Sznycer Daniel, Tooby John, Cosmides Leda, Porat Roni, Shalvi Shaul, Halperin Eran
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660;
Department of Anthropology, Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Mar 8;113(10):2625-30. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1514699113. Epub 2016 Feb 22.
We test the theory that shame evolved as a defense against being devalued by others. By hypothesis, shame is a neurocomputational program tailored by selection to orchestrate cognition, motivation, physiology, and behavior in the service of: (i) deterring the individual from making choices where the prospective costs of devaluation exceed the benefits, (ii) preventing negative information about the self from reaching others, and (iii) minimizing the adverse effects of devaluation when it occurs. Because the unnecessary activation of a defense is costly, the shame system should estimate the magnitude of the devaluative threat and use those estimates to cost-effectively calibrate its activation: Traits or actions that elicit more negative evaluations from others should elicit more shame. As predicted, shame closely tracks the threat of devaluation in the United States (r = .69), India (r = .79), and Israel (r = .67). Moreover, shame in each country strongly tracks devaluation in the others, suggesting that shame and devaluation are informed by a common species-wide logic of social valuation. The shame-devaluation link is also specific: Sadness and anxiety-emotions that coactivate with shame-fail to track devaluation. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first empirical demonstration of a close, specific match between shame and devaluation within and across cultures.
我们检验了这样一种理论，即羞耻感作为一种抵御被他人贬低的防御机制而进化。根据假设，羞耻感是一种经过选择调整的神经计算程序，用于协调认知、动机、生理和行为，以服务于：（i）阻止个体做出贬值预期成本超过收益的选择；（ii）防止关于自身的负面信息传达给他人；（iii）在贬值发生时将其负面影响最小化。由于防御机制的不必要激活成本高昂，羞耻感系统应该估计贬值威胁的程度，并利用这些估计来经济高效地校准其激活程度：那些从他人那里引发更多负面评价的特质或行为应该引发更多的羞耻感。正如预测的那样，在美国（r = 0.69）、印度（r = 0.79）和以色列（r = 0.67），羞耻感与贬值威胁紧密相关。此外，每个国家的羞耻感都与其他国家的贬值情况密切相关，这表明羞耻感和贬值是由一种全人类共有的社会评价逻辑所决定的。羞耻感与贬值之间的联系也是特定的：与羞耻感共同激活的悲伤和焦虑情绪并未与贬值情况相关联。据我们所知，这是首次在文化内部和跨文化层面上对羞耻感与贬值之间紧密、特定的匹配关系进行实证证明。
