搞笑諾貝爾獎 爲奇葩研究點贊
Congratulations are in order to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom, winners on Monday of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.
恭喜奧利弗•哈特(Oliver Hart)和本特•霍姆斯特姆(Bengt Holmstrom)——2016年諾貝爾經濟學獎(Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics)的得主。
Even though economics is not a full-fledged Nobel Prize, it has been earned by some splendid social scientists over the years — including a number of people who are not economists at all, from Herbert Simon and John Nash to Daniel Kahneman and Elinor Ostrom.
儘管諾貝爾經濟學獎並非根據阿爾弗雷德•諾貝爾的遺囑所設立，但多年來有一些出色的社會科學家獲此殊榮——其中包括一些根本不是經濟學家的人，從赫伯特•西蒙(Herbert Simon)和約翰•納什(John Nash)、到丹尼爾•卡尼曼(Daniel Kahneman)和埃莉諾•奧斯特羅姆(Elinor Ostrom)。
Yet this week I would rather discuss a different prize: the Ig Nobel prize for economics.
不過本週我寧願討論另一種獎項——搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎。
The Ig Nobels are an enormously silly affair: they have been awarded for a study of dinosaur gaits that involved attaching weighted sticks to chickens (the biology prize), for studying stinky feet (medicine) and for figuring out why shower curtains tend to billow inwards when you’re taking a shower (physics).
搞笑諾貝爾獎非常愚蠢：生物學獎頒發給一項有關恐龍步態的研究（涉及給雞捆綁負重棒的方法），醫學獎頒發給研究臭腳，物理學獎頒發給探索在你洗澡時浴簾爲何往往向裏飄的研究。
But one of the Ig Nobel’s charms is that this ridiculous research might actually tell us something about the world.
但搞笑諾貝爾獎的魅力之一是，這些荒唐的研究實際上可能反映了這個世界的一些現實。
David Dunning and Justin Kruger received an Ig Nobel prize in psychology for their discovery that incompetent people rarely realise they are incompetent; the Dunning-Kruger effect is now widely cited.
大衛•鄧寧(David Dunning)和賈斯廷•克魯格(Justin Kruger)因爲發現無能的人很少意識到自己無能而獲得搞笑諾貝爾心理學獎；鄧寧-克魯格效應如今被廣泛引用。
Dorian Raymer and Douglas Smith won an Ig Nobel in physics for their discovery that hair and string have a tendency to become tangled — potentially an important line of research in understanding the structure of DNA.
多裏安•雷默(Dorian Raymer)和道格拉斯•史密斯(Douglas Smith)因爲發現頭髮和線繩傾向於纏在一起而得到了搞笑諾貝爾物理學獎，該發現有可能是理解DNA結構的重要線索。
Most famously, Andre Geim’s Ig Nobel in physics for levitating a live frog was promptly followed by a proper Nobel Prize in the same subject for the discovery of graphene.
最著名的是，安德魯•海姆(Andre Geim)因爲使一隻活青蛙懸浮在半空中而得到搞笑諾貝爾物理學獎，不久後便因發現石墨烯贏得了真正的諾貝爾物理學獎。
A whimsical curiosity about the world is something to be encouraged.
對這個世界充滿異想天開的好奇心應該被鼓勵。
No wonder that the credo of the Ig Nobel prizes is that they should make you laugh, then make you think.
難怪搞笑諾貝爾獎的信條是它們應該讓你發笑，而後引發思考。
In 2001, the Ig Nobel committee did just that, awarding the economics prize to Joel Slemrod and Wojciech Kopczuk, who demonstrated that people will try to postpone their own deaths to avoid inheritance tax.
2001年，搞笑諾貝爾獎委員會就是這樣做的，把搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎頒發了給喬爾•斯萊姆羅德(Joel Slemrod)和沃伊切赫•科普楚克(Wojciech Kopczuk)。他們二人證明，人們將爲了避免遺產稅而試圖推遲自己的死亡。
This highlights an important point about the power of incentives — and the pattern has since been discovered elsewhere.
這突顯了激勵的力量這個重要觀點，自那以來其他領域也發現了這種行爲模式。
Alas, most economics Ig Nobel prizes provoke little more than harsh laughter.
可惜，多數搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎只引發了刺耳的笑聲。
They’ve been awarded to Nick Leeson and Barings Bank, Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and so on.
這些獎項曾經頒發給尼克•裏森(Nick Leeson)和巴林銀行(Barings Bank)、冰島Kaupthing銀行、美國國際集團(AIG)、雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)等。
The first economics prize was awarded to Michael Milken, one of the inventors of the junk bond.
首個搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎頒發給了邁克爾•米爾肯(Michael Milken)——垃圾債券的發明者之一。
He was in prison at the time.
他當時正在監獄服刑。
Fair game.
這些都沒問題。
Still, surely there is something in economics that is ludicrous on the surface yet thought-provoking underneath? (The entire discipline, you say? Very droll.)
不過，經濟學裏肯定有一些表明看起來荒唐、但實際上發人深省的道理吧？（你說，整個學科都是如此？非常搞笑。
Where is the award for Dean Karlan and Chris Udry? These two bold Yale professors wanted to figure out whether lack of access to crop insurance was damaging Ghana’s agricultural productivity, so they set up an insurance company, sold insurance to Ghanaian farmers, and accidentally got themselves on the hook for half a million dollars if it didn’t rain in Ghana.
