像汤普森这样的社会名流公开被人揭短可能会给社会带来风险，其中之一是，它可能会让大众更加心安理得地合理化自己的可疑行为。“这种事让我们感觉良好，因为我们的行为与之相比只是小巫见大巫，”汉夫特称。“因此，我们喜欢看到名人或专家垮台。这让我们继续活在自己的幻想里，认为自己的行为依然可以接受。”

    不过，这些小小的谎言可能铸就大错。慢慢地，我们可能会习惯于更大的不诚信做法。因此，不管我们从汤普森风波中学到什么，我们都不应该幸灾乐祸，因为这种想法可能导致我们在生活中编出更大的骗局。

    雅虎一位发言人没有立即回复寻求置评的请求。

    译者：老榆木

    Indeed, one of the dangers of a prominent individual being publicly shamed, as Thompson has been, is that the general public grows more likely to rationalize their own shady behavior. "They make us feel good because it puts our own behavior in perspective," Hanft says. "It's why we love celebrity meltdowns or professional meltdowns. They allow us to continue in our delusion of acceptable behavior."

    However, the little lies can lead to big missteps. They pave the way for us to rationalize larger dishonesty. So whatever we take away from the Thompson episode, we should resist schadenfreude -- it could actually lead us to greater deception in our own lives.

    A spokesperson from Yahoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.