有了的,而社会情感是需要有意识发展的。这些情感一般是随着眶额区的成熟在一岁之后开始发展的。这个过程中非常关键的一个时间点是在出生后14个月的时候,这时婴儿开始能够从镜子里认出自己了。意识到自己是一个独一无二的个体使他们开始明白别人也是独立的,而且他们也开始因为别人对自己的看法而苦恼了。
在两岁之前,孩子们处于一种幸福的无知状态,他们根本不知道别人可能会评价他们,因此弄脏了尿布也不会感到害羞。但是当他们意识到自己是独立的个体,而且别人可能会留意到自己的时候,他们再做了错事就会感到不好意思了。尴尬通常是孩子经历的第一种社会情感。尴尬的产生不仅需要孩子意识到别人对自己的感受,而且还要清楚自己应该做出什么样的情感回应。这种社交意识的提高表明了孩子同理心的出现,以及比较、分类能力的发展。
另外一种社会情感会使我们谴责做错事的人,即使这种谴责可能会给我们自己带来损失。处于“利他愤怒”的人们会谴责违反了社交准则的人,比如滥用别人信任的人,即使受害者并不是自己。这种正义的愤怒似乎可以引起大脑酬偿中枢的活动,因此谴责他人会带给我们满足感。[31]
社会情感是道德的指南针。比如,当别人发现我们做错事时,我们就会感到羞耻。另一方面,当我们意识到自己做了错事时,我们内心就会涌现出内疚的感觉。有时内疚可以督促人们纠正自己的行为,而羞耻则更多地带来自卫行为。羞耻会使人们产生受到社会排斥的威胁,而内疚可能会引导人们赎罪。羞耻和内疚共同约束着不道德的行为。
但是这些情感的道德约束力对“黑三类”并不起作用。自恋者的驱动力是骄傲和不愿丢脸的心理,但是他们基本上不会为自己的自私行为感到内疚。权谋政治家也缺少内疚感,因为内疚是以同理心为前提的,而这正是权谋政治家无法做到的。至于羞愧,权谋政治家可能会有一点。
精神疾病患者的道德败坏与上述两类人不同。他们既缺少内疚,也没有恐惧心理,因此潜在的惩罚也就失去了效力,再加上他们根本不会对别人的痛苦产生同理心,因此他们是极端危险的一类人。而且更糟糕的是,即使他们给别人带来了痛苦,他们既不会觉得懊悔,也不会羞愧。
对他们来说,社会情感已经失去了道德约束力。
因此,我们必须重新考虑对社交商的测试。仅有出色的社交意识(对别人心思的理解和对社交礼仪的掌握等纯粹智力因素)是远远不够的,因为一个精神疾病患者也可以依靠它来骗取受害人的信任。对社交商的合理测试方法应该能够识别“黑三类”,这就需要建立一个权谋政治家也无法取得高分的社交商量表。方法之一就是:在量表中加入关怀这一要素。
- Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams, “The Dark Triad of Personality: Narcissism,Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy,” Journal of Research in Personality 36, no. 6 (2002), pp. 556–63.
- Harry Wallace and Roy Baumeister, “The Performance of Narcissists Rises and Falls withPerceived Opportunity for Glory,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (2002), pp. 819–34.
- On narcissistic leaders, see Michael Maccoby, “Narcissistic Leaders,” Harvard Business Review 78(January–February 2000), pp. 68–77.
- For the business school professor, see Howard S. Schwartz, Narcissistic Process and CorporateDecay (New York: New York University Press, 1990).
- On the college men denied a sexual favor, see Brad J. Bushman et al., “Narcissism, Sexual Refusal,and Aggression: Testing a Narcissistic Reactance Model of Sexual Coercion,” Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology 84, no. 5 (2003), pp. 1027–40.
- On narcissists, see Constantine Sedikides et al., “Are Normal Narcissists Psychologically Healthy?Self-esteem Matters,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87, no. 3 (2004), pp. 40–416, at400.
- On self-enhancement, see Delroy Paulhus et al., “Shedding Light on the Dark Triad of Personality:Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy,” paper presented at the Society for Personality andSocial Psychology conference, San Antonio, Tex., 2001.
- Robert Raskin and Calvin Hall, “Narcissistic Personality Inventory,” Psychological Reports 45(1979), pp. 450–57.
- Robert Raskin and Calvin Hall, “Narcissistic Personality Inventory,” Psychological Reports 45(1979), pp. 450–57.
- On well-being in narcissists, see Sedikides et al., “Normal Narcissists.”