迪安•卡蘭(Dean Karlan)和克里斯•尤德里(Chris Udry)怎麼沒有獲獎？這兩位大膽的耶魯(Yale)教授想搞清楚的課題是：缺乏購買農作物保險的渠道，是否損害了加納的農業生產率？於是他們創辦了一家保險公司，向加納農民出售保險，意外地讓自己被套牢——如果加納不下雨的話他們會賠進50萬美元。
(Happy ending: it rained.
（大團圓結局：加納下雨了。
Also, crop insurance is very helpful.)
而且，農作物保險非常有用。
Psychologists Bernhard Borges, Dan Goldstein, Andreas Ortmann and Gerd Gigerenzer found they could construct a market-beating portfolio of stocks by stopping people on street corners, showing them a list of company names, and asking which they recognised.
心理學家伯恩哈德•博爾格斯(Bernhard Borges)、丹•戈爾茨坦(Dan Goldstein)、安德烈亞斯•奧特曼(Andreas Ortmann)和格爾德•希赫倫策(Gerd Gigerenzer)發現，通過攔下街頭的行人、向他們展示公司名列表並詢問他們認識哪些公司，他們就可以打造一個跑贏大盤的股票投資組合。
Surely an Ig Nobel in finance?
肯定值得一個搞笑諾貝爾金融獎吧？
Another psychologist, Dan Ariely, already shared an Ig Nobel prize for medicine in 2008 for demonstrating that expensive placebos work better than cheap placebos.
另一位心理學家丹•艾瑞里(Dan Ariely)因爲證明昂貴安慰劑比便宜安慰劑的效果更好，已經在2008年和他人分享了搞笑諾貝爾醫學獎。
But in recent research with Emir Kamenica and Drazen Prelec, described in Ariely’s forthcoming book Payoff, Ariely paid people to build robots out of Lego.
但在最近與埃米爾•卡梅尼察(Emir Kamenica)和德拉任•普雷萊茨(Drazen Prelec)的研究（記錄在艾瑞里即將出版的新書《Payoff》裏）中，艾瑞里僱傭人們用樂高(Lego)搭機器人。
The researchers’ aim: to examine the nature of the modern workplace by dismantling the Lego in front of their subjects’ eyes, to see if they could dishearten them.
研究人員的目的是：在研究對象面前拆解樂高積木，觀察這是否會讓他們灰心，以此來考察現代職場的本質。
(They could.) An Ig Nobel in management beckons.
（他們確實感到沮喪。）這種成果呼喚一個諾貝爾管理學獎。
Richard Thaler deserves an Ig Nobel in economics for his long-running column Anomalies, in which he asked his fellow economists a series of questions that seem straightforward but are enormously difficult for economics to answer.
理查德•塞勒(Richard Thaler)因其長期撰寫的專欄《Anomalies》而值得一個搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎。在專欄中，他會問經濟學同僚一系列看似顯而易見、但以經濟學來看非常難回答的問題。
Why do investment banks pay high wages even to the receptionists? Why do people overpay in auctions? Why are people often nice to each other? If the Ig Nobel committee wants to repeat the Andre Geim trick, it should hurry up: Thaler may well win the economics Nobel before his Ig Nobel can be awarded.
爲什麼投行甚至會給前臺發高薪？爲什麼人們會在拍賣中超額支付？爲什麼人們經常善待他人？如果搞笑諾貝爾委員會希望重複安德魯•海姆的經歷，那就應該抓緊：塞勒很可能會在獲得搞笑諾貝爾獎之前拿到諾貝爾經濟學獎。
But my preferred candidate for an Ig Nobel prize in economics is Thomas Thwaites.
但是我青睞的搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎候選人是托馬斯•思偉茨(Thomas Thwaites)。
A few years ago Thwaites set himself the simple-seeming task of replicating from scratch a cheap Argos toaster (retail price: ￡3.99).
幾年前，思偉茨給自己制定了一個看似簡單的任務——從零開始製作便宜的Argos麪包機（零售價：3.99英鎊）。
He smelted iron in a microwave, tried to produce plastic from potato starch, and generally made a colossal mess.
他在微波爐裏融化鐵，試圖用土豆澱粉製作塑料，結果總體上是一片狼藉。
His toaster cost ￡1,187.54, resembled a disastrously iced birthday cake and melted when plugged into the mains.
他的麪包機花了1187.54英鎊，那臺麪包機就像是一個可憐的生日蛋糕，插上電源後竟然熔化了。
(A partial success, says Thwaites.)
（部分成功，思偉茨稱。
Thwaites’s toaster project thus tells us more about the brilliance and dizzying complexity of the interconnected global economy than any textbook could.
因此，相比課本，思偉茨的麪包機項目向我們展示了更多關於這個互聯互通的全球經濟的美妙和令人眼花繚亂的複雜性。
He is a shoo-in for the economics Ig Nobel.
他完全應該獲得搞笑諾貝爾經濟學獎。
Perplexingly, however, the Ig Nobel committee awarded him this year’s prize for biology instead after he attempted to live life dressed as a goat.
然而，令人費解的是，在思偉茨嘗試打扮成山羊一樣生活後，搞笑諾貝爾委員會反而把今年的生物學家頒給了他。
How silly.
多傻啊。
