要谈判？先检查一下对方的右手

    假设你最近拒绝给某人涨工资或者升职，现在他开始实施报复——比如，愤然辞职并且带走了一份重要的客户名单。

    一项关于睾丸激素在商业谈判中所起作用的最新研究表明，如果你在提出（或者拒绝）一项提议之前，能够检查一下对方的右手，你就有可能预料到会发生上述事件，甚至还有可能避免出现这种事。具体说来就是，如果某人右手的无名指和食指一样长的话，那你就得小心了。

    如果这两只手指的长度一样或者非常接近，则说明手的主人出生前体内睾丸激素含量就很高，这又进一步说明两点。首先，此人会不惜一切保全自己的地位，维护自己的面子。除非你时时照顾他的自尊，否则他很容易怀恨在心。

    其次，你跟他作对，他就会实施报复。

    上述是一项名为《Lex talionis：睾丸激素与报复定律》（Lex talionis: Testosterone and the law of retaliation）的研究得出的结论。该研究将会发布在下一期的《实验社会心理学杂志》（Journal of Experimental Social Psychology）上。

    Lex talionis是拉丁文，意为“应报正义”（retributive justice）。该项实验是这样进行的：哥伦比亚商学院（Columbia Business School）和西北大学凯洛格商学院（Kellogg School at Northwestern）的研究人员从志愿者中随机抽取48人，让其参加两轮议价。首轮谈判阶段的设计，目的在于要让测试对象完全上当，拿不到他们以为自己能赢得的40美元。研究对象事先未被告知有第二轮谈判；这一轮，局面被设计成与第一轮相反，志愿者得以控制竞价过程，以赢取第二份40美元奖励。

    有些人在第二轮中能够光明磊落，行事公允，他们忍气吞声，将“输掉”首轮的扫兴咽到肚子里，凭着自己的努力，赢得公平的结果。但是，其他的研究对象反应则完全不同。他们胆大包天，向研究人员虚报低价，很明显是要借此挽回首轮失利的损失。

    试验结束之后，研究人员用平板扫描仪测量每个研究对象的右手食指和无名指（从手指内侧掌指关节到指尖）。他们发现，“手指比例”与报复心之间存在直接关系，无一例外：上述两只手指长度差别越小，报复心越强。

    其他许多研究也发现，“手指比例”能显示出生前睾丸激素含量。出生前睾丸激素含量指的是某人出生前从父母处接受的睾丸激素的多少，往往与出生顺序（家庭中年长的孩子的睾丸激素含量通常高于年幼的孩子）或者母亲的基因有关。

    但是，迄今，对谈判策略的行为解释尚未明朗化。

    “睾丸激素是与追求地位和挽回面子的需求有关的荷尔蒙。”该研究报告的联合作者、凯洛格商学院的教授亚当•加林斯基指出。“人们对各种处境的反应方式也因而有天壤之别。”

    “睾丸激素少的人，也就是其食指与无名指长度有明显差异的那些人，虽然也会认识到自己遭受了不公平待遇，但他们很可能只会生闷气，而不会采取报复行为。”

    但是，加林斯基表示：“如果你放眼望去，看到谈判桌对面的人食指与无名指长短差不多或者根本就一样长，那你就得当心了。”你得多花点心思安抚他，并迎合其自尊心，因为如果不这样的话，就“等于去摸老虎的屁股”。

    译者：大海

    Let's say you recently turned someone down for a raise or a promotion, and he has now retaliated -- for instance, by quitting in a huff and taking a valuable client list with him.

    According to a new study of the role of testosterone in business negotiations, you might have foreseen that, and maybe even prevented it, if you had checked out his right hand before making (or refusing) an offer. Specifically, if someone's ring finger and his index finger are the same length, look out.

    Little or no difference in the size of those digits is an indicator of high prenatal testosterone, which tells you two things. First, this is a person who is preoccupied with preserving his status and saving face. Unless you handle his ego with kid gloves, he will be quick to take offense.

    And second, if you cross him, he will get even.

    That's the conclusion of an intriguing study called "Lex talionis: Testosterone and the law of retaliation," to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

    Lex talionis is Latin for "retributive justice," and here's how the experiment went down: Researchers from Columbia Business School and the Kellogg School at Northwestern put 48 randomly selected volunteers through two rounds of negotiations. The first bargaining session was rigged so that the test subjects were, in effect, cheated out of $40 they had thought they could win. In the second round, which the subjects were not told about ahead of time, the researchers turned the tables so that, this time, the volunteers controlled the bidding process for a second $40 pot.

    Some people played fair during the second round, swallowing their disappointment at "losing" the first time and making reasonable efforts to reach an evenhanded outcome. Other subjects, however, responded quite differently. They aggressively lowballed the researchers, clearly determined to get payback.

    After it was all over, the researchers used a flatbed scanner to measure everyone's right-hand index and ring fingers ("from the ventral proximal crease of the digit to the tip of the finger"). In every case, they found a direct correlation between "digit ratio" and vengefulness: The less of a difference between the two fingers, the greater the urge to get even.

    Many other studies have established "digit ratio" as an indicator of prenatal testosterone -- that is, how much testosterone someone was exposed to before birth, often as a result of birth order (older children in a family tend to have more than younger ones) or a mother's genes.

    But until now, the behavioral implications for negotiation strategy have not been clear.

    "Testosterone is a hormone associated with status-seeking and a need to save face," notes Adam Galinsky, the Kellogg professor who co-wrote the study. "It makes a powerful difference in how people respond to situations.

    "People with low testosterone -- that is, with a noticeable difference in the length of their second and fourth digits -- may perceive that they're being treated unfairly, but they're likely to go sulk in a corner."

    However, Galinsky says, "If you're looking across a bargaining table at someone who has a slight difference, or no difference, between the second and fourth digits, be careful." Make an extra effort to mollify that person and stroke his ego, because doing otherwise is "like slapping a sleeping tiger."