作爲奇葩的10種好處(下)

g Cocky Can Be A Good Thing

5.驕傲也許是一件好事

There are some situations where overconfidence can make you feel better and improve your performance. Being cocky, pretentious, and boastful can actually stave off negative and harmful feelings that might otherwise adversely affect us such as depression, doubt, and self-depreciation.

有時候驕傲自大可以讓你自我感覺更加良好並表現得更好。驕傲自負、自吹自擂可以驅散消極有害的情緒，這些情緒有可能會產生低迷、疑慮、自我貶低等不利影響。

Overconfidence also helps change what other people think of you. A study published by the American Psychological Association found that people who overestimated their own abilities were also perceived as more competent by their peers. One such experiment had participants test their knowledge of geography, first alone and then in pairs. Each person secretly rated his or her own abilities along with his or her partner's abilities. The researchers found that those who overrated their own abilities were also more likely to receive higher ratings from their partners. A little cockiness helps us keep our head and remain confident, therefore helping us out when it comes to meeting new people or talking our way through job interviews. Just be careful not to fall into the trap of getting into something that you aren't yet equipped to handle!

驕傲也可以改變別人對你的看法。美國心理學會的一項研究發現，高估自身能力的人會被更多的同伴視爲競爭者。實驗測試了參與者的地理知識，他們先單獨進行測試，然後兩兩合作再做一次測試。每個人都會祕密評估自己和搭檔的能力。研究者發現，對自我評估比較高的人也會在他們的同伴中得到較高評價。小小的自負可以讓我們頭腦清醒並保持自信，因此可以讓我們在新朋友中與衆不同，或是在面試中對答如流，但一定不要讓自己陷入"自不量力"的窘境！

roversy Sells

4.製造爭議的銷售策略

A risky but well-established marketing tactic is to create controversy in order to gain attention and sell more products. Even bad press is still press, and such fervor over a company or product is essentially free marketing that provides intense (but short-lived) boosts in sales.

製造爭議是一種具有風險但行之有效的營銷策略，其目的在於吸引眼球，從而賣出更多的商品。即使是負面新聞也還是新聞，公司或產品能擁有如此高的關注度，本身就屬於免費營銷，會使銷售量急劇增加（但只是短期內的增長）。

In 2014, scientist Matt Taylor was interviewed about how he landed a spacecraft on a comet thousands of miles away, a landmark scientific achievement by anyone's standards. Unfortunately, controversy over his bowling shirt led to what became known as "Shirtstorm" or "Shirtgate." The Verge led the charge with one of the most ridiculous article titles ever written: "I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet, your shirt is sexist and ostracizing." Taylor finally apologized to those he had offended, but Elly Prizeman, Taylor's friend who designed the shirt, was the true victor. She was inundated with orders for the now infamous shirt. This incident was not very different than that of the Protein World fiasco. Their "Are You Beach Body Ready?" advertisements managed to prompt outrage from countless people, including outlets such as BuzzFeed and The Guardian. The ad's detractors slammed it as sexist and body-shaming, and some went so far as to start protests, begin a petition to get the ads removed, and even publicly deface the posters. Some of them later posted their vandalism on social media, which obviously wasn't the smartest decision. The brand ended up gaining plenty of new fans, and their 250,000 pounds campaign turned into over 1 million pounds in direct sales revenue. Perhaps the most famous scandal in recent years was the controversy surrounding The Interview. A rather mediocre comedy caught the attention of moviegoers across America because of the furor that erupted simply because the film dared to parody Kim Jong Un. Movie theaters were threatened with violence if they showed the film, and many major movie chains retracted their showing of the film in response. However, Sony eventually decided to release the film, and it instantly became a hit across the nation with over $40 million in digital sales alone. The controversy ended up making everyone talk about the film, and those who originally had little interest in it ended up wanting to see it. This isn't to say that all of the above people are jerks, but rather that being a jerk and offending people can result in sales.

