《乌合之众·第一编·群体的心理·群体的情感与道德》第16节
Whether the feelings exhibited by a crowd be good or bad, they present the double character of being very simple and very exaggerated. On this point, as on so many others, an individual in a crowd resembles primitive beings. Inaccessible to fine distinctions, he sees things as a whole, and is blind to their intermediate phases. The exaggeration of the sentiments of a crowd is heightened by the fact that any feeling when once it is exhibited communicating itself very quickly by a process of suggestion and contagion, the evident approbation of which it is the object considerably increases its force. The simplicity and exaggeration of the sentiments of crowds have for result that a throng knows neither doubt nor uncertainty. Like women, it goes at once to extremes. A suspicion transforms itself as soon as announced into incontrovertible evidence. A commencement of antipathy or disapprobation, which in the case of an isolated individual would not gain strength, becomes at once furious hatred in the case of an individual in a crowd. The violence of the feelings of crowds is also increased, especially in heterogeneous crowds, by the absence of all sense of responsibility. The certainty of impunity, a certainty the stronger as the crowd is more numerous, and the notion of a considerable momentary force due to number, make possible in the case of crowds sentiments and acts impossible for the isolated individual. In crowds the foolish, ignorant, and envious persons are freed from the sense of their insignificance and powerlessness, and are possessed instead by the notion of brutal and temporary but immense strength.
注释摘要
勒庞在这一节要论证的是群体情感的两大特征：简单化与极度夸张。他认为，群体中的个人失去了分辨细微差异的能力，看事物只看到整体，看不到中间过渡，就像他眼中的原始人一样。一个人在独处时可能对一个念头只是稍有反感，但在人群中，这种情绪通过暗示和传染迅速放大，起初的怀疑会立刻变成确凿无疑的证据，起初的些许不喜会瞬间变成狂怒的仇恨。勒庞解释说，这背后的机制不仅是情绪的…