《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体的领袖及其说服手段》第11节
"Man, like animals, has a natural tendency to imitation. Imitation is a necessity for him, provided always that the imitation is quite easy. It is this necessity that makes the influence of what is called fashion so powerful. Whether in the matter of opinions, ideas, literary manifestations, or merely of dress, how many persons are bold enough to run counter to the fashion? It is by examples not by arguments that crowds are guided. At every period there exists a small number of individualities which react upon the remainder and are imitated by the unconscious mass. It is needful however, that these individualities should not be in too pronounced disagreement with received ideas. Were they so, to imitate them would be too difficult and their influence would be nil. For this very reason men who are too superior to their epoch are generally without influence upon it. The line of separation is too strongly marked. For the same reason too Europeans, in spite of all the advantages of their civilisation, have so insignificant an influence on Eastern people; they differ from them to too great an extent. "The dual action of the past and of reciprocal imitation renders, in the long run, all the men of the same country and the same period so alike that even in the case of individuals who would seem destined to escape this double influence, such as philosophers, learned men, and men of letters, thought and style have a family air which enables the age to which they belong to be immediately recognised. It is not necessary to talk for long with an individual to attain to a thorough knowledge of what he reads, of his habitual occupations, and of the surroundings amid which he lives."[17]
注释摘要
这段引文是勒庞自己逐字引自他更早的著作《人及其社会》（1881年），在本书中用来支撑他对传染机制的论述。勒庞在此试图证明：人群中的传染现象并不需要身体在场，它的根基是模仿本能，而模仿本能又受到“容易与否”的严格限制。他把这一主张分解成几个递进的论证环节：第一，人天生倾向于模仿，但仅仅模仿那些不太困难的东西；第二，时尚之所以有支配力，正因为它降低了模仿的门槛…