Neumann G H
Rehabilitation (Stuttg). 1978 May;17(2):86-94.
In an article published in this journal (pp. 101-106, 1977) I stated that prejudices towards the disabled cannot only be attributed to societal factors and stressed that the world-wide existence of these negative attitudes can be explained by two biological pre-dispositions, i.e., the inclination to a specific reaction towoards outsiders and the fear reaction towards strangers. Zimmermann and Kagelmann criticise this opinion. They are convinced that these negative attitudes are almost exclusively caused by societal conditions. In this article I reply to their viewpoints and demonstrate that it is not contradictory, as my critics say, that we observe, on the one hand, the widespread existence of a specific reaction towards outsiders, and on the other hand, the occurence of social help amongst animals and human beings. These two attitudes are only antagonistic components of social behavior. The problem of the applicability of animal research results to human behaviour is studied. Zimmermann and Kagelmann's statement that ethologists do not want to see the dangers inherent in the theory of inborn dispositions is vigorously repudiated. It is demonstrated that "inborn" does not mean that this behavioural disposition is determined by fate, since genetic pre-dispositions, too, can be influenced by environmental factors such as education.
在发表于本期刊（1977年，第101 - 106页）的一篇文章中，我指出对残疾人的偏见不能仅归因于社会因素，并强调这些负面态度在全球范围内的存在可由两种生物学倾向来解释，即对外来者的特定反应倾向和对陌生人的恐惧反应。齐默尔曼和卡格尔曼批评了这一观点。他们坚信这些负面态度几乎完全是由社会状况造成的。在本文中，我回应了他们的观点，并表明正如我的批评者所说，一方面我们观察到对外来者的特定反应广泛存在，另一方面动物和人类中又存在社会帮助行为，这两者并不矛盾。这两种态度只是社会行为的对立组成部分。本文还研究了动物研究结果应用于人类行为的问题。我坚决驳斥了齐默尔曼和卡格尔曼关于行为学家不愿看到先天倾向理论中固有危险的说法。事实表明，“先天”并不意味着这种行为倾向由命运决定，因为基因倾向也会受到教育等环境因素的影响。
