来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2020年10月6日
本文适合英语二考生
Whether you are in a small village or a big city, the likelihood that people will help you seems to depend on the neighbourhood’s relative wealth. A series of tests in neighbourhoods across the UK showed that helpfulness didn’t differ based on whether people live in cities or more rural areas.
无论你是在小村庄还是在大城市，人们会帮助你的可能性似乎取决于邻居的相对富裕程度。在全英国的社区进行的一系列测试表明，人们的乐于助人程度并没有因为住在城市还是农村而有所不同。
“There’s no evidence for this idea that city living makes us unfriendly,” says Nichola Raihani at University College London in the UK.
英国伦敦大学学院的尼古拉·雷哈尼说：“没有证据表明城市生活会让我们变得不友好”。
From 2014 to 2017, Raihani and her colleague Elena Zwirner, also at University College London, carried out hundreds of tests in 37 different neighbourhoods in cities, towns and villages across the UK, from Abercynon to Glasgow to Wombourne.
从2014年到2017年，Raihani和她伦敦大学学院的同事Zwirner在英国从阿伯西农到格拉斯哥再到温伯恩的37个不同的城市、乡镇和村庄进行了数百次测试。
One experiment involved dropping stamped, addressed envelopes on the ground to see if people picked them up and posted them. In a variant of this, the letters were put on windshields with a note saying: “Could you post this for me please? Thank you.”
一项实验是把贴了邮票、写了地址的信封扔在地上，看人们是否会把它们捡起来寄出。在另一种实验形式中，这些信被贴在挡风玻璃上，并附了一张纸条，上面写着：“您能帮我邮寄这个吗？谢谢你。”
In another test, Zwirner dropped some cards on the pavement when she was around 5 metres from another pedestrian to see if they would help her pick them up. Sometimes she asked for assistance, while other times she just began picking up the cards. In a third experiment, Zwirner started crossing the road when a car was approaching to see if it would stop.
在另一项测试中，当Zwirner离另一个行人大约5米的时候，她把一些卡片掉在人行道上，看他们是否会帮她捡起来。有时她请求别人帮忙捡起来，有时她只是自己亲自捡卡片。在第三个实验中，Zwirner开始横穿马路，当一辆车靠近时，看它是否会停下来。
The pair found that people living in less urban neighbourhoods were no more likely to help than those in cities. However, people were much less likely to help if they were in deprived areas, as defined by income and employment in the 2011 UK Census.
两位研究人员发现，生活在城市化程度较低的街区的人不比住在城市的人更愿意提供帮助。然而，根据2011年英国人口普查的收入和就业情况，如果人们生活在贫困地区，他们就不太可能乐于助人。
“You are, on average, about twice as likely to be helped in higher-wealth neighbourhoods,” says Raihani.
雷哈尼说：“平均而言，在富裕的社区，你得到帮助的可能性大约是在贫困地区的两倍”。
For instance, in relatively wealthy areas in both cities and towns, around three-quarters of the letters were posted. In poorer neighbourhoods in cities, half were posted. In poorer neighbourhoods in towns or villages, only a third were posted.
例如，在城市和城镇中相对富裕的地区，大约四分之三的信件被寄出。在城市中较贫穷的街区，有一半被寄出。在城镇或村庄的较贫穷社区，只有三分之一的信被寄出。
“With more and more people moving to cities, it would be worrying if city life was making us less likely to help,” says Raihani.
“随着越来越多的人迁往城市，如果城市生活让我们不太可能乐于助人，这将令人担忧，”雷哈尼说。
Some previous studies suggest that wealthier people are less helpful, but these tend to be lab research involving undergraduates, says Raihani. Large surveys of the public, by contrast, back the idea that people who are relatively wealthier are more likely to help.
之前的一些研究表明，较富有的人不那么乐于助人，但这些研究往往是有本科生参与的实验室研究，雷哈尼说。相比之下，大规模的公众调查支持这样一种观点，即相对富裕的人更有可能提供帮助。