Different Nationalities Really Have Different Personalities

文/克里斯琴·賈勒特 譯/唐一辰 審訂/肖維青

Different Nationalities Really Have Different Personalities

文/克里斯琴·賈勒特 譯/唐一辰 審訂/肖維青

Each country may have its own unique traits, behaviours, and attitudes—but they rarely match the national stereotypes.各國(guó)人在性格、行為和態(tài)度上都有獨(dú)特之處，但這些獨(dú)特之處與民族成見(jiàn)卻少有關(guān)聯(lián)。

Whether it’s the caricature1caricature夸張性描述。of the introverted2introverted性格內(nèi)向的。English, the brash3brash自以為是的。Americans or the industrious4industrious勤勞的。Japanese,national stereotypes are easy to come by5come by得到；獲得。. But do countries really have their own distinct personalities?

[2]When psychologists have given the same personality test to hundreds or thousands of people from different nations, they have indeed found that the average scores tend to come out differently across cultures. In other words,the average personality in one country often really is different from the average personality in another.

[3]Crucially, these average differences in personality between nations are not the same as the stereotypes we hold. Although we tend to agree with each other about what the typical personality type is in a given country, including our own,the research suggests that our assumptions are often wide of the mark6be/fall wide of the mark遠(yuǎn)離目標(biāo)，離譜。. Several large international studies have now documented cross-cultural differences in average personality. One of the most extensive was published in 2005 by Robert McCrae and 79 collaborators around the world, who profiled more than 12,000 college students from 51 cultures. Based on averaging these personality profiles,the researchers were able to present an“aggregate”7aggregate總和的，合計(jì)的。trait score for each of the cultures.

[4]The highest scoring cultural groups for Extraversion8extraversion外向性。on average were Brazilians, French Swiss and the Maltese,while the lowest scoring were Nigerians,Moroccans and Indonesians. The highest scoring for Openness to Experience were German-speaking Swiss, Danes and Germans, while the lowest scoring on average were Hong Kong Chinese, Northern Irish and Kuwaitis. The study also uncovered variation between countries in the three other main personality traits of Neuroticism9neuroticism神經(jīng)質(zhì)；具有不穩(wěn)定、焦慮及有侵略性等特征。, Conscientiousness10conscientiousness盡責(zé)；憑良心辦事。and Agreeableness.

[5]Of course, it’s important to remem-ber that these are averages and there is a lot of overlap11overlap（范圍方面的）重疊部分。between countries; there are undoubtedly a lot of people in Indonesia who are more extraverted than some from Brazil. There are also complications12complication使更復(fù)雜化（或更困難）的事物。and controversies around how to interpret these kind of results, such as the huge challenge of ensuring that personality questionnaires are translated to mean exactly the same thing to participants in all the different cultures, and that the samples in each culture are truly representative of that culture. In addition, there are risks of inferring too much about an entire country from a single sample.

[6]Consider another huge study of cross-cultural personality differences, led by David Schmitt at Bradley University and published in 2007, that involved over 17,000 people from 56 different nations around the world. Again, between-nation variation emerged in average personality.For example, the highest average scores for trait Neuroticism were found in Japan and Argentina while the lowest were found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Slovenia. Meanwhile, the highest scoring nations for Agreeableness,on average, were the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Jordan, while Japan and Lithuania scored the lowest.

[7]But while differences in personality do exist between cultures and nations,they often don’t match up with the wide-ly held stereotypes of national character.You probably have an idea in your head of what the average personality profile is of people from the various cultures that you’re familiar with. Take the trait of Extraversion. Here in the UK most of us would probably say that the average English person is far more reserved than the average American. But these kinds of national personality stereotypes are rarely accurate. In fact, the 51-culture study described above found that average Extraversion was higher in England than in the USA; the 56-culture study found that Americans edged13edge險(xiǎn)勝。it, but with very little difference between the two countries.

[8]What could explain these national differences in average personality? The reasons are likely partly genetic, perhaps to do with historic migration patterns. For example, people strong on traits related to risk-taking and openness might be more likely to migrate, so these traits are likely to be over-represented in regions that were historically on the frontier of exploration; conversely, an isolated population is likely to become more introverted and inward focused through the generations as bolder individuals are more likely to choose to emigrate.

[9]A recent series of studies conducted with islanders resident in several isolated Italian archipelagos put these principles to the test. Andrea Ciani at the University of Padova and his colleagues found that islanders are less extraverted and openminded, but more conscientious and emotionally stable, than their mainland neighbours located 10 to 40 miles away.This is likely because, over time, bolder more open-minded individuals have chosen to emigrate away from the islands.

[10]Undoubtedly environmental factors also play a part: for instance,there’s evidence that traits associated with extraversion and openness are lower in regions where risk of infection is greater,which makes evolutionary sense in terms of reducing the spread of disease. Experts have also speculated that differences in climate could in fl uence regional differences in personality, such as cold regions with a lack of sunlight contributing to greater emotional instability.

