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去年我去巴尔的摩开会，在楼梯里目睹了下面的事情： 电梯管理员去休息了，电梯口有一个女经济学家等着要进去，另外一个男经济学家要出去。女士停下来让男经济学家先出去，而男士则停下来要女经济学家先进入电梯。 彼此在那里站了好几秒，他们都朝电梯口移了一下——但是当一个人看到另一个人在动时，就重新停下来等对方先过。他们一直站在那里，直到最后开始合上。在最后关头，电梯里面的男经济学家用胳膊猛地撑住即将关闭的电梯。两个人跌撞着从彼此身边走过，迅速交换了位置。最后电梯门关上，当电梯又开始运行时，经济学家听到了这样的话：“礼貌并非处处适用。” Manners Are Never Optimal Last year at the SEA meetings in Baltimore, I was in the elevator and witnessed the following： the elevator gets to the lobby, and there is a woman (economist) waiting to get in and a man (economist) waiting to get out. The woman pauses to allow the man to exit first, the man pauses to allow the woman to enter the elevator first. After a couple of seconds of just standing there，they both make a move for the door—but as each sees the other moving, they pause again to allow the other to go first. More standing still occurs until finally the door starts to close. The man in the elevator jabs his arm out at the last instant to prevent the doors from closing, and the two stumble past each other as they simultaneous switch places. The door finally closes，and as the elevator starts to move the economist is heard to say, under her breath, “Manners are never optimal. ’， |
