匿名性及可見性與人情及面子對專業批評的影響：情境抑或文化？

在華人社會中，進行學術批評是一個兩難──批評者往往掙扎於專業與關係之間而不知應該採取直接或委婉的批評方式。本研究好奇的問題是：批評者會因為當下的匿名情境而直接批評？還是會因為華人的關係文化而採取委婉間接的批評方式？抑或是會受到當下匿名情境與華人文化的交互影響？研究者利用情境故事法，請156位碩士、博士班學生想像自己是故事主角，在一個學術研討會的場合裡正打算進行學術批評。故事中操弄匿名性和可見性兩個獨變項；並測量參加者提出批評時心中的考量，即「個人人情評價」和「保留他人面子」；最後測量他們批評方式的直接性。結果發現，匿名性與可見性對於批評方式的直接性沒有效果；而且無論匿名或可見與否，參加者都是在直接和間接之間採取折衷的方式，以致批評方式直接性的平均數在六點量表中趨於中間。另外發現，「保留他人面子」有主要效果，無論匿名或可見與否，越考量保留他人面子，就越不直接批評；而「個人人情評價」與可見性有交互作用，亦即越考量個人人情評價，就越不直接，尤其是在可見的情況下。此顯示華人的他人取向，一方面焦點關注於他人會使得批評較為委婉；另一方面，在可見情況下，他人的注視使批評者因為在乎個人人情評價而批評起來更加委婉。本研究結果顯現出華人的中庸思維，學術批評者會兼顧專業與關係，在全盤考量了當下情境的匿名性與可見性，以及華人文化下他人與自己的人情與面子後，選出一個最適當的行動方案。最後，本研究指出華人社會裡，即使是在學術討論上，重視做人工夫仍是一個普遍的現象。

關鍵字

自我焦點:他人焦點:中庸

並列摘要

In Chinese society, how to make comments in a academic colloquium is a dilemma—direct criticism for the sake of professionalism, on the other hand, indirect for quanxi. The study examined whether academic comments were influenced by situational anonymity and visibility, or by the Chinese value of favor and face, or by both. Anonymity and visibility were manipulated in the scenario, in which a doctoral graduate was intending to make comments in a conference. 156 master’s and doctoral students were asked to imagine themselves in the scenario and then indicated how they would respond and what they would consider in that situation. Neither significant main effect not interaction of anonymity and visibility on directness of criticism were found. No matter whether the situation is anonymous or visible, mean of criticism directness was approximately at the mid-point on a 6-point scale, which represented a compromise between direct and indirect criticism. Also, there was a significant main effect for “saving of others face”, that is, no matter what the immediate situation was, the more participants considered others’ face, the less they criticized directly. An interaction effect of “self-evaluation about favor” and visibility indicated that the more participants considered their self-evaluation about favor, the less they criticized directly, especially in the visible condition. Chinese’ others orientation was confirmed in the findings. Other-focus made criticism less direct. People were watched in the visible situation so that they concerned for their self-evaluation. Self-focus made criticism less directly. Chinese Zhong Yong thinking style was further discussed. Chinese consider both sides of professionalism and quanxi in academic comments. They thoroughly consider both the situation anonymity and visibility and the Chinese value of others’ face and their self-evaluation about favor, then select an optimal alternative from available solutions. It was concluded that effort to person-making, even in academic colloquium, is pervasive in Chinese society.