2018,
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
DOI:
10.1177/0146167218783195
The Cynical Genius Illusion: Exploring and Debunking Lay Beliefs About Cynicism and Competence
Olga Stavrova, Daniel Ehlebracht
Abstract:
Cynicism refers to a negative appraisal of human nature—a belief that self-interest is the ultimate motive guiding human behavior. We explored laypersons’ beliefs about cynicism and competence and to what extent these beliefs correspond to reality. Four studies showed that laypeople tend to believe in cynical individuals’ cognitive superiority. A further three studies based on the data of about 200,000 individuals from 30 countries debunked these lay beliefs as illusionary by revealing that cynical (vs. less cynical) individuals generally do worse on cognitive ability and academic competency tasks. Cross-cultural analyses showed that competent individuals held contingent attitudes and endorsed cynicism only if it was warranted in a given sociocultural environment. Less competent individuals embraced cynicism unconditionally, suggesting that—at low levels of competence—holding a cynical worldview might represent an adaptive default strategy to avoid the potential costs of falling prey to others’ cunning.
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#paper doi:10.1177/0146167218783195 The Cynical Genius Illusion: Exploring and Debunking Lay Beliefs About Cynicism and Competence
本文讨论的话题是“犬儒主义/愤世嫉俗/玩世不恭”，即那些精致利己、精明世俗、常持怀疑论且做预防性推理的人，与之对立的是非犬儒主义者/理想主义者，他们对陌生人的无私行为报以更少的动机揣度。通常，在艺术作品中愤世嫉俗者如福尔摩斯总被刻画成有能力、洞察力强、对环境的适应能力更强的人。为了确认“犬儒主义者是否拥有更强的能力（本文中泛指认知能力、学历、技能等具体技能）”，作者做了6个调查。前3个调查发现，世人的观念中，普遍认为犬儒主义者比非犬儒主义者能力更高，然而在后三个调查中，通过大规模的调查，作者发现真实情况与世人认识相反：非犬儒主义者的能力更强一些，绝大多数参与者预计愤世嫉俗的人在一系列认知任务和认知能力测试中比不愤世嫉俗的人表现得更好。作者分析认为，这可能是因为更高水平的教育和能力可能有助于个人首先发现并避免潜在的欺骗，从而减少负面社会经历的可能性，这反过来可能有助于对人性产生更积极的看法，此外，高水平的能力可能使个人能够正确识别其环境的“腐败”，并调整自己的愤世嫉俗程度以与之相匹配。最后，艺术作品中过于强调“愤世嫉俗的天才”也会强化公众的认知偏见。