|
All power tends to corrupt 当权者都会腐化、败坏 But power without status corrupts absolutely 但出身卑微的当权者败坏的更彻底 DURING the second world war a new term of abuse entered the English language. To callsomeone a little Hitler meant he was a menial functionary who employed what power hehad in order to annoy and frustrate others for his own gratification. From nightclubbouncers to the squaddies at Abu Ghraib prison who tormented their prisoners for fun, littleHitlers plague the world. The phenomenon has not, though, hitherto been subject toscientific investigation. 二战期间，有一个骂人的新词 小希特勒 在英语国家中很盛行，如果这样称呼一个人意味这他是一个为了满足自己，很会利用手里的小权力折磨、刁难其他人的位卑但权重的小人物。从夜总会的保安到阿布扎比监狱里以折磨犯人取乐的狱警， 这样的 小希特勒们 无处不在。但这种现象一直没有被科学的分析过。 Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California has changed that. He observed thatlots of psychological experiments have been done on the effects of status and lots on theeffects of power. But few, if any, have been done on both combined. He and his colleaguesNir Halevy of Stanford University and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University, in Chicago,set out to correct this. In particular they wanted to see if it is circumstances that create littleHitlers or, rather, whether people of that type simply gravitate into jobs which allow them tobehave badly. Their results have just been published in the Journal of Experimental SocialPsychology. | 
