Once upon a time, at this very self-same time of year, a tiny starling flew in through my classroom window in Nanjing’s Xianlin. It began to flap a frantic, feathery circle around the room; some of the kids ducked their heads as it passed, but really, it was so tiny, so insignificant, the starling was far more terrified than any of the students. Until, that is, I managed to fill my lungs and let fly.
从前，在每年的这个时候，一只小椋鹚从我在南京仙林的教室窗户飞了进来。 它开始在房间里疯狂地旋转，像羽毛一样；当它经过时，一些孩子低下了头，但真的，它太小了，太微不足道了，椋鸟比任何学生都更害怕。 直到，就是说，我设法填满我的肺并放飞。
The scream activated my paralysed legs, and the distance to the room across the corridor has never been covered so fast, neither before nor after. My class in tow, the class across the way quite reasonably assumed that we were being pursued by an axe murderer, and a delicious bout of hysteria ensued. Thankfully, my colleague does not suffer from ornithophobia, and quickly dispatched the plumed beast.
尖叫声激活了我瘫痪的腿，通往走廊对面房间的距离从未如此快，无论是之前还是之后。 我的班级拖着我，对面的班级相当合理地认为我们正在被斧头杀人犯追杀，随之而来的是一阵美味的歇斯底里。 值得庆幸的是，我的同事没有患有鸟类恐惧症，并迅速赶走了羽毛兽。
Many years have passed, I am almost recovered, and yet, this five-minute frenzy has stuck with me ever since as a salient example of how easily mass hysteria can ignite.
多年过去了，我几乎康复了，然而，从那时起，这种五分钟的狂热一直困扰着我，作为一个突出的例子，说明大规模歇斯底里是多么容易被点燃。
In the classroom, a basic awareness of crowd psychology and group dynamics is a must if one is to get out of it with their sanity intact. The desire for harmony and conformity within any group facilitates social cohesion, which has led to optimal survival rates for homo sapiens since time immemorial. It’s also led to the ubiquitous rise of The Floss, The Dab, the fidget spinner, slime, stress balls, and poppers, to name but a few of the phenomena that have enchanted the hearts and minds and hands of the masses in recent years.
在课堂上，如果一个人要保持理智，就必须对人群心理和群体动态有基本的认识。 任何群体对和谐和一致性的渴望都促进了社会凝聚力，自古以来，这导致了智人的最佳生存率。 它还导致了The Floss、The Dab、坐立不安的旋转器、粘液、压力球和爆米花的无处不在的兴起，仅举几例近年来迷住了大众的心、思想和手的现象。
Isn’t it lovely when things catch on? Yes, and no is the simple answer to that.
当事情变得流行时，这不是很可爱吗？ 是的，不是这个的简单答案。
For whilst the individual may understand that the purpose of a stress ball is to occupy the hands and free up mental energy to focus on the subject at hand, once the group gets a hold of this satisfying manipulable, it becomes a missile, a weapon, a big messy splodge on the carpet. What, then, turns a group of otherwise sentient and rational humans into a non-sentient, irrational mob?
因为虽然个人可能明白，压力球的目的是占据双手，释放精神能量，专注于手头的主题，但一旦小组抓住这个令人满意的可操纵的东西，它就会变成导弹，武器，地毯上乱七八糟的大。 那么，是什么把一群有知情和理性的人变成了无知情、非理性的暴徒呢？
First off, we need a group; a group here is defined in sociological terms as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular common objectives. This is also one of the most basic organisational structures of humankind, so thankfully, they abound.
首先，我们需要一个团体；这里的团体在社会学术语中被定义为两个或两个以上的个体，相互作用和相互依存，他们聚集在一起以实现特定的共同目标。 这也是人类最基本的组织结构之一，所以值得庆幸的是，它们比比皆是。
Once formed, let the Group Dynamics ferment and bubble. These dynamics depend on attitudinal, behavioural and contextual characteristics, and will influence the structure and processes and overall functionality.
一旦形成，就让Group Dynamics发酵和冒泡。 这些动态取决于态度、行为和背景特征，并将影响结构、流程和整体功能。
In the process, members derive a sense of identity and self-esteem, as well as fostering trust and (hopefully) positive interactions.
