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“大众都是卑鄙的，而无论其是一群人还是一支军队” ~贝尼托·墨索里尼（Benito Mussolini）
How do you imagine an archetypal crowd of people - say at a concert, a sporting event or a demonstration?
当你在设想典型的一个群体时，比方说在一场音乐会上，一次体育赛事又或者是在游行当中，你的感觉是什么？ If you picture an irrational, spontaneous, suggestible, emotional and even potentially dangerous group then you are in good company.
非理性？自发冲动（不作逻辑推理和判断-译注）？易受暗示？情绪化甚至是潜在危险的？如果是这样的话，那么这样想的不光你一个。 Sociologists David Schweingruber and Ronald Wohlstein have found this view of crowds is promoted by many authors of introductory sociology textbooks. Indeed the idea that crowds demonstrate bizarre, almost pathological behaviour was championed by eminent French sociologist Gustave LeBon.
社会学家大卫· 施韦因格鲁伯（David Schweingruber）和罗纳德·沃尔施泰因（Ronald Wohlstein）发现，关于群体的这种见解为许多社会学教科书绪论当中出现的作者所采用。事实上，认为群体表现出的怪异甚至几乎是病态的行为的观点，是由法国著名社会学家古斯塔夫·勒庞（Gustave LeBon）所倡导。 Despite these beliefs both in sociology textbooks and in the general public, the actual evidence does not support it. Crowds are not the many-armed destructive monsters of the popular or even fascist imagination.
尽管在教科书和民间都存在这样的一些观念，但实际的证据却并不支持这些观点。群体并非是由大众当中全副武装、破坏性的，或甚至是充斥着法西斯恶念的“怪物”所组成。 Here are the seven myths about crowds that Schweingruber and Wohlstein identify, in order of how frequently they appear in introductory sociology textbooks.
有关对群体心理学（crowd psychology，从众心理学）的误解，施韦因格鲁伯和沃尔施泰因确认了7项列于下文，按其在社会学教科书绪论中的出现频率排序。 1. Crowds are spontaneous
1.群体是自发冲动的（spontaneous） The most common myth about crowds is that they are spontaneous, or worse, that they are hotbeds of violence, with complete chaos only a few ill-judged jostles away.
对群体最为常见的误解是认为群体是自发冲动的，或者更糟的是，认为（群体）是暴力的温床，彻头彻尾的混沌，仅仅是一些做事不经大脑的脑残人士之间的推搡与冲撞。 Research into crowd violence does not support this. One study of riots shows that violence is normally related to the presence of two opposing factions. Mixed crowds - which are the norm - are in fact usually peaceful and only engage in stereotypical crowd-behaviour, e.g. whistling and clapping, face-painting, singing and shouting depending on the occasion.
（但）对群体暴力所作的研究并不支持这一点。一项对暴动的研究显示：暴力通常与两敌对派系的存在相联系，而单纯由形形色色的个体所组成的群体——这通常是群体的标准形式——事实上是爱好和平并只参与样板化的行为，比如吹口哨，拍掌，画脸，歌唱以及高喊，这要视情况而定。 In reality most people will go to almost any length to avoid actual violence, whether they are in a crowd or not.
事实上，大部分的人——无论其处于群体与否——都会竭尽全力避免实际暴力的发生。 2. Crowds are suggestible
2.群体是易受暗示的（suggestible） The idea that people in crowds have heightened suggestibility is also a relatively common myth. People are said to copy each other, looking for a leader, being open to others' suggestion about how they should behave, perhaps resulting from a lack of social structure.
处于群体当中的个体，其受暗示性也被强化 ，这种误解相对来说也非常普遍。我们会认为，（处于群体中的个体）可能因为社会结构的缺失而互相模仿，寻找一位领导者，并对来自他人的，对自身该有怎样的举止的暗示来者不拒。 Schweingruber and Wohlstein simply find no research to back up this claim. If there is some truth to the idea that people in crowds are suggestible, no one has managed to demonstrate it empirically. One scholar has asked why, if crowds are so suggestible, they don't disperse when asked to do so by an authority figure.
但施韦因格鲁伯和沃尔施泰因就是找不出可以支持这一观点的研究。如果这种观点有一定道理的话，但还是没有人能够通过实验的方法证明它。曾经有位学者就提出这样的疑问，如果群体是如此的易受暗示，那么在权威人物要求他们解散时他们为什么不肯呢？ 3. Crowds are irrational
3.群体是非理性的（irrational） One type of irrationality frequently attributed to crowds is panic. Faced by emergency situations people are thought to suddenly behave like selfish animals, trampling others in the scramble to escape.
