Cameron, L., Erkal, N., Gangadharan, L.,& Meng, X. (2013). Little emperors: behavioral impacts of China's One-ChildPolicy. Science, 339(6122), 953-957.

Introduction 12

China’s One-Child Policy restricts the number ofchildren that urban couples can have to one, with expectations for those from ethnicminorities or with a severely disabled child. The policy has given rise to aland of “little emperors”, whose parents dote on them exclusively. This has ledto widespread concern within China about the social skills of this generationand the observation that these children tend to be more self-centered and lesscooperative. This can be seen in developments such as employers includingphrases like “no single children” in job advertisements. In March 2007, 30 delegatesat the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference called on thegovernment to abolish the policy. Their concerns centered on “social problems andpersonality disorders in young people.”

这是2013年发表在science的文章，science 和nature的文章还是讲究研究与现实生活的联系，研究对现实生活的启发。首先第一段就是简单介绍一孩政策是什么，这个政策的影响是什么，thepolicy have given rise to …., this has led to widespread concern about ….讲了一个非常重要的侧面socialskills, 这也是当前的热点话题，socialskills 的问题。要注意，为什么这个问题会进入到science的眼中，因为这个问题牵扯到劳动力市场，试想80后出生的一代有很多人是独生子女，而现在正是这批独生子女时代的年轻人时劳动力市场的主力，那么这些主力的socialskill 一个在劳动力市场中非常关键的因素，将会是怎么样的，就成为一个非常热门焦点的问题，所以在这一段他也特意提到thiscan be seen in developments such as employers including phrases like “no singlechildren” in job advertisements.

在后面，又进一步描写了这一政策最近的调整，以及调整的原因，部分是跟我们要探讨的socialskills 有关，当然了，这个调整最根本的原因并非这个啦，但是还是要写在这里啦。Socialproblems and personality disorders in young people.

The question about the behavioral consequences of nothaving siblings has been of interest in development psychology for many decades.China’s OCP provides us with a natural experiment that allow us to identify thecausal impact of being a single child.

进一步将研究问题阐明，使用thequestion about…..has been of interest in….for many decades. 这时候一定要用不同的方式来再次阐明问题，例如现在的framing是behavioralconsequences of not having siblings. 然后就要说…provides us with a natural experiment that ….allow us to identify the causalimpact of ….. 关键词natural experiment,causal impact…

Prosocial development is believed to be shaped byparents as well as by social interactions with peers , including siblings. Differentrelationships with parents and lack of interaction with siblings have thus beenidentified in the psychological literature as two reasons why only children maydevelop differently from their counterparts with siblings. For example, parentsof only children may be more responsive to their needs, which may produce agreater sense of security, confidence, and intellectual competence. Parents ofonly children may also be more able to interact with their children in waysthat promote desirable development.  Moreattention from parents can, however, come with downsides in terms of higherexpectations and pressure to succeed in life. Only children are often viewed asdisadvantaged as a result of “sibling deprivation,” which may lead to theirbeing self-centered , less cooperative, and less likely to get along withpeers.

Science和nature的文章通常是研究问题和literaturereview一起写了，我觉得这是一种更为顺畅的方式，你的研究问题正是站在前人的研究基础之上又进一步的挖掘提出来的，所以这一段比较长，分别从不同的方面用心理学的研究发现来描述一孩的特点及其原因。

第一句话是讲prosocial developmentis believed to be shaped….as well as ….前面是换了一个说法讲socialskills, 后面讲了两个关键的自变量。Differentrelationships with parents….have thus been identified in the psychological literatureas two reasons why….. 这是精简的总结literature的一种方法。

后面就是举例子的办法来讲literaure。Forexample, parents…. Perents of only children… 前面是独生子女的优势，后面开始讲劣势，more attentionfrom parents can, however, come with downsides in terms of …. Only children areoften viewed as disadvantaged as result of ….

“sibling deprivation”这个单词我觉得挺好的，非常精简逼真。

In this paper, we describe how we used techniques fromexperimental economics to measure behavioral differences between the pre- andpost- OCP generations. Behavior in economic games has been widely shown to becorrelated with attentions outside the experimental setting. We investigatedthe impact of OCP on altruism, trust, trustworthiness, attitudes toward risk,and competitiveness. The OCP can be thought of as a natural experiment thatenables us to separate out the effect of being an only child from the effectsof family background. In addition to our experimental results, personalitysurvey questions revealed that OCP cohorts are also substantially morepessimistic, less conscientious, and possibly more neurotic.

这一段里有一句话我没有理解：theOCP can be thought of as a natural experiment that enable us to separate outthe effect of being….and the effect of ……不明白计划生育政策怎么就能把这两个效应给分离了呢？

这一段就开始讲研究的目的，方法。Inthis paper, we describe how we used….to measure …. 解释一下behaviorin economic games , has been widely shown to be correlated with attentionsoutside of the experiment setting.  

We investigate the impact of… on….  再解释OCP的重要作用。这个作者习惯先把重点讲清楚，然后再去解释一些细枝末节的东西。

In addition to our experimental results, personalitysurvey questions revealed that….substantially more….,less… and possibly more… 作者非常清楚该讲什么，不该讲什么，要讲的东西都是会吸引你的注意力。

We conducted experiments with participants recruitedfrom the general population of Beijing, where the policy is strictly enforced. TheOCP was introduced in 1979. We required participants to be born in either 1975or 1978 (our pre-OCP cohorts) or in 1980 or 1983 (our post-OCP cohorts).  Parents were also required to have bothparents with urban residency status (hukou) at the time of the participant’sbirth. This sampling ensured that those in the post-OCP cohorts were subject tothe strictly enforced policy and that all the cohorts were similar with respectto their parental hukou status. The final sample consisted of 421 participantsspread evenly across the birth cohorts 1975, 1978, 1980, and 1983, with genderbalance within these cohorts.

我其实对这段是非常质疑的，因为这样的sampling的方法是非常weired，首先，选了4个特定的年份，为什么是这四个，而不是另外四个，其次，parentswith hukou其实这一点也无法确保他们的家庭背景是一致的。此外，生活在北京的独生子女，并不代表广大中国的独生子女，最后，你根本不知道他们是不是在得出结果之后，再去sample的，以确保结果的显著性。

这一部分是关于方法，我们暂且不做讨论。

文章的大致结构是这样的：

China’s One-Child policy restricts…..the policy hasgiven rise to a land …..this has led to widespread concern….this can be seen indevelopments such as ….this concerns centered on….

The question about ….has been of interest in developmental…..formany decades. China’s OCP provides us with a ….. that allow us to identify thecausal impact of being….prosocial development is believed to be shaped by….differentrelationships with… have thus been identified in the psychology literatures astwo reasons why ….for instance,

In this paper, we describe how we use….to measure…behaviorsin economic games has been widely shown to be correlated with …we investigatethe impact of …on….the OCP can be thought of as a ….that enable us to separate outthe effect of … from the effect of ….in addition to our experimental results,personality survey questions revealed that …..