Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago.
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2017 Aug;113(2):210-229. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000088. Epub 2017 Apr 17.
Observing other people improve their lives can be a powerful source of inspiration. Eight experiments explore the power, limits, and reasons for this power of personal change to inspire. We find that people who have improved from undesirable pasts (e.g., people who used to abuse extreme drugs but no longer do) are more inspiring than people who maintain consistently desirable standings (e.g., people who have never used extreme drugs to begin with), because change is perceived as more effortful than stability (Experiments 1a and 1b). The inspirational power of personal change is rooted in people's lack of access to the internal struggles and hard work that many others may endure to successfully remain 'always-good.' Accordingly, giving observers access into the effort underlying others' success in maintaining consistently positive standings restores the inspiring power of being 'always-good' (Experiments 2-4). Finally, change is more inspiring than stability across many domains but one: people who used to harm others but have since reformed (e.g., ex-bullies or ex-cheaters) do not inspire, and in many cases are indeed less inspiring than people who have never harmed others to begin with (Experiments 5-7). Together, these studies reveal how, why, and when one's past influences one's present in the eyes of others: having some "bad" in your past can be surprisingly positive, at least partly because observers assume that becoming "good" is harder than being "good" all along. (PsycINFO Database Record
观察他人改善生活可以成为灵感的强大源泉。八项实验探索了个人改变激发这种力量的力量、限制和原因。我们发现，那些从不良过去中改善的人（例如，曾经滥用极端药物但不再滥用的人）比那些一直保持理想状态的人更具激励性（例如，从未使用过极端药物的人），因为变化被认为比稳定更费力（实验 1a 和 1b）。个人改变的激励力量源于人们无法了解许多其他人可能为了成功地保持“总是好的”而忍受的内部斗争和辛勤工作。因此，让观察者了解他人在保持积极状态背后所付出的努力，恢复了“总是好的”的激励力量（实验 2-4）。最后，在许多领域，变化比稳定更具激励性，但有一个例外：那些曾经伤害过他人但后来改过自新的人（例如，前恶霸或前骗子）不会激励他人，在许多情况下，他们甚至不如从未伤害过他人的人更具激励性（实验 5-7）。总之，这些研究揭示了一个人的过去如何、为什么以及何时会在他人眼中影响现在：在你的过去有一些“不好”的经历可能会出人意料地带来积极影响，部分原因是观察者认为变得“好”比一直“好”更难。
