脑科学走进商学院课堂

When Victoria Westerhoff decided to study for an MBA at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school in 2016, an unusual elective caught her eye: consumer neuroscience. The field was important to her — she trained as a cognitive scientist at Yale.

当维多利亚•韦斯特霍夫(Victoria Westerhoff)2016年决定在宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)沃顿商学院(Wharton Business School)攻读MBA学位时，一门不寻常的选修课引起了她的注意：消费者神经学(consumer neuroscience)。这个领域对她很重要——她在耶鲁大学(Yale)学的就是认知科学。

As part of the Wharton course, Ms Westerhoff used an eye-tracking system to assess how much attention she paid to product placement in film clips, and she noted a lift in attention paid to products placed prominently. “The more time your eyeballs are on something, the larger the impact,” she says.

在沃顿商学院的这门课中，韦斯特霍夫使用了眼动追踪系统来评估她对一个短片中所展示产品的关注程度。她注意到，放在突出位置的产品受到关注度会增加。她说：“你的眼球在某个物体上停留的时间越长，它对你产生的影响就越大。”

That research made her realise how science can improve business. Neuroscientific consumer research can be more detailed and effective than traditional methods, such as surveys. “We can capture the emotional responses that help drive unconscious decisions, including what we buy,” Ms Westerhoff says.

这项研究使她意识到，科学对商业会起到多么大的助益。与市场调查等传统方法相比，神经学消费者研究更为详细而有效。“我们可以捕捉到促成无意识决策——包括购买决策——的情绪反应，”韦斯特霍夫说。

Business education is not limited to accounting, strategy and finance. Future leaders are trying out “mind-scanning” electroencephalography (EEG), heart-rate monitors and meditation, as schools create courses at the nexus of business and brain science to help students improve productivity, influence decision-making and handle stress.

商业教育的范畴并不局限于会计、战略和金融。随着学校开设将商业和脑科学相结合的课程，帮助学生提高工作效率、影响决策和应对压力，未来的商业领袖们正在尝试“思维扫描”脑电图、心率监测仪和冥想等方法。

Neuroscience “will play a huge role in the future of business education,” says Michael Platt, a Wharton professor, because “we have reached a point where we understand so much about the human brain — how it processes information — that we can use neuroscience to do business better”.

沃顿商学院教授迈克尔•普拉特(Michael Platt)说，神经科学“将在未来的商业教育中发挥巨大作用”，因为“我们对人类大脑的了解已经达到相当的水平——关于大脑如何处理信息——我们可以利用神经科学来更好地开展业务。”

Thomas Bonfiglio, a regional director with American Medical Response in New York, a medical transportation company, says practising guided meditation with his team at the beginning of meetings has made them more productive. Mr Bonfiglio learnt techniques on a two-day neuroscience for leadership course at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, in 2014.

纽约一家医疗运输公司美国医疗救援(American Medical Response)的地区总监托马斯•邦菲利奥(Thomas Bonfiglio)说，在会议开始时与团队一起练习引导式冥想提升了会议效率。邦菲利奥2014年在麻省理工(MIT)斯隆管理学院(Sloan School of Management)为期两天的领导者神经科学(neuroscience for leadership)课程中学到了这一技巧。

“We have a lot of aggressive, alpha-type personalities,” he says. “It was often difficult to get the group to work together.” But after introducing meditation, they worked more quickly and effectively, Mr Bonfiglio says.

他说：“我们的团队中有很多人属于具有攻击性的阿尔法型(alpha-type)人格。过去通常很难让团队协同工作。”但是，采用冥想方法后，大家的工作进度加快，效率也提高了，邦菲利奥说。

“At first people were sceptical because it took up time. However, I found that instead of arguments, there was more positive discussion, and the tone was more conciliatory.”

“刚开始，大家都持怀疑态度，因为这样做占用了时间。但是，我发现，大家不再争论了，而是更积极地参与讨论，且说话也更加和气。”

Demand 需求

Another reason schools launch neuroscience programmes is because students demand them. At Columbia Business School, enrolment to a three-day “neuroleadership” executive course has increased by 50 per cent over the past two years.

学校推出神经科学课程的另一个原因是因为学生有这方面的需求。哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)为期三天的领导人神经科学(neuroleadership)高管课程的参加人数在过去两年间增加了50%。

“Demand is growing because business leaders who are ahead of the curve know that emotion can impact their performance,” says Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura, Columbia’s director of organisational learning and research.

哥伦比亚商学院组织学习和研究系主任Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura说：“课程需求不断增加，因为那些走在时代前沿的商界领袖知道，情感会影响他们的绩效。”

A moderate increase in heart rate can improve performance because it increases the amount of blood in the brain, and the neurotransmitter activity that enhances cognitive processing, according to Lee Waller, director of research at the UK’s Hult International Business School.

据英国霍特国际商学院(Hult International Business School)研究中心主任李•沃勒(Lee Waller)说，心率适度加快可以让人有更好的表现，因为心律加快会增加大脑中的供血量，并且提高神经传递介质(neurotransmitter)的活性，从而增强认知过程。

“We think clearly, make good decisions and learn well,” she says. But too much stress causes the opposite response as more blood flows to the limbs — known as “fight or flight”— and that reduces cognitive function.

她说：“我们会变得思路清晰，做出明智决定，学习效果也会改善。” 但是，过大的压力则会产生相反的反应，因为会有更多的血液流向四肢——即所谓的“战斗或逃跑反应”——这会降低认知能力。

‘Muscle memory’ ‘肌肉记忆’

Participants on a three-day leadership programme at Ashridge Executive Education, part of Hult, practise stressful scenarios, such as criticising an employee’s performance.

