The stick really is better than the carrot when it comes to motivating people, a study has found.
一項研究表明，“大棒”比“胡蘿卜”更能激勵人。

Although modern management and schooling techniques favor praising workers or students, the new research suggests that negative feedback produces more improvement than positive affirmation.
盡管現代的管理和教學技巧都傾向于表揚員工和學生，但這項新研究卻認為消極的反饋比積極的表揚更能使人進步。

In fact, punishments were up to three times more effective at improving performance than rewards.
事實上，懲罰在提升表現方面的效果是獎勵的三倍。

Dr Jan Kubanek, of the Washington University School of Medicine inSt Louis,US, who lead the study, said: "Our study suggests that negative feedback may be more effective than positive feedback at modifying behavior.
這項研究的負責人簡·庫班克博士來自位于美國圣路易斯的華盛頓大學藥學院，他說：“我們的研究表明，比起積極的反饋，消極的反饋往往能更有效地影響人們的行為。

“Such feedback does not have to be harsh, since it appears that we tend to react in the same manner to any amount of negative feedback.
“這種（消極）的反饋不一定要是嚴苛的，因為人們似乎會對接收到的消極反饋采取類似的態度來反應。

"From an evolutionary perspective, people tend to avoid punishments or dangerous situations. Rewards, on the other hand, have less of a life-threatening impact."
“從進化的角度來看，人們會自然地傾向于回避懲罰或危險的情況。然而獎勵卻很少會有像威脅生存這樣的影響力。”

The research involved 88 students who were asked to identify the number of clicks sounded in their right and left ears.
這項實驗的內容是讓88名學生分辨出自己左耳和右耳聽到點擊聲的次數。

Every time a student made a correct choice they were rewarded with a cash sum. But if they gave a wrong answer they had money deducted.
每次作出正確選擇的學生會得到一些現金獎勵，但是一旦選擇錯誤他們的現金會被扣除。

The research showed that those who had money deducted were more likely to make a correct choice in later rounds.
這項實驗的結果表明，那些作出了錯誤選擇而受到懲罰的學生在接下來的測試中正確率更高。

"Objectively, you would think that winning 25 cents would have the same magnitude of effect as losing 25 cents, but that's not what we found,” added Dr Kubanek.
庫班克博士表示：“客觀上來說，人們可能會認為贏得25美分和輸掉25美分的影響沒什么不同，但是我們的實驗發現卻不是這樣的。”

Past studies on the effects of rewards and punishments on behavior have been unclear, said the authors.
該研究的作者表示，過去那些有關獎罰機制對人們行為表現影響的研究結果都不夠明確。

According to the research, in some situations it may be better to deduct points when students are wrong rather than reward them for correct answers. This may help students avoid making the same mistake again.
根據這項研究，有時候規定學生答錯題的時候倒扣分比答對題的時候加分更好。這可能會幫助學生們下次不再犯同樣的錯誤。

Co-author and psychologist Prof Richard Adams said: "The question of how rewards and punishments influence behavior has occupied psychologists for over 100 years.
該研究報告的合作者、心理學家理查德·亞當斯教授說：“獎罰機制會對人們產生怎樣的影響是心理學家們近100多年來都在思考的問題。”

"The difficulty has been devising effective tasks to probe that question. We used a simple approach that reveals dramatic differences in the way people respond to different types of feedback."
“解決這個問題的困難在于設計一種可以有效回答它的實驗方法。我們采用了一種十分簡單的方法來揭示人們針對不同類型反饋產生的相當不同的反應。”

The findings were published in the science journal Cognition.
這項研究的結果已經在科學期刊《認知》上發表。

Vocabulary

affirmation: 肯定
harsh:嚴厲的
deduct:扣除，減去

（譯者：陳冠鵬SCNU 編輯：馬文英）