在这个过程中，成员们获得了认同感和自尊感，以及培养信任和（希望）积极的互动。
Yet even a cursory scroll through the annals of human history show that sometimes, the group goes bad. According to the Science Daily publication, researchers have found that “being in a group makes some people lose touch with their personal moral beliefs”.
然而，即使是浏览人类历史史册的粗略卷轴也表明，有时，这个团体会变坏。 据《科学日报》的出版物报道，研究人员发现，“在一个群体中，有些人会失去与个人道德信念的联系”。
Cases of mass hysteria have baffled and amused onlookers in equal parts since the dawn of time.
自古以来，大规模歇斯底里的案例同样让旁观者感到困惑和有趣。
According to the book, “Epidemics of the Middle Ages”, by J. F. C. Hecker, a bunch of nuns began to miaow like cats, sometimes miaowing the face off each other for hours on end. Eventually, the neighbors called in the army to whip the cat miaows out of them.
根据J.的《中世纪流行病》一书。 F.C. Hecker，一群修女开始像猫一样喵喵叫，有时会互相喵喵叫几个小时。 最终，邻居们召集了军队，把猫叫声从他们身上抽出来。
In 1518, St. Vitus’ Dance saw over 400 people boogie down in the streets of Strasbourg following a bout of disease and famine. The danced ‘til their feet bled and they passed out, with some of them shuffling off this mortal coil from exhaustion.
在1518年，St. 在一场疾病和饥荒之后，有400多人在斯特拉斯堡的街道上跳舞。 他们跳舞到脚流血，他们晕倒了，他们中的一些人因疲惫而摆脱了这个凡人的线圈。
The city brought in musicians and set up a stage to facilitate the movers and the shakers, but eventually, they banned all dancing and carted off those still busting the moves to the shrine of St. Vitus to be exorcised. A similar psychological illness befell Italians in the south of Italy in the 15th-17th centuries. Known as Tarantism, sufferers danced ‘til they dropped, literally. They also believed that it was caused by a tarantula bite, hence the name.
這座城市引進了音樂家，並設定了一個舞臺，以方便搬運工和振動工，但最終，他們禁止所有跳舞，並把那些仍在破壞搬家的人趕往聖神社。 Vitus将被驱魔。 15-17世纪，意大利南部的意大利人也患有类似的心理疾病。 被称为塔兰特主义，从字面上看，患者们跳舞到跌落。 他们还认为这是由狼蛛咬伤引起的，因此得名。
Salem, Massachusetts, saw the imprisonment of over 200 people, mostly women, and the death by hanging of 19 in 1692 when the town was gripped by an all-consuming terror of witchcraft. One recalcitrant farmer was also pressed to death beneath stones for refusing to give testimony.
马萨诸塞州的塞勒姆见证了200多人被监禁，其中大部分是女性，1692年有19人被绞死，当时该镇被巫术的恐怖所笼罩。 一位顽固的农民也因拒绝作证而被迫死在石头下。
In Tanzania (then Tanganyika) in 1962, three young girls began to laugh at a boarding school in Kashasha. Before long, 95 of the 159 students were LOLing, eventually causing the closure of the school three months later. However, the girls brought the laugher bug with them, with more than 1,000 people affected and 14 schools closing before the laughing pandemic came to an end.
1962年，在坦桑尼亚（当时的坦噶尼喀），三个年轻女孩在卡沙沙的一所寄宿学校开始大笑。 没过多久，159名学生中有95人大笑，最终导致学校在三个月后关闭。 然而，女孩们带来了笑癖，在笑声疫情结束前，有1000多人受到影响，14所学校关闭。
These are but few of the cases of mass hysteria that were significant enough to be recorded. The flight of the starling pales in comparison, thankfully.
这些只是少数足以被记录的大规模歇斯底里病例。 值得庆幸的是，相比之下，椋鼋的飞行显得微不足道。
At times, however, the group may turn this fear and frustration outwards. Little good comes from people goaded to violence. And yet, “a group of people will often engage in actions that are contrary to the private moral standards of each individual in that group, sweeping otherwise decent individuals into ‘mobs’ that commit looting, vandalism, even physical brutality”.
然而，有时，这个团体可能会把这种恐惧和沮丧转向外面。 那些被暴力煽动的人没有什么好处。 然而，“一群人经常会采取违背该群体中每个人的私人道德标准的行为，将原本体面的人席卷成实施抢劫、破坏甚至身体残暴的’暴徒’”。
Concentration camps, Gulags, genocides and massacres provide tragic and irrefutable proof of this. And that’s in the 20th Century alone.
