We show how spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in the vacuum state of
higher-derivative supergravity is transmitted, as explicit soft
supersymmetry-breaking terms, to the effective Lagrangian of the standard
electroweak model. The general structure of the soft supersymmetry breaking
terms is presented and a new scenario for understanding the gauge hierarchy
problem, based on the functional form of these terms, is discussed.Comment: LaTeX2e with AMS-LaTeX 1.2, 13 page