Newsletter No. 367

No. 367, 19.11.2010 5 CAMPUS NEWS 校 園 消 息 如何處理不完全理性 • What to Do about Imperfect Rationality 研 究院於10月11日舉辦「研究院講座系列」，由諾貝 爾經濟學獎得主、中大博文講座教授及晨興書院 院長莫理斯爵士主講「如何處理不完全理性」，二百多名中 大研究生及教職員踴躍出席。 莫理斯爵士對不完全 理性理論作出精闢分 析，並闡述其對協助 政府制訂政策的影 響。莫理斯爵士指出 政府為市民釐訂了一 系列的選擇，可是人 民的選擇不完全是 傑出心理學伉儷談措辭及移民問題 • Distinguished Psychologist-couple Shed Light on Words and Immigration at UC 被 譽為心理學界長青樹的美國普林斯頓大學心 理學榮休講座教授郭保山教授（ 下圖， Prof. Sam Glucksberg）及紐約市立大學研究生中心心理學榮休傑 出講座教授杜爾琦教授（ 右圖 ，Prof. Kay Deaux）於10月 15至30日到訪聯合書院，出任2010至11年「到訪傑出學 人」，夫婦二人並分別主持公開講座。《中大通訊》乘此良 機，訪問了兩位心理學大師。 郭保山教授主講的 是「道德風險與媒 體風險：隱喻如何 塑造思想及社會政 策」。他道出了隱 喻於公共場所的應 用，當然也包括傳 媒在內，如何塑造 我們對社會及經濟 議題的看法。郭保 山教授解釋，採用 「救市」、「低下層 住房」相對於「刺 激措施」、「貧民 窟」，意義便大大不同。又如談股票，可以說「上升」、「攀 升」或「急升」，給巿民的印象也有差別，這樣的例子俯拾 皆是。由於無從估計流行隱喻對思想和社會政策的影響， 郭保山教授倡儀要提高公眾對隱喻效果的認知，並換以另 一角度來審視事情。 以性別和移民研究稱著，杜爾琦教授盛讚加拿大和葡萄牙 的移民政策為全球最佳。她表示，加拿大制定了歡迎移民 的計劃，也有關於文化價值和作為加拿大人的身分的明確 機制。葡萄牙則為移民提供職業訓練、求職、語言培訓、居 住及教育等機會。一些歐洲國家如法國、英國及荷蘭等， 則似乎未有充分準備應付湧入的移民。她在「移民的寫 照：轉變的地方及臉孔」講座中，亦討論了近年對移民自身 的經歷之心理研究。 E vergreen scholar-couple, Prof. Sam Glucksberg (left), Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University, and Prof. Kay Deaux (right), Professor Emerita of Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, paid a visit to United College from 15 to 30 October as the College’s Distinguished Visiting Scholars 2010–11. Each delivered a public lecture. The CUHK Newsletter spoke to them both. In his lecture entitled ‘Moral Hazards and Media Hazards: How Metaphors Shape Thought and Social Policy’, Professor Glucksberg described how the choice of metaphor in public discourse, including the media, colour and shape our views of social and economic issues. Professor Glucksberg explained that it makes a world of difference whether you call something a ‘bail-out’ or a ‘stimulus policy’, ‘housing for the poor’ or ‘slum’, even describing stock trends as ‘rising’, ‘climbing’, or ‘sweeping upwards’ has different effects on people’s impressions, and the list is endless. He said while there is no way to measure the impact of prevalent metaphors on thought and social policy, he advocates higher public awareness of the effects of metaphors, and of alternative frameworks with which to view things. Professor Deaux, a social psychologist known for her research on gender and immigration, believes that Canada and Portugal are among the countries in the world with the best immigration policies. Canada, she says, has programmes for welcoming immigrants, and explicit mechanisms in place related to cultural values and a Canadian identity, while Portugal is very well developed in terms of giving immigrants opportunities for skills training, job seeking, language learning, housing and education. Some European countries, such as France, England, the Netherlands, she pointed out, seem unprepared to cope with rapidly increasing immigrants. Highlights of her lecture entitled ‘To Be an Immigrant: Changing Places and Faces’ included how recent psychological research explores the conditions of immigration as they are experienced by the immigrants themselves. 理性的，因此，在制訂最適所得稅率時，必須加入不完 全理性理論。建基於鄧肯．盧斯（Duncan Luce）的研 究，莫理斯爵士權衡最適福利因素和選擇系列後，確立 理論模型，並計算出結果。很多有趣的結論亦引申而來， 莫理斯爵士舉例說：「高度的不理性，意味着選擇應只有 一個。」這樣，「簡單稅制似乎是理所當然的。」 研究院院長黃永成教授表示，研究院講座系列旨在為研究 生提供與國際知名學者交流的機會，領受其真知灼見。講 座系列的概念雖源自藝術界的大師班，但講座適合修讀任 何學科的研究生。 P rof. Sir James Mirrlees, Nobel Laureate in Economics, CUHK Distinguished Professor-at-Large, and Master, Morningside College, spoke to over 200 staff and postgraduate students at the Graduate School Seminar Series held on 11 October. Throughout the hour-long lecture, Professor Mirrlees shared his insights on imperfect rationality and its implication for public policy. He explained that the government’s policies create choice sets for people. However, it is well known that people's choices are not entirely rational. Hence, a theory of imperfect rationality is needed when considering the optimal tax policy. By building on earlier work by Duncan Luce, Professor Mirrlees formulated the problem of optimization of welfare as an optimization over a function of the choice set and he was able to obtain a solution to the model by considering weighted sets. Many interesting conclusions can be drawn from the new theory. For example, Professor Mirrlees stated that ’high irrationality implies that the choice set should be one item’, and ‘plausibly that justifies a simple tax system’. Prof. Wong Wing-shing, dean of the Graduate School, says that the Graduate School Seminar Series is a series of lectures that aim at offering postgraduate students an opportunity to meet with world renowned research leaders in order to learn from their research experiences. Although the series is inspired by the master classes in fine arts, these talks are not restricted to expertise in any particular field.