《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的一般特征·心理统一律》第7节
If the individuals of a crowd confined themselves to putting in common the ordinary qualities of which each of them has his share, there would merely result the striking of an average, and not, as we have said is actually the case, the creation of new characteristics. How is it that these new characteristics are created? This is what we are now to investigate. Different causes determine the appearance of these characteristics peculiar to crowds, and not possessed by isolated individuals. The first is that the individual forming part of a crowd acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to yield to instincts which, had he been alone, he would perforce have kept under restraint. He will be the less disposed to check himself from the consideration that, a crowd being anonymous, and in consequence irresponsible, the sentiment of responsibility which always controls individuals disappears entirely. The second cause, which is contagion, also intervenes to determine the manifestation in crowds of their special characteristics, and at the same time the trend they are to take. Contagion is a phenomenon of which it is easy to establish the presence, but that it is not easy to explain. It must be classed among those phenomena of a hypnotic order, which we shall shortly study. In a crowd every sentiment and act is contagious, and contagious to such a degree that an individual readily sacrifices his personal interest to the collective interest. This is an aptitude very contrary to his nature, and of which a man is scarcely capable, except when he makes part of a crowd.
注释摘要
从化学的隐喻切入，勒庞在此处要反驳一种看似合理的观点：群体的心理不过是其成员心理的平均数。他坚持认为，群体不是简单加总，而是通过某种化合反应产生出全新的特性。那么，这些在孤立个人身上从未出现过的新特性，究竟从何而来？勒庞在接下来的论证中列出了三个逐步深化的原因，而他用以支撑这些原因的历史素材，暗中呼应着他所亲历的十九世纪末法国政治乱象。 第一个原因，他归之…