集中营、古拉格、种族灭绝和大屠杀为这一点提供了悲惨和无可辩驳的证据。 仅在20世纪。
Healthy heaping’s of Groupthink tend to reduce the capacity for individual assertion of morals. William H. Whyte Jr. derived this term in 1952, “We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity – it is, after all, a perennial failing of mankind. What we are talking about is a rationalized conformity – an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient but right and good as well”.
健康的群体思维往往会降低个人主张道德的能力。 威廉·H。 Whyte Jr.在1952年推匯出了這個詞，「我們談論的不是只是本能的順從——畢竟，它是人類常年的失敗。 我们谈论的是合理化的一致性——一种开放、清晰的哲学，它认为群体价值观不仅方便，而且是正确和好的。”
Almost two thirds of people will defer to the hive mind when instructed to do so by a figure of authority. The Milgram Experiment in 1974 had one participant electrically shock another for each wrong answer in a controlled setting. With each, the intensity of the shock increased, ‘til reaching a fatal 450-volt shock. 65 percent of participants administered the maximum level of shocks when instructed to do so, presumably “killing” the test subject in the other room. Thankfully, both the shocks and screams of agony were simulacra.
当权威人物指示他们这样做时，近三分之二的人会这样做。 1974年的米尔格拉姆实验让一名参与者在受控的环境中对另一个参与者进行电击，因为每个错误的答案。 随着每一次，电击的强度都会增加，直到达到致命的450伏电击。65%的参与者在被指示时进行了最大电击，估计“杀死”了另一个房间的受试者。 值得庆幸的是，震惊和痛苦的尖叫都是模拟的。
Still though….
不过还是……
Asche’s Conformity Experiment examined behaviour under the pressure of social forces. Participants were asked to look at one line on the left, and choose the line of corresponding length on the right. One line was clearly correct, the other two clearly not. 37 percent of the research subjects conformed with the group in choosing the incorrect line. Over the 12 critical trials, about 75 percent of participants conformed at least once. Only 25 percent never conformed. In a control group, less than 1 percent of the participants gave the wrong answer.
Asche的一致性实验研究了社会力量压力下的行为。 参与者被要求查看左侧的一条线，并选择右侧相应长度的线。 一行显然是正确的，另外两行显然不正确。37%的研究对象在选择错误的行时与该组一致。 在12次关键试验中，大约75%的参与者至少符合一次。 只有25%的人从未符合要求。 在对照组中，不到1%的参与者给出了错误的答案。
Do people act according to their disposition, personality, or because of the situation at hand? We like to think that we are impenetrable paragons of integrity.
人们是根据自己的性格、个性行事，还是因为手头的情况？ 我们喜欢认为我们是不可穿透的正直典範。
An optimistic reading of the above experiments shows that whilst 65 percent of us would fry a fellow human when pressed to conform, another 35 percent would not, and one solid quarter of us would stand firm and call a spade a spade, despite social pressure to conform.
对上述实验的乐观解读表明，虽然我们中的65%的人在被迫服从时会炸死人类同胞，但另外35%的人不会，尽管社会压力要求顺从，我们中的四分之一的人会站稳并称一举成。
Our fragile sense of identity and self-esteem leaves us vulnerable to acts of foolishness at times, if not downright malice.
我们脆弱的认同感和自尊让我们有时容易受到愚蠢的行为的影响，如果不是彻头彻尾的恶意的话。
The starling got out of my room alive because one member of our group had the valor to march right on in there and open up the windows. Had we decided to wage war on the starlings for our own safety, who knows what kind of Lord of The Feathers type scenario might have evolved.
椋鼋还活着走出了我的房间，因为我们团队中的一个成员有勇敢地走进去，打开窗户。 如果我们为了自己的安全而决定向椋鸟发动战争，谁知道羽毛领主类型的场景可能会演变成什么样的。
We must value and honour our diverse and disparate voices, now more than ever.
我们必须比以往任何时候都更加重视和尊重我们不同和不同的声音。
“We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly- that is the first law of nature.” Voltaire.
“我们都是由脆弱和错误构成的；让我们互相原谅对方的愚蠢——这是第一自然法则。” 伏尔泰。