摘要：美国的年轻人倾向于以零和博弈的视角看待世界，这反映了他们在经济增长相对滞缓的环境中成长的现实——与20世纪四五十年代出生的一代人相比，其所经历的经济增速明显偏低。

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节选自：FT Weekend Magazine – 10 May, 2025

Young people in the US tend to see the world as zero sum, reflecting the fact that they have grown up in a slower-growth economy than those born in the 1940s and 1950s.

美国的年轻人倾向于以零和博弈的视角看待世界，这反映了他们在经济增长相对滞缓的环境中成长的现实——与20世纪四五十年代出生的一代人相比，其所经历的经济增速明显偏低。

A similar pattern emerges across countries: the higher the level of economic growth a person grew up with, the less likely they are to see the world in zero-sum terms. People whose ancestors were enslaved, forced on to reservations or sent to concentration camps are more likely to see the world in zero-sum terms.

这种模式在全球范围内呈现普适性：个体成长时期的经济增速越高，其持有零和思维的可能性就越低。历史创伤（如祖先曾遭受奴役、被驱赶至保留地或关押于集中营等经历）会显著增强零和世界观的形成。

And, intriguingly, while people with little education are often zero-sum thinkers, people with PhDs may be more zero-sum than anyone, which speaks volumes about the scramble for scarce scholarships and research positions in elite education.

而有趣的是，虽然教育程度较低人群常被贴上零和思维标签，但拥有博士学位者可能展现出更强烈的零和倾向——这种现象深刻揭示了精英教育体系中稀缺奖学金与研究岗位的激烈争夺现状。

The world is full of opportunities for mutual benefit, so zero-sum thinking is a tragedy and a trap. But it is not a mystery. If we want to understand why so many people see the world in zero-sum terms, we only have to look at the fact that our dysfunctional politics and our sluggish economies have needlessly produced far too many zero-sum situations. Fix that problem and maybe economics will one day be cool again.

尽管世界充满互利共赢的机遇，零和思维仍成为禁锢人类发展的悲剧性认知陷阱。这种思维并非无迹可寻：当功能失调的政治体系与疲软的经济环境不断制造非必要的零和困境时，大众形成此类世界观便成为必然结果。唯有系统性解决这些结构性矛盾，经济学科或许才能重获现实解释力与社会认同。

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来源：致远教育