2014年，科學家馬特·泰勒在接受採訪時被問到，他是如何讓宇宙飛船順利降落到千里之外的彗星上。要知道這可是史無前例的科學成就。不幸的是，他那件頗爲爭議的保齡球襯衫卻引發了"襯衫風暴件"，也可以稱作"襯衫門事件"。邊緣帶頭指責馬特·泰勒，寫了其中一個最滑稽的標題："我不在乎你的飛船是否在彗星上着陸，你的襯衫就是性別歧視和排斥。"最後，泰勒爲他的侵犯性行爲道歉。但泰勒的朋友艾利·羅伯特，這件襯衫的設計者，卻成爲此次事件的最佳受益人。因爲那件臭名昭著的襯衫給她帶來了成堆的訂單。類似事件還有"蛋白世界"的減肥產品。"你的身材準備好去沙灘了嗎？"這句廣告語引起了無數人的憤怒，甚至包括BuzzFeed和《衛報》等媒體。批評者抨擊這則廣告有明顯的性別歧視和身體侮辱等行爲，而且他們當中有人提出抗議，要求撤銷這則廣告。更有甚者，在海報上用塗鴉的方式公開反抗。此外，還有一種非常不明智的做法，有些人利用社交媒體進行網絡暴力。可是，這個減肥產品卻收穫了大量新粉絲。不僅如此，他們僅僅用25萬英鎊的廣告費，就創下了超過一百萬英鎊的直接銷售收入。近幾年來最大的醜聞，可能就是飽受爭議的電影《採訪》了。這部非常普通的喜劇電影因爲滑稽地模仿金正恩，引發了強烈不滿，但同時又吸引了很多美國的電影發燒友的眼球。如果電影院放映這部電影，他們就會受到暴力威脅。對此，各大連鎖影院被迫撤銷播映。然而，索尼公司仍然決定發行這部電影，但不幸的是，一經發行就損失了4千多萬美元。而這部電影卻因爲飽受爭議成爲了人們討論的熱門話題，使原本對此根本沒有什麼興趣的人也想觀看。這不是要大家都成爲混蛋，只是有時候，混蛋做的那些得罪人的事兒卻能夠提高銷售量。

r Can Be Positive

3.憤怒也有積極的一面

Have you ever felt enraged at a perceived injustice, be it something that happened in your personal life or something that you witnessed online? Perhaps you received a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign, or someone chewed you out on social media for no good reason. You might be angry about it, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Nobody enjoys being angry, but there may actually be some surprising benefits to an otherwise negative emotion.

當你感到不公平的時候會很生氣嗎？在你的生活中發生過類似事件嗎？還是說你在網上看到過？你也許因爲沒將車停在有停車標誌的位置而收到罰單，或者有人在社交媒體上毫無理由地嚼你舌根。對此，你可能會很生氣，當然，這並沒有什麼錯。沒有人喜歡生氣，但你要知道，有時候這些負面的情緒卻能帶來意想不到的好處。

Believe it or not, anger makes people less stressed, according to neuroscientists. Heart rate, testosterone, and blood pressure all momentarily rise, but the stress hormone cortisol decreases, suggesting that anger helps people relax before they try to solve a problem. The left frontal cortex also increases in activity if the anger is used to find a solution for the source of the anger. In fact, anger can serve as a powerful motivator to get people to negotiate and work things out. Research from the University of Amsterdam shows that anger is a good way to get what you want from other people. Two experiments had participants try to negotiate with someone else after receiving information about that person's emotions. As predicted, those with angry opponents made larger concessions and lower demands.

不管你相信與否，據神經學方面的專家研究，在人們還沒有解決問題之前，憤怒可以減輕人們的壓力，因爲這時心率、睾丸酮和血壓都會立刻升高，但應激激素皮質醇卻有所下降。如果憤怒是用來尋找解決辦法的話，左額皮質層就會因憤怒的原因而活躍。其實，在很大程度上，憤怒是可以促進人們協商並解決問題的。阿姆斯特丹大學的研究表明，憤怒可以讓你從別人身上獲得你想要的信息。兩組實驗中，參與者在知道對方的情緒問題以後，努力與他們溝通。正如預測一樣，這些人在面對生氣的對手時，都做出較大的讓步，要求更低了。

g A Jerk Inspires Commitment

2.不講人情的領導可以激發鬥志

Jerks know how to put their feet down and demand that something get done. Jerks know how to effectively let everyone know what they want. Jerks know how to tell people not to step out of line. You might be thinking that this all sounds rather Machiavellian, and you'd be right. Being too much of an extreme dictator certainly has its consequences, but just the right amount of jerkiness could pay off.

不講人情的人知道如何拿定主意和完成要求。他們知道如何高效地發揮每個人的職能，也知道如何告知人們不要太與衆不同。可能這樣聽起來，你覺得他們相當於權謀政治家，沒錯，就是這樣。一個極端的獨裁者勢必要承擔一定的後果，不過，也只有適當嚴格要求才能取得成功。

Take Steve Blank from LaunchPad. He had sent out a reminder to all the students that anyone who missed the first class wouldn't be able to register for the course. Once the course began, the students formed teams. Unfortunately, about a quarter of all the teams had at least one member who planned on missing the first day with some sort of excuse. Blank decided to put his foot down and clarify that if they missed the first day, regardless of any excuses, they would not be able to participate. About half the students who originally planned on skipping actually did find a way to make it to the first day. Blank also said that the usual 20 percent dropout rate of the course was reduced to zero. That's not to say that you should rule by fear and dictatorship, as those tactics are proven to reduce employee engagement. But good leaders should be at least a little bit of a jerk to make sure that their employees aren't slacking off or putting in half the effort.