在无理性的类型当中，恐慌经常会被认为是群体的一个特征。在面临紧急情况时，人会突然表现得像自私的动物一样，在一阵混乱中相互踩踏以求逃命。 A long line of research into the way people behave in real emergency situations does not support this idea. Two examples are studies on underground station evacuations and the rapid, orderly way in which people evacuated the World Trade Center after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Many lives were saved that day because people resisted the urge to panic. Resisting the urge to irrationality, or panic, is the norm.
但一系列的研究并不支持这种想法。其中有两个例子，就是关于地铁疏散的研究以及911恐怖袭击之后世界贸易中心（World Trade Center）内快速、有序的疏散过程。因为人们抵抗住了恐慌的冲动，很多条生命在那天获得了挽救。抵抗非理性，或者是恐慌的冲动，这是一种常态。 4. Crowds increase anonymity
4.群体增加匿名性（anonymity） A less common myth, but still popular is the idea that people become more anonymous when they are in a crowd. This anonymity is said to feed into spontaneity and even destructiveness, helping to make crowds violent, dangerous places in which society's laws are transgressed.
当处于群体中时，人会变得更加匿名（相互不认识，不了解-译注），这种误解虽不是人人赞同，但还是很有市场。这种匿名性据说会注入到（群体的）自发冲动甚至是破坏性之中，使得群体成为暴力、危险且社会法则被侵犯之地。 Everyday experience, though, is that people usually travel in groups, with their family or friends, and so are not anonymous at all. Research confirms this, for example one study from the 70s found that most people at a football match were with one or more friends. Later research has repeated this finding.
然而，日常我们的经验是，我们通常以集体的方式旅行，和我们的家人或是朋友，因而相互之间知根知底，毫无匿名性可言。研究已经证实了这一点，比如说上世纪70年代的一项研究发现，在足球比赛当中大部分人都有一个或更多的朋友参与比赛，之后的研究也一再重复了这一发现。 5. Crowds are emotional
5.群体是情绪化的（emotional） Less widespread this myth - nevertheless crowds are thought by some to be particularly emotional. It is argued that increased emotionality is linked to irrationality and perhaps violence.
这一误解虽然不那么普遍——然而有些人认为群体尤其情绪化。（群体的）情绪化的增加与非理性甚至可能与暴力相连，这是已经被证明的了。 Modern psychological research, though, doesn't see the emotions as separate to decision-making, but rather as an integral part. To talk about an 'emotional crowd' as opposed to a 'rational crowd', therefore, doesn't make sense. People in crowds make their decisions with input from their emotions, just as they do when they're not in a crowd.
但现代心理学研究并不把情绪看作是与决策无关，而相反是有机的一部分。因此，把“情绪群体”当做是与“理性群体”相对的一个概念来进行探讨毫无意义。群体中的个体在做决定时会掺入他们的情绪，这与个体在独立时的情况一致。 6. Crowds are unanimous
6.群体是“和谐”的（unanimous） Few of the sociology textbooks endorse the myth of unanimity, but the idea does appear that when people are together they tend to act in unison. Research suggests, though, that this is rarely the case - people remain stubbornly individual.
关于这一点，很少有社会学教科书会赞同，但当人们聚集在一起时，他们倾向于一致行动的这一特点便体现了上述观点。然而，研究表明情况很少如此——人们（在群体中）仍然相当地独立。 7. Crowds are destructive
7.群体是破坏性的（destructive） The least common myth in the sociology textbooks, but quite a strong cultural stereotype of crowds, is that they are destructive. This is closely related to the myth of spontaneity and is often connected to violence.
在社会学教科书中，这种误解最为少见，但一种关于群体相当浓厚的文化定式认为，群体是破坏性的。这一观点与自发冲动有紧密联系，并通常和暴力相关联。 Again Schweingruber and Wohlstein find that the research (like this) shows violence in crowds is extremely rare. And what violence does occur is normally carried out by a small minority - these are the people that make it onto the news.
施韦因格鲁伯和沃尔施泰因再次发现，研究表明群体暴力事件的发生极为罕见。但暴力的发生，通常都是由少数人挑起的——正是这些人让群体暴力事件成为新闻。 |
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