????顯微技術讓我們清楚了有關健康的錯誤觀點。望遠技術則告訴我們，我們并不是處在宇宙的中心。

????最近，一項名為功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）的技術向我們展示，長期以來關于人類動機的觀點或許是錯誤的。這項技術可以收集活躍大腦消耗氧氣的圖像。

????社會神經學科的創始人之一馬修?利伯曼在他的新書《社交：聯系刺激大腦之謎》（Social: Why our brains are wired to connect）中便談到了上述觀點。

????正如利伯曼所解釋的那樣，長期以來，我們認為人是理性的、邏輯的作用者，受到自身利益、貪婪與欲望的驅動。這種觀點有一定的道理，但卻并不完全正確。結果證明，另外一個驅動因素至少具有相同的重要性：進行社會交往的驅動力。

????研究顯示：參與慈善活動比贏得金錢更能激活大腦的獎勵系統。泰諾（Tylenol）等止痛藥可以像減輕肉體疼痛一樣，減輕大腦的痛疼。社交遭拒會使人的智商得分降低20%，GRE分數幾乎會減少一半。經常與一位朋友會面與額外得到100,000美元相比，兩者對人幸福感的效果是相同的。經常自愿幫助他人所產生的幸福感與額外獲得50,000美元相當。員工遇到他們的工作所造福的對象后，他們的工作效率往往能提高一倍。人們愿意花30,000美元來換取作為更高地位員工的身份認同。最后，社交活躍與戒煙對健康有著同樣的好處。

????很明顯，社交活動的重要性超出我們的想象。而我們的機構和組織，從政治系統到醫院，從學校到公司，卻都堅信一系列不同的理念：人們受到金錢的激勵，身體健康（而不是社會健康）最重要，而社交需求“可有可無”。

????很久以前，研究人員發現，每當人們努力解決問題的時候，比如做數學題或進行任何分析，包括思考目標的時候，他們會激活大腦前額葉皮層的外側區。上世紀90年代，研究人員發現，當我們在思考其他人和他們的思想、感覺、希望與恐懼時，會調用大腦中一個截然不同的系統。此時，人們激活的是背內側前額葉皮層的一個區域網絡。

????一個人在團隊里能否與其他人配合默契，取決于我們能否理解他人的情緒。相比僅僅關注某個項目的老板，如果你知道員工真正想要的東西，真正關心的事情，你就能夠設計出更好的團隊環境。

????諷刺的是，人類天生可以在心理上“復位”。每次進入一個新環境的時候，他們都會從社交的角度看待這個世界。但現代人對分析思維的重視高于社交思維，所以我們往往會忽視這些自然行為。

????進行社交思維的系統和思考目標與概念的系統就像是一個神經系統蹺蹺板。當你調用其中一個區域的時候，便會抑制另外一個區域的活動。

????我們的組織環境中，有各種體制與流程在促使人們進行理性思考，而不是從社交方面進行思考。在職場上，如果一個人漠視社交線索，肯定會錯過許多重要的信息，失去創造性解決問題的機會。結果，我們認為許多問題都有解析解法，需要做的只是進行正確的計算。但許多最嚴峻的商業挑戰都需要社交性的解決方案。如何讓個人、團隊或整個公司感覺良好？感覺良好的員工工作效率往往更高。

????The technology to see very small things up close showed us we had much wrong about health. The technology to see big things far away showed us we are not the center of the universe.

????More recently, a technology called fMRI, that lets us collect images of oxygen use inside an active brain, has shown us that some of our long-held beliefs about human motivation may be wrong.

????Matthew Lieberman, one of the founding fathers of a field called social neuroscience, tells this story in his new book, Social: Why our brains are wired to connect.

????As Lieberman explains, for a long time we believed that people were rational, logical agents, driven by self-interest, greed, and desire. While this is not untrue, it is only half the story. It turns out that people have another driver that is of equal, if not greater, importance: the drive to be social.

????The studies tell the story: Giving to charity activates the brain's reward system more than winning money. Painkillers like Tylenol relieve social pain the same way they relieve physical pain. Being socially rejected can lower your IQ score by 20% and cut your GRE score nearly in half. Seeing a friend regularly has the same effect on our well being as making an extra $100,000. Volunteering to help others regularly produces the same increase in well being as making an extra $50,000. When an employee meets a person who benefits from their work, that employee can double their productivity. People will pay $30,000 to be recognized as a high-status employee. And, finally, being socially connected is literally as good for your health as quitting smoking.

????Clearly, social activity matters more than we have realized. Yet our institutions and organizations, from political systems to hospitals, schools and corporations, have been built based on a different set of beliefs: that people are motivated by money, that physical -- not social -- health is most important, and that social needs are a "nice to have."

????Long ago, researchers discovered that every time people try to solve a problem -- do math or anything analytical in nature, including thinking about goals -- they activate the lateral region of their brain's prefrontal cortex. In the 1990s, it was discovered, much to our surprise, that an entirely different system was engaged when we think about other people and their thoughts, feelings, hopes, and fears. In this case, people activate a network of regions within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

????The ability to work well with other people in a group depends on our ability to appreciate other individuals' emotions. A boss who knows what his staff members really want and care about will be able to design a better team environment than one who is simply focused on the elements of a project.

????The irony is that human beings are built to mentally "reset" and see the world socially anytime they enter a new situation. However, modern humans tend to value analytical over social thinking, and so we tend to override that natural behavior.

????The system for thinking socially and the system for thinking about goals and concepts function like a neural seesaw. When you engage one region, it dampens the activity of the other.

????Our organizational environments have systems and processes that nudge people to think rationally rather than socially. In the workplace, if you are in a mindset that discounts social cues, you are going to miss a lot of important information around you and a lot of opportunities for creative problem solving. We end up thinking that a lot of problems have analytic solutions; you just have to crunch the right numbers. Yet many of the toughest business challenges require social solutions. What does the person, team, or whole organization need to feel good? People who feel good are generally more productive.