《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的情感与道德》第7节
The ways in which a crowd perverts any event of which it is a witness ought, it would seem, to be innumerable and unlike each other, since the individuals composing the gathering are of very different temperaments. But this is not the case. As the result of contagion the perversions are of the same kind, and take the same shape in the case of all the assembled individuals. The first perversion of the truth effected by one of the individuals of the gathering is the starting-point of the contagious suggestion. Before St. George appeared on the walls of Jerusalem to all the Crusaders he was certainly perceived in the first instance by one of those present. By dint of suggestion and contagion the miracle signalised by a single person was immediately accepted by all. Such is always the mechanism of the collective hallucinations so frequent in history--hallucinations which seem to have all the recognised characteristics of authenticity, since they are phenomena observed by thousands of persons. To combat what precedes, the mental quality of the individuals composing a crowd must not be brought into consideration. This quality is without importance. From the moment that they form part of a crowd the learned man and the ignoramus are equally incapable of observation.
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段中继续推进他关于群体观察力与真实关系的论证。他提出了一个表面矛盾、实则被他视为群体心理通则的现象：群体中的个体性情千差万别，按理应该会歪曲事件的方式各不相同，但实际情况却恰恰相反。一旦群体形成，歪曲的方式反而变得整齐划一。勒庞用“传染”与“暗示”这两个概念来解释这种趋同性。他认为，第一个个体对真相的歪曲会成为暗示的起点，通过心理传染，迅速被在场…