- Shinobu Kitayama and Hazel Markus, “The Pursuit of Happiness and the Realization ofSympathy,” in Ed Diener and Eunbook Suh, eds., Culture and Subjective Well-being (Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press, 2000).
- To be sure, Machiavelli urged tyrants to act in ways that would make their citizens love them—ifonly just enough to ward off insurrections.
- Paulhus et al., “Shedding Light.”
- The narcissist’s lack of empathy is particularly striking when compared to people who assume thatother people are basically trustworthy; such people attune to others’ feelings with a high level ofaccuracy. Mark Davis and Linda Kraus, “Personality and Empathic Accuracy,” in William Ickes, ed.,Empathic Accuracy (New York: Guilford Press, 1997).
- On emotional confusion, see Henry Krystal, Integration and Self-Healing (Hillsdale, N.J.: AnalyticPress, 1988).
- Even scientific studies of Machs carry a tone of moral disapproval. Behind the distaste lies anassumption that the Machiavellian person has chosen an evil path in life. But one recent look at thepsychological mechanisms that propel opportunistic manipulation suggests that the Mach’s deeds arenot entirely volitional. This theory holds that Machs are simply doing their best to live well despitegenuine puzzlement about others’ feelings. See Colin Wastell and Alexandra Booth,“Machiavellianism: An Alexithymic Perspective,” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 22(2003), pp. 730–44.
- On the case of Peter, see Leo J. Potts et al., “Comprehensive Treatment of a Severely AntisocialAdolescent,” in William H. Reid et al., eds., Unmasking the Psychopath (New York: W.W. Norton,1986).
- John McHoskey et al., “Machiavellianism and Psychopathy,” Journal of Clinical and SocialPsychology 74 (1998), pp. 192–210.
- John Edens et al., “Further Validation of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory AmongOffenders: Personality and Behavioral Correlates,” Journal of Personality Disorders 15 (2001), pp.403–15.
- See, for example, Christopher Patrick, “Emotion in the Criminal Psychopath: Fear ImagingProcessing,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology103 (1994), pp. 523–34; Adrian Raine and P. H.Venables, “Skin Conductance Responsivity in Psychopaths to Orienting, Defensive, and Consonant-Vowel Stimuli,” Journal of Psychophysiology 2 (1988), pp. 221–25.
- Paulhus, “Shedding Light.”
- On low anxiety in psychopaths, see Paulhus and Williams, “Dark Triad of Personality.”
- On brain imaging in psychopaths, see K. A. Kiehl et al., “Limbic Abnormalities in AffectiveProcessing by Criminal Psychopaths as Revealed by fMRI,” Biological Psychiatry 50 (2001), pp. 677–84; Adrian Raine et al., “Reduced Prefrontal Gray Matter Volume and Reduced Autonomic Activity inAntisocial Personality Disorder,” Archives of General Psychiatry 57 (2000), pp. 119–27; AntonioDamasio, “A Neural Basis for Sociopathy,” Archives of General Psychiatry 57 (2000), pp.128–29.
- On psychopaths’ lack of emotional resonance, see Linda Mealey and Stuart Kinner, “ThePerception-Action Model of Empathy and the Psychopathic ‘Coldheartedness,’ ” Behavioral and BrainSciences 25 (2002), pp. 42–43.
- On psychopaths’ lack of impulse to help, see Linda Mealey, “The Sociobiology of Sociopathy,”Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (1995), pp. 523–99.
- On successful psychopaths, see Sharon Ishikawa et al., “Autonomic Stress Reactivity andExecutive Functions in Successful and Unsuccessful Criminal Psychopaths from the Community,”Journal of Abnormal Psychology 110 (2001), pp. 423–32.
- On the sociopathic rapist, see Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of theSociopaths Among Us (New York: Pocket Books, 1993), p. 14.
- On John Chaney, see Matt Vautour, “Temple Extends Chaney’s Suspension,” Hampshire DailyGazette, February 26, 2005, p. D1.
- On the supermarket display, see G. R. Semin and A. Manstead, “The Social Implications ofEmbarrassment Displays and Restitution Behavior,” European Journal of Social Psychology 12 (1982),pp. 367–77.
- On orbitofrontal patients, see Jennifer S. Beer et al., “The Regulatory Function of Self-consciousEmotion: Insights from Patients with Orbitofrontal Damage,”Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology 85 (2003), pp. 594–604.
- On righteous anger, see D. J. de Quervain et al., “The Neural Basis of Altruistic Punishment,”Science 305 (2004), pp. 1254–58.
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