So let's start with some research that you did at a level that we understand pretty well here at HBR, which is coworkers and social position.
那么让我们从你所做的一些研究开始说起吧，这是我们在HBR非常了解的内容，关于同事和社会地位。
What do we know about how people perceive the income of people around them, like in their own communities or their own circles?
关于人们如何看待他们周围的人的收入，比如在他们自己的社区或自己的圈子里，我们知道些什么？
Yeah, that's a great question because in the policy debate, an issue that comes up a lot is about relative incomes and how you perceive yourself relative to others.
这是一个很好的问题，因为在政策讨论中，经常提到的一个问题是相对收入，以及你如何看待自己与他人的比较。
So it's not just about how much do you make in absolute, what's your absolute income level, but also about where are you relative to others around you?
因此，这不仅仅是关乎你的绝对收入水平，也是关于你相对于你周围的其他人来说处于什么位置？
And that can shape people's fairness considerations and views on policies.
这可以影响人们对公平的考虑和对政策的看法。
And so we were interested in finding out how much people actually know about how they rank relative to others, and we're interested in various, what you may call, reference groups.
所以我们很想知道人们对于自己与他人的排名知道多少，我们对各种各样的，你可以称之为参照组的东西很感兴趣。
So various groups that may be relevant to your perceptions, like people with the same age as you, people who live in your city, people with the same level of education or in the same sector of work,
可能与你的看法相关的各种群体，比如和你同龄的人，住在你城市的人，教育水平或工作领域相同的人，
but also smaller groups like your immediate neighbors or your coworkers at your workplace, even your former schoolmates you went to school with, et cetera.
但也有更小的群体，比如你的近邻或你工作场所的同事，甚至你以前的同学，等等。
And what we see is that in general, there's this systematic misperception whereby people who are lower in any given group tend to place themselves higher.
我们看到的是，一般情况下会存在一种系统性的误解，即在任何给定的群体中，地位较低的人往往会把自己放在更高的位置。
And the reason they do this is because they do not realize how high the incomes of others are.
他们这样做的原因是他们没有意识到别人的收入有多高。
So if you yourself are lower income, you'll tend to think everyone else has lower too.
因此，如果你自己的收入较低，你会倾向于认为其他人的收入也较低。
And on the contrary, if you are a higher ranked person in a group, you will wrongly tend to think that everyone else is richer too, and so you will tend to place yourself lower.
相反，如果你在一个群体中地位较高，你会错误地认为其他人也更富有，因此你会倾向于把自己置于较低的位置。
This misperception is actually particularly stark when you try to rank yourself in your own sector of work, or among people in your workplace, among your coworkers.
当你试图在自己的工作领域，或者在工作场所，在同事中给自己排名时，这种误解尤为明显。
So people are particularly bad at ranking themselves among coworkers in their sector or firm.
人们特别不善于在自己所在部门或公司与同事们进行排名。
In fact, they're better at ranking themselves among their former schoolmates that they went to school with, or among their neighbors or people in their city, than they are at ranking themselves among people in their firm or sector.
事实上，他们更善于将自己与一起上学的老同学、邻居或所在城市的人进行排名，而不是将自己与所在公司或部门的人进行排名。
What worries you about this?
你对此有什么担心？
Both from a research perspective, but also a policy perspective.
从研究的角度和政策的角度谈一下。
So from a policy perspective, it is interesting that this type of misperception which we call center bias, because you will tend to think you're closer to the center in any group than is actually the case, it appears systematically.
所以从政策的角度来看，这种中心偏见的误解很有趣，因为你会倾向于认为你在任何群体中都比实际情况更接近中心，这是系统性的。
So it is largest within sector or within firm, but it's also there when you ask people to rank themselves in their cohort, among other people in the country, among people in their city, et cetera.
因此，他在部门或公司内是最大的，但当你要求人们在同龄人中，在国家的其他人中，在他们所在城市的人中给自己排名时，他也认为是最大的。
And so there is this consistent pattern whereby your own income really shapes your views on others' incomes.
因此，有一种一贯的模式，你自己的收入会影响你对别人收入的看法。
So someone who's poor will tend to think everyone else is poor too.
因此，贫穷的人会倾向于认为其他人也是贫穷的。
And so that has implications for what policies you may want to support.
这就暗示了你想要支持什么政策。
In particular, if you do not realize the extent to which others in the country, in the firm, in the city are making more, you may actually want to support less redistributive policies, because you do not grasp the extent of inequality there is.
特别是，如果你没有意识到这个国家、公司、城市的其他人赚得更多，你可能会支持更少的再分配政策，因为你没有意识到不平等的程度。
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