“冷酷基因”被发现

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'Ruthlessness gene' discovered
Dictatorial behaviour may be partly genetic, study suggests.
研究表明，***行为可能部分源于遗传。

Michael Hopkin

Selfish dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, according to a study that claims to have found a genetic link to ruthlessness. The study might help to explain the money-grabbing tendencies of those with a Machiavellian streak — from national dictators down to 'little Hitlers' found in workplaces the world over.
根据一项声称找到了与冷酷有关的遗传学联系的研究：利己主义的***者其行为部分源于遗传。

Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a link between a gene called AVPR1a and ruthless behaviour in an economic exercise called the 'Dictator Game'. The exercise allows players to behave selflessly, or like money-grabbing dictators such as former Zaire President Mobutu, who plundered the mineral wealth of his country to become one of the world's richest men while its citizens suffered in poverty.
耶路撒冷的希伯来大学研究人员在一个叫做“***者游戏”的经济运动中发现了AVPR1a基因和冷酷行为之间的联系。该运动允许运动员忘我的表现或者像抓钱***者一样，如前萨伊总统Mobutu掠夺本国矿产资源从而成为世界上最富裕的人之一，而其国民确贫困潦倒。

The researchers don't know the mechanism by which the gene influences behaviour. It may mean that for some, the old adage that \"it is better to give than to receive\" simply isn't true, says team leader Richard Ebstein. The reward centres in those brains may derive less pleasure from altruistic acts, he suggests, perhaps causing them to behave more selfishly.
研究人员不清楚基因影响行为的机制。研究小组领导人Richard Ebstein说对于一些旧格言“给比拿好”并不真实。他说人脑中的奖赏中心可能从利他的行为中获取的愉悦比较少，从而使人们表现的更利己。
Prosocial hormone
忠实激素
Ebstein and his colleagues decided to look at AVPR1a because it is known to produce receptors in the brain that detect vasopressin, a hormone involved in altruism and 'prosocial' behaviour. Studies of prairie voles have previously shown that this hormone is important for binding together these rodents' tight-knit social groups.
Ebstein和其同事决定研究AVPR1a基因，因为它可以在脑中产生受体来监测抗利尿激素（一种与利他行为和“忠实”行为相关的激素）。以往草原田鼠的研究表明这种激素对于把这些啮齿类组织严密的社会群里紧密联系在一起是非常重要的。

Ebstein's team wondered whether differences in how this receptor is expressed in the human brain may make different people more or less likely to behave generously.
Ebstein小组想了解是人脑中这种受体的表达差异在人类可能变得大方方面是否有所不同。

To find out, they tested DNA samples from more than 200 student volunteers, before asking the students to play the dictator game (volunteers were not told the name of the game, lest it influence their behaviour). Students were divided into two groups: 'dictators' and 'receivers' (called 'A' and 'B' to the participants). Each dictator was told that they would receive 50 shekels (worth about US$14), but were free to share as much or as little of this with a receiver, whom they would never have to meet. The receiver's fortunes thus depended entirely on the dictator's generosity.
为了找到结果，他们在让200多名学生志愿者参加***者游戏（志愿者被告知游戏的名字，以免影响他们的行为）之前检测其DNA样本。学生们被分为两组：“***者”和“受予者”（分别叫做“A”和”B”）。每一个***者都被告知他们将收到50 shekels（价值14$），但是他们可以和受予者自由的分享或多或少的财富，而这些受予者却没有任何财富，他们的财产完全取决于***者的慷慨。

About 18% of all dictators kept all of the money, Ebstein and his colleagues report in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior 1. About one-third split the money down the middle, and a generous 6% gave the whole lot away.
Ebstein 和同事在《基因、人脑和行为》杂志中报道18%的***者保留了所有的财富。1.大约1/3的***者平分财富，6%的***者全部赠予。

Long and short
基因片段的长短
There was no connection between the participants' gender and their behaviour, the team reports. But there was a link to the length of the AVPR1a gene: people were more likely to behave selfishly the shorter their version of this gene.
研究小组报道参与者的性别和其行为没有联系。但与AVPR1a基因的长度有关联：该基因片段越短，人越自私。

It isn't clear how the length of AVPR1a affects vasopressin receptors: it is thought that rather than controlling the number of receptors, it may control where in the brain the receptors are distributed. Ebstein suggests the vasopressin receptors in the brains of people with short AVPR1a may be distributed in such a way to make them less likely to feel rewarded by the act of giving.
目前尚不清楚AVPR1a基因的长度是如何影响抗利尿激素受体的：可能是通过控制脑中受体的分布而非受体的数量来影响的。Ebstein认为携带短的AVPR1a基因片段的人脑中抗利尿激素受体可能是以一种使其不大能感受到因给予行为而受到奖赏的方式来分布的

Though the mechanism is unclear, Ebstein says, he is fairly sure that selfish, greedy dictatorship has a genetic component. It would be easier to confirm this if history's infamous dictators conveniently had living identical twins, he says, so we could see if they were just as ruthless as each other.
Ebstein说尽管机制还未明了，但他肯定自私贪婪的***是有遗传组分的。他说如果历史上声名狼藉的***者有同卵双生的双胞胎，那么就更容易肯定了，所以我们要看看他们是否都一样的冷酷。

Keen players
Researchers should nevertheless be careful about using the relatively blunt tool of the Dictator Game to draw conclusions about human generosity, says Nicholas Bardsley at the University of Southampton, UK, who studies such games.
英国南安普顿大学研究这类游戏的Nicholas Bardsley说，虽然如此，但研究人员仍然很小心的运用***者游戏这个相对粗略的工具来推出关于人类慷慨的结论。

His research suggests that players who routinely give money away as Dictators are also perfectly happy to steal money off other players in games that involve taking rather than giving. This suggests that the apparently more altruistic players in Ebstein's game may in fact be motivated by a desire simply to engage fully with the game, perhaps just because they feel that that is what's expected of them.
他的研究表明像***者一样常规发放财富的参与者也很愉快的偷取“拿而非给”的游戏中其他参与者的财富。这表明表面上Ebstein游戏中更多的利他主义参与者事实上可能是被能够完全参与游戏的欲望所驱动，也许仅仅是因为他们感觉到参与游戏才是他们所期望的。

If that is true, then apparently ruthless dictators may be motivated not by out-and-out greed but by a simple lack of social skills, which leaves them unable to sense what's expected of them.
如果那是真的，那么显然驱动冷酷***者的力量可能不仅仅是出于彻头彻尾的贪婪而且还有一种单纯的缺乏社会技能，这些都使他们意识不到他们所真正期望的。

That certainly fits with the image of a na?ve yet arrogant dictator with no sense of the inappropriateness of his actions and attitudes. Such figures have cropped up with surprising regularity throughout history, all the way from the emperors of Rome, through to Napoleon Bonaparte, Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein or Robert Mugabe, now tenaciously clinging to power in the face of uncertain electoral results.
那肯定是符合那种意识不到其行为和态度不适宜的幼稚且傲慢的***者形象的，这些形象从罗马君主到拿破仑、墨索里尼、***-侯赛因或者罗伯特-玛考比，在整个历史中出现令人惊异的一致，他们在面对不确定的选举结果时都牢牢坚守权利。