[11]Even population density could play a part. Recent evidence suggests that living in a crowded environment leads us to adopt a more future-oriented mindset, such as investing more in longterm relationships, perhaps in part as a way to deal with increased competition with other people.

[12]Given how important personality traits are to life outcomes at the individual level—from wellbeing to career success—this issue of national differences in personality is arguably more than a lively conversation topic for a dinner party. Any cross-cultural differences in trait levels at the national level might contribute to, or at least re fl ect, international differences in such things as wealth, happiness, corruption, innovation, and health.

[13]Personality differences around the world might even have contributed to the emergence of different political systems.Last year, Joan Barceló at Washington University in St Louis compared countries’average personality trait levels with their political systems and found a correlation14correlation 關(guān)聯(lián)，相互關(guān)系。:countries with higher average trait Openness tended to have more democratic institutions, an association that held even after factoring out other relevant in fl uences such as economic development. Although we can’t conclude that more of this personality trait in a national population causes democracy (the causal direction could fl ow the other way, for example), Barceló believes this is certainly plausible and that part of the reason is that open-minded citizens are more motivated by selfexpression and less by traditional values.

[14]At the very least, the fi ndings on international differences in personality could be another reason for us to question our assumptions about other countries’ attitudes and behaviours. ■

我們說(shuō)英國(guó)人含蓄內(nèi)向、美國(guó)人自以為是、日本人勤勞肯干，誠(chéng)然有一定夸張的成分，但像這樣的民族成見(jiàn)還是俯拾皆是的。各民族當(dāng)真有其獨(dú)特的性格嗎？

[2]心理學(xué)家對(duì)來(lái)自不同國(guó)家的人進(jìn)行了統(tǒng)一的性格測(cè)試，各國(guó)人數(shù)少則數(shù)百，多則數(shù)千，結(jié)果顯示，不同文化的人群平均得分的確不同。換言之，一個(gè)民族的普遍性格確實(shí)有別于其他民族。

[3]重要的是，民族之間所存在的這些普遍個(gè)性差異并非與我們固有的民族成見(jiàn)完全相同。我們往往會(huì)在一些民族的典型性格定位上達(dá)成共識(shí)，這些民族當(dāng)然也包括我們自己的民族，然而研究卻表明，我們的這些臆斷多半錯(cuò)得離譜。國(guó)際上一些大型研究已經(jīng)證實(shí)了文化間的個(gè)性差異，其中包括由羅伯特·麥克雷與全球各地79位合作者共同完成的一項(xiàng)研究，該研究樣本容量極大，發(fā)表于2005年，描述了來(lái)自51個(gè)文化區(qū)域的12000多位大學(xué)生的性格特征。通過(guò)計(jì)算這些性格特征的平均值，研究人員最終得出各文化的“總體”個(gè)性分值。

[4]在外向性格方面，平均得分最高的文化群體是巴西人、法裔瑞士人和馬耳他人，而平均得分最低的則是尼日利亞人、摩洛哥人和印度尼西亞人。在經(jīng)驗(yàn)開(kāi)放性方面，得分最高的是講德語(yǔ)的瑞士人、丹麥人和德國(guó)人，而得分最低的則是中國(guó)香港人、北愛(ài)爾蘭人和科威特人。此外，在神經(jīng)質(zhì)、責(zé)任感以及隨和性方面，該研究也顯示了各國(guó)所存在的差異。

[5]當(dāng)然，不要忘了，這些結(jié)果都是基于平均值。各國(guó)民眾的性格也存在交集，不少印度尼西亞人肯定要比某些巴西人更為外向。另外，對(duì)于結(jié)果的闡釋?zhuān)泊嬖谝恍?fù)雜因素與爭(zhēng)議，例如，多語(yǔ)版本的個(gè)性測(cè)試問(wèn)卷要確保不同文化背景的測(cè)試者得到完全相同的信息，并確保測(cè)試者真正能代表自身所在的文化，達(dá)到這兩點(diǎn)很難。再者，如果僅靠單一樣本便對(duì)某國(guó)的國(guó)民性妄加推斷，研究結(jié)果未必準(zhǔn)確。

[6]再看另一項(xiàng)關(guān)于文化間的個(gè)性差異的大型研究，該研究發(fā)表于2007年，由布拉德利大學(xué)的戴維·施密特主導(dǎo)，涉及全球56個(gè)國(guó)家，調(diào)查人數(shù)超過(guò)17000人。研究結(jié)果依然顯示，民眾普遍的個(gè)性特點(diǎn)反映出民族差異。例如，針對(duì)神經(jīng)質(zhì)人格所做的測(cè)試中，平均分最高的是日本人和阿根廷人，而平均分最低的人群則集中于剛果民主共和國(guó)和斯洛文尼亞。而在隨和性上，剛果（金）人和約旦人平均得分最高，而日本人和立陶宛人的平均得分則最低。

