助人为乐吗？不，研究表明：助人为“累”_公共英语阅读理解

助人为乐吗？不，研究表明：助人为“累”

Imagine a busy day at work. One of your coworkers walks over to your office and asks for your help — he is struggling to understand some financial projections. You put aside what you’re doing and spend the next 45 minutes helping him sort through the formulas and numbers. He leaves your office with a better understanding of the projections.

假使有一天你工作忙得不可开交。你的一名同事走进你的办公室找你帮忙，说有几处财务预测令他费解。于是你放下手头的工作，用接下来的45分钟时间帮他理清了一些公式和数字。他理清楚迷惑后，总算离开了你办公室。

How would you feel after this interaction? Happy that you helped a coworker in need? Worried that this interruption interfered with your own work? Tired because you spent mental energy working through his problem? Most of the published research on helping suggests that you would feel happy and energized. My personal experiences (and, I am guessing, yours) tend to be mixed.

这时候你是什么感受呢？会为帮了需要帮助的同事而感到开心？还是担心自己的工作被干扰了？或是因耗费脑力在别人的问题上而感到疲惫不堪？大多公开发表过的相关研究表明，自己在帮助人后会感到喜悦且精力充沛。而我个人的体会（我猜你的也是）却是五味杂陈。

助人为乐吗？不，研究表明：助人为“累”1

Indeed, my recent research suggests that responding to help requests at work is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, helping coworkers in need is energizing and replenishing, particularly when that help is perceived as beneficial to coworkers — in other words, when you can see that your help has actually made a positive difference. On the other hand, helping coworkers in need drains the helper’s cognitive and emotional resources, leaving them too tired and depleted to perform subsequent work tasks.