在霍特国际商学院阿什里奇高管教育部(Ashridge Executive Education)举办的一个为期三天的领导力培训项目中，参加者会体验压力情景，如对员工的表现提出批评。

They wear heart-rate variance monitors to understand the impact of stress on their sympathetic nervous system — which activates the fight-or-flight response — and how well their bodies recover.

他们佩戴心率变化监测仪，以了解压力对交感神经系统(激活战斗或逃跑反应的神经系统)的影响，以及身体的恢复情况。

Sport and management 运动与管理

Elite athletes are helping to improve managers’ performance. This year, 100 MBA and executive MBA students from Mannheim Business School will visit TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, a top-tier German football club.

一些优秀运动员也正协助提升管理者的绩效。今年，来自曼海姆商学院(Mannheim Business School)的100名MBA和EMBA学生将访问德国顶级足球俱乐部霍芬海姆足球俱乐部(TSG 1899 Hoffenheim)。

They aim to learn how to use sports analytics — the application of data and analytics to performance management — in business.

他们的目的是了解如何将运动分析方法——利用数据和分析进行绩效管理——运用于商业领域。

TSG teamed up with SAP to place sensors on footballers to gather data from training, such as speed averages and ball possession. The data can be used to personalise training to focus on a player’s strengths or weaknesses, for instance to focus more on acceleration and to assess movement to reduce the chance of injuries.

霍芬海姆足球俱乐部与思爱普(SAP)合作，给足球运动员戴上传感器来收集诸如平均速度和控球等训练数据。这些数据可用于制定个性化训练计划，专门针对每个运动员的优势与劣势，例如，更加专注于加速训练，以及评估其跑动情况来减少受伤几率。

“We will ask the students to come up with ways to use people analytics to improve organisational performance,” says Dr Sabine Staritz, Mannheim director of corporate relations.

曼海姆商学院负责企业关系的主任塞班•斯达利兹(Sabine Staritz)博士说：“我们会要求学生想出一些利用人员分析来提高组织绩效的方法。”

For example, some companies track employees’ heart rate, sleep and other personal data to avoid a different type of injury: burnout.

例如，一些公司跟踪员工的心率、睡眠和其他个人数据，以避免造成另一种类型的伤害：过度疲劳。

“Practice develops ‘muscle memory’: the next time we encounter the experience, our brain remembers how we dealt with it, and we are able to cope with the stress better,” Mrs Waller says.

沃勒说：“练习会形成‘肌肉记忆’：当我们下一次遇到类似经历时，大脑会记得过去的应对方式，从而使我们能更好地应对压力。”

In an ethics course at Kellogg School at Northwestern University, MBA students are taught how neuroscience can “influence people or persuade people”, says Adam Waytz, an associate professor.

美国西北大学(Northwestern University)凯洛格商学院(Kellogg School)的副教授亚当•韦茨(Adam Waytz)说，在该学院的一门伦理学课程中，MBA学生会学习神经科学如何能够“影响他人或说服他人”。

He says research suggests that people are more likely to take moral action, such as donating to disaster relief, when they feel emotion, rather than when presented with reasoning and logic. That understanding may help fundraisers design more effective campaigns, for example.

他说，研究表明，当人们的情感受到触动时，而不是听别人讲道理时，他们更可能采取道德行为，比如向救灾活动捐款。了解这一点可能有助于筹款人员设计更有效的募捐活动。

Expertise 专长

However, neuroscience presents business schools with problems. One challenge they face in teaching the subject is finding scholars who can apply neuroscientific research to business, says Patricia Riddell, professor of applied neuroscience with Henley Business School at University of Reading.

然而，神经科学也给商学院带来了问题。雷丁大学(University of Reading)亨利商学院(Henley Business School)应用神经科学教授帕特里•夏里德尔(Patricia Riddell)说，教授这门课面临的一个挑战是，很难找到能够将神经科学研究应用于商业领域的学者。

“That expertise is in very short supply,” she says. Henley has used academics from University of Reading’s psychology department to teach neuroscience to students on its MA in leadership course.

她说：“拥有这项专业知识的人非常少。”亨利商学院一直用雷丁大学心理学系的学者给选修领导力课程的硕士研究生讲授神经科学。

The greater worry is that neuroscience could be used in a way that manipulates people into buying products, for example, by using stimuli in advertising to activate parts of the brain associated with pleasure.

更大的担忧是神经科学可能被滥用。例如，通过在广告中使用刺激因素来激活大脑中与快乐相关的部分，从而操纵人们购买产品。

“We do not want students to graduate and claim that they have found the ‘buy button’ in the brain,” says Angelika Dimoka, director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at the Fox School of Business.

福克斯商学院(Fox School of Business)神经决策中心主任安格莉卡•迪摩卡(Angelika Dimoka)说：“我们不希望学生毕业后说，他们已经找到了大脑中的‘购买按钮’”。

Fox runs a PhD programme in decision neuroscience. “We teach our students about the ethical use of neurophysiological tools in business, by organising workshops and conferences,” Dr Dimoka says. “But we can’t police every future decision they make.”

福克斯商学院开设了决策神经学博士课程。“通过组织研讨会和会议，我们教学生明白，在商业活动中使用神经生理学工具要合乎道德规范，”迪摩卡博士说，“但是我们无法对他们在未来做出的每一个决定进行监督。”