[7]盡管在不同文化下，不同民族之間，人們的性格存在差異，但這些差異往往并非大家固有的民族成見(jiàn)。對(duì)于一些你所熟悉的文化，你腦海中或許已經(jīng)可以勾勒出該文化人群特有的性格形象。以外向型性格為例，大多數(shù)英國(guó)人可能會(huì)覺(jué)得自己國(guó)家的人一般都比美國(guó)人要保守得多。然而這些關(guān)于民族性格的成見(jiàn)很少準(zhǔn)確。實(shí)際上，在上文所提及的涉及51種文化的研究中，英國(guó)人的外向程度普遍比美國(guó)人高。而涉及56種文化的那項(xiàng)研究則顯示，美國(guó)人的外向程度略微高于英國(guó)人，但兩國(guó)間的總體差異并不大。

[8]如何解釋各民族群體在性格上所存在的差異？也許這在一定程度上與遺傳有關(guān)。民族個(gè)性也可能與歷史上的民族遷徙方式有關(guān)。舉例來(lái)說(shuō)，喜歡冒險(xiǎn)、性格開(kāi)放的人更有移民的傾向，因此在一些歷史上處于邊界的地區(qū)，開(kāi)朗、敢于冒險(xiǎn)的性格往往表現(xiàn)得比較突出。反之，正因?yàn)槟懘蟮娜硕家凭铀?，在原本相?duì)封閉的內(nèi)陸地區(qū)，剩下的人群世代定居，性格也會(huì)變得更加內(nèi)向保守。

[9]最近，帕多瓦大學(xué)的安德里亞·恰尼與同事開(kāi)展了一系列研究來(lái)考證這種觀點(diǎn)，他們選擇了一些與大陸隔絕的意大利群島，對(duì)島上的居民進(jìn)行了測(cè)試。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，島上居民的性格并不如10—40英里之外的大陸鄰居外向開(kāi)放，但他們做事更認(rèn)真負(fù)責(zé)，而且情緒波動(dòng)較少。這可能是因?yàn)?，長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，那些敢于冒險(xiǎn)、思想開(kāi)放的人都已經(jīng)離島移居了。

[10]當(dāng)然，環(huán)境因素也有一定的作用。有證據(jù)表明，在傳染病多發(fā)的地區(qū)，外向開(kāi)放的性格特征較不明顯，從物種進(jìn)化角度看，這有助于減少疾病的傳播。專(zhuān)家推測(cè)，氣候差異也可能造成不同地區(qū)人群的性格差異，例如，光照稀少的寒冷地區(qū)更容易導(dǎo)致人們情緒上的波動(dòng)。

[11]甚至連人口密度也有一定的作用。近期有證據(jù)表明，如果生活在人口密集的環(huán)境中，我們更容易放眼未來(lái)，例如會(huì)更努力維系長(zhǎng)期關(guān)系，或許是為了應(yīng)對(duì)愈加激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。

[12]性格特征不容小覷，關(guān)乎一個(gè)人的幸福乃至事業(yè)的成功。因此，關(guān)于民族間個(gè)性差異的探討可能不僅僅是一個(gè)茶余飯后的熱門(mén)話題。在國(guó)家層面，任何文化間的個(gè)性差異都可能促進(jìn)或至少反映了國(guó)與國(guó)之間在財(cái)富、幸福感、腐敗、創(chuàng)新以及健康等方面的差異。

[13]世界各國(guó)人的性格差異還可能催生不同的政治制度。去年，華盛頓大學(xué)圣路易斯分校的瓊·巴塞洛對(duì)比了各國(guó)民眾的普遍個(gè)性與其政治體系，她發(fā)現(xiàn)：開(kāi)放個(gè)性特征較顯著的國(guó)家，其制度往往更為民主。即使排除了經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展等其他相關(guān)影響因素，這一關(guān)聯(lián)依然成立。雖然我們不能就此斷定，思想開(kāi)放的國(guó)民越多，國(guó)家的制度就越民主（兩者之間的因果關(guān)系也可能倒置：國(guó)家制度越民主，國(guó)民就越開(kāi)放），然而巴塞洛所提出的這種關(guān)聯(lián)多多少少有些道理，她覺(jué)得思想開(kāi)放的公民會(huì)更多地表達(dá)自己內(nèi)心的想法，而很少受到傳統(tǒng)價(jià)值的約束。

[14]最起碼，關(guān)于這種全球范圍的個(gè)性差異的發(fā)現(xiàn)可以讓我們反思之前對(duì)別國(guó)行為和態(tài)度的臆斷吧。 □

不同民族，不同個(gè)性

ByChristian Jarrett

（譯者單位：上海外國(guó)語(yǔ)大學(xué)）