拿史蒂夫·布蘭克來說，他提醒所有學生，任何人錯過第一節課都不能註冊該課程。一旦課程開始，學生們也分好組。不幸的是，大約有1/4的組至少有一個成員是打算以某個藉口不上第一堂課的。因此，布蘭克下定決心，告訴他們如果第一天的課不在，不管什麼理由都不能參加該課程。這樣一來，原先計劃逃課的人大約有一半都想盡辦法出席第一天的課。布蘭克表示，這門課中途退課率由平常的20%減少到0。這並不代表你就要用恐懼和獨裁來制定規則，因爲這些策略被證明會降低員工的敬業度。但優秀的領導者至少應該都有點不講人情，以便確保他的員工不會偷懶或不盡全力。

s Are More Likely To Be Leaders

1."自戀狂"更可能成爲領導者

Any well-known and well-established leader usually doesn't keep his or her own ego in check. Plenty of the world's leaders can easily be described as narcissists, and rightly so. Anyone with that much fame and power is likely to develop an inflated ego. Science proves this, too. A study from the University of Surrey found that more high-level executives had traits of narcissistic personality disorder than criminals at the Broadmoor Hospital. Researchers Board and Fritzon described the executives as "successful psychopaths," while the criminals were labeled "unsuccessful psychopaths."

很多知名的領導者通常不會控制自我，很多世界級領導者容易被人描述爲"自戀狂"，而事實也是如此。任何有一定名望和權力的人都可能會自我膨脹，科學證明的確如此。薩里大學有一項研究發現，高級主管們比起布羅德莫精神病院的罪犯更具有自戀人格障礙傾向。研究員柏德和弗裏森把領導人描述爲"成功的精神病患者"，而罪犯自然就被冠以"不成功的精神病患者"。

In fact, many people with dark personality traits tend to have certain advantages when it comes to climbing the corporate ladder. Manipulators excel in convincing others of their ideas. This should come as no surprise considering that manipulators are, by the very definition, excellent at getting others to do what they want. Those with antisocial personality disorder tend to be good at thinking outside the box and pushing boundaries. Narcissists are great at making a good first impression, according to a 2014 study of 140 people cited in the Wall Street Journal. Narcissists also seem to make better CEOs according to a study led by researchers from Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Santa Clara University. It turns out that narcissistic CEOs tend to keep their jobs longer and make more money than their more selfless counterparts. It should also come as no surprise that those in power—or those who at least feel like they're in power—are the most likely to be corrupt. Dr. Lammers from Tilburg University and Dr. Galinsky at Northwestern University tested this hypothesis for themselves. The researchers asked their 61 participants to remember a time in their life when they were either in high power or low power. Those two groups were then divided by high power and low power and asked to roll two 10-sided dice—one for tens and one for ones—in a private cube and then report their scores. The higher the score, the more tickets they got for a lottery they would participate in after the study. Both groups were asked to evaluate the morality of other people taking the test, and the high power people were far more likely to hold higher moral standards for other people. However, the average self-reported score from the high power group was 72 while the average score from the low power group was 59. It can be inferred that the high power group cheated more, as the average score should have been 50 for each group. That's not to say that there haven't been virtuous or selfless leaders, but the ugly truth still remains. Plenty of today's leaders are narcissists with self-inflated egos, and some of the most reprehensible people we can think of have made their way up the corporate and political ladders.

事實上，在職場升職中，具有黑暗的人格特徵的人有一定優勢。操縱者都擅長"洗腦"，這一點也不驚訝，因爲操縱者從定義上來說，就是擅長讓他人做想做的事情。而那些具有反社會人格障礙的人則擅長跳出固有思維模式，拓寬邊界。2014年，《華爾街日報》對140個人進行調查，結果顯示，自戀者擅長製造好的第一印象。由斯坦福大學、加州大學伯克利分校和聖塔克拉拉大學的研究員進行的一項研究顯示，自戀者在CEO行業裏做得更出色。事實證明，自戀的CEO比無私的同行就職更久，工資更高。那些有權力或自認爲有權利的人最有可能貪污，這點不足爲奇。荷蘭蒂爾煲大學的拉梅爾博士和美國西北大學的格林斯基博士親自測試該設想。研究員要求61名測試者回憶一生中，權力大或權力小的時刻，然後按照結果分成權力大和權力小兩組，要求每組成員丟兩個十面的骰子（一個作爲十位數，另一個則作爲個位數），在一個祕密的空間完成後自報分數。分數越多，他們就能在接下來的研究中得到更多獎券。兩組成員都要評估其他測試者的道德品行，權力大的人對其他人道德標準很高。然而權力大的組自報平均分爲72分，權力小的卻只有59分。所以，我們就能推測權力大的組更擅長欺騙，因爲每一組真實平均分都只有50分。但這並不代表沒有正直無私的領導者，只是醜惡的事實依然存在。如今大多數領導人都是自我膨脹的自戀者，甚至某些我們認爲最應該受斥責的人卻成功地成爲了企業和政治領導人。

審校：莊粉玲 來源：前十網