The stick really is better than the carrot when it comes to motivating people, a study has found.

一项研究表明，“大棒”比“胡萝卜”更能激励人。

Although modern management and schooling techniques favor praising workers or students, the new research suggests that negative feedback produces more improvement than positive affirmation.

尽管现代的管理和教学技巧都倾向于表扬员工和学生，但这项新研究却认为消极的反馈比积极的表扬更能使人进步。

In fact, punishments were up to three times more effective at improving performance than rewards.

事实上，惩罚在提升表现方面的效果是奖励的三倍。

Dr Jan Kubanek, of the Washington University School of Medicine inSt Louis,US, who lead the study, said: "Our study suggests that negative feedback may be more effective than positive feedback at modifying behavior.

这项研究的负责人简·库班克博士来自位于美国圣路易斯的华盛顿大学药学院，他说：“我们的研究表明，比起积极的反馈，消极的反馈往往能更有效地影响人们的行为。

“Such feedback does not have to be harsh, since it appears that we tend to react in the same manner to any amount of negative feedback.

“这种(消极)的反馈不一定要是严苛的，因为人们似乎会对接收到的消极反馈采取类似的态度来反应。

"From an evolutionary perspective, people tend to avoid punishments or dangerous situations. Rewards, on the other hand, have less of a life-threatening impact."

“从进化的角度来看，人们会自然地倾向于回避惩罚或危险的情况。然而奖励却很少会有像威胁生存这样的影响力。”

The research involved 88 students who were asked to identify the number of clicks sounded in their right and left ears.

这项实验的内容是让88名学生分辨出自己左耳和右耳听到点击声的次数。

Every time a student made a correct choice they were rewarded with a cash sum. But if they gave a wrong answer they had money deducted.

每次作出正确选择的学生会得到一些现金奖励，但是一旦选择错误他们的现金会被扣除。

The research showed that those who had money deducted were more likely to make a correct choice in later rounds.

这项实验的结果表明，那些作出了错误选择而受到惩罚的学生在接下来的测试中正确率更高。

"Objectively, you would think that winning 25 cents would have the same magnitude of effect as losing 25 cents, but that's not what we found,” added Dr Kubanek.

库班克博士表示：“客观上来说，人们可能会认为赢得25美分和输掉25美分的影响没什么不同，但是我们的实验发现却不是这样的。”

Past studies on the effects of rewards and punishments on behavior have been unclear, said the authors.

该研究的作者表示，过去那些有关奖罚机制对人们行为表现影响的研究结果都不够明确。

According to the research, in some situations it may be better to deduct points when students are wrong rather than reward them for correct answers. This may help students avoid making the same mistake again.

根据这项研究，有时候规定学生答错题的时候倒扣分比答对题的时候加分更好。这可能会帮助学生们下次不再犯同样的错误。

Co-author and psychologist Prof Richard Adams said: "The question of how rewards and punishments influence behavior has occupied psychologists for over 100 years.

该研究报告的合作者、心理学家理查德·亚当斯教授说：“奖罚机制会对人们产生怎样的影响是心理学家们近100多年来都在思考的问题。”

"The difficulty has been devising effective tasks to probe that question. We used a simple approach that reveals dramatic differences in the way people respond to different types of feedback."

“解决这个问题的困难在于设计一种可以有效回答它的实验方法。我们采用了一种十分简单的方法来揭示人们针对不同类型反馈产生的相当不同的反应。”

The findings were published in the science journal Cognition.

这项研究的结果已经在科学期刊《认知》上发表。