美国国家公共电台 NPR Anger Can Be Contagious — Here's How To Stop The Spread

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We know many illnesses are contagious¹. Emotions are contagious, too, including anger. As part of our extended look at anger, NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on a strategy to stop it spreading.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE²: Even if you're not aware of it, at some point today, it's likely that your emotions will influence someone around you. Scientist Nicholas Christakis says this can happen during the most basic exchanges, say on your commute³ to work.

NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS: If someone smiles at you, you know, you smile back at them. That's kind of a very fleeting⁴ contagion⁵ of emotion from one person to another.

AUBREY: But does the spread of a smile go beyond the superficial? I mean, do the people around us really help to shape how happy, sad or angry we feel? This is a question that Christakis, who's a professor at Yale University, became interested in way back.

CHRISTAKIS: Could there be emotional contagion that's spread not just in a fleeting moment from one person to another but in a more sustained way?

AUBREY: To figure this out, he and his colleagues did a cool study. They documented the social interactions of about 5,000 people in one town in Massachusetts.

CHRISTAKIS: We were able to map out the face-to-face interactions that thousands of people had across 32 years.

AUBREY: They could show who was connected to who, from spouses⁶ and neighbors and friends to those who were just friends of friends. And they also tracked the emotional status of each of these 5,000 people, capturing their ups and downs with periodic surveys.

CHRISTAKIS: And we were able to show that as one person became happy or sad, it rippled⁷ through the network and affected⁸ not just the people to whom they were directly connected but also the people to whom they were indirectly⁹ connected. So that as you became happy, it made your friends and their friends more likely to be happy and so forth¹⁰.

AUBREY: And it's not just positive emotions that cascade¹¹. Unhappiness and anger can also spread. Here's researcher Jeff Hancock of Stanford University.

JEFF HANCOCK: Negative emotions like anger are more contagious. People pay more attention to them.

AUBREY: This is part of what he found when he did a big study with Facebook. It included nearly 700,000 users whose newsfeeds were altered as part of the study. Some people began to see more negative posts while others began to see more positive posts.

HANCOCK: When good things were happening in your newsfeed, you also tended to write more positively¹² and less negatively. And the effect was a little bit stronger for things like anger and sadness.

AUBREY: Now lots of us have seen this play out in our own social media feeds, especially on Twitter. Late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel pokes¹³ fun at angry tweets by having celebrities¹⁴ and professional athletes read aloud the mean things that have been tweeted about them.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!")

DRAYMOND GREEN: (Reading) Draymond Green's jump shot is almost as ugly as his face - almost.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDRE DRUMMOND: (Reading) Stevie Wonder shoots free throws better than Andre Drummond. Now that's straight disrespectful. Come on, now.

(LAUGHTER)

STEPH CURRY¹⁵: (Reading) Imagine the damage Steph Curry would be doing in the NBA if he didn't have such a girly name.

AUBREY: Ouch. We may laugh at these. But when you're on the receiving end, it can really be hurtful. And it also increases the likelihood that you will lash¹⁶ out in return. The research shows there may be a little troll in all of us, meaning if you read nasty messages and you're in a bad mood, you're much more likely to copy that behavior. Jeff Hancock says one thing that drives this is that when you're behind a screen, the rules of face-to-face interactions don't exist.

HANCOCK: There's fewer cues. So I don't see you, and that makes a little harder to view you as a person. I might not see how my actions towards you affect you.

AUBREY: This is what happened to a Twitter user named Michael Beatty. He lives in Alabama. He's 65, and he served in the military during the Vietnam War. Earlier this year, he got really ticked off when he read a tweet written by comedian¹⁷ Patton Oswalt. It was a negative tweet about President Trump¹⁸. And Beatty says it touched a nerve.

MICHAEL BEATTY: So I did a knee-jerk reaction. And I sent him two tweets back.

AUBREY: They were snarky and sarcastic¹⁹, and Beatty says he regretted them almost immediately.

BEATTY: My return to him was, now I understand why I enjoyed seeing your character in "Blade: Trinity" die so horribly.

AUBREY: It would've been so easy for Patton Oswalt to just ignore these tweets, but he did not. Instead, the actor scrolled²⁰ through Beatty's posts and began to learn more about him. He found out that Beatty had some serious health problems. And after a long hospital stay, he was in debt. So instead of firing back, Patton Oswalt gave Beatty $2,000 to help him pay his bills. And he asked his followers²¹ on Twitter to show their support, too.

BEATTY: I thought I was dreaming and that couldn't happen in real life.

AUBREY: Beatty heard from lots of Oswalt's followers. Some donated money. Others sent well-wishes. Beatty says he was overwhelmed.

BEATTY: It was a cascade effect.

AUBREY: One act of kindness led to the next.

BEATTY: I realized that knee-jerk reactions to things - not the way to go and that getting me to stop and think about things - think about, how have I acted; how have I been; what kind of person have I been?

AUBREY: Instead of dishing out sarcasm²² and personal attacks, Beatty changed his ways. He says it was as if a switch was flipped²³. And Stanford's Jeff Hancock says the story reminds us of what we probably already know.

HANCOCK: There's lots of scientific evidence that when you are kind or express gratitude²⁴, you get all kinds of psychological benefits. It's good for us to be kind, and the story even tells us that. Beatty - you know, he says, I was in a really bad place.

AUBREY: And he was angry, but the empathy shown towards him made him want to be kind. He began to think...

BEATTY: People one on one are caring, generous, helpful. Politics doesn't enter into it. People are good.

AUBREY: He felt his anger fade away, and this showed up in lots of small ways. For instance, he used to have some serious road rage. But now...

BEATTY: That has gone away. I find myself now - if I know someone wants to get over, I'll slow down. I'll wave them in.

AUBREY: So the next time you're tempted²⁵ to respond to an angry post, maybe take a step back, remember this story and remember that anger just leads to more anger. A simple act of kindness can help stop the spread. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF EL TEN ELEVEN'S "MARRIAGE IS THE NEW GOING STEADY")

1 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

4 fleeting   

adj.短暂的，飞逝的

参考例句：

• The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
• Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝，于是让自已尽情地享受。

5 contagion   

n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延

参考例句：

• A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
• The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。

6 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

7 rippled   

使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The lake rippled gently. 湖面轻轻地泛起涟漪。
• The wind rippled the surface of the cornfield. 微风吹过麦田，泛起一片麦浪。

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

10 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

11 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

12 positively   

adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实

参考例句：

• She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
• The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。

13 pokes   

v.伸出( poke的第三人称单数 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• He pokes his nose into everything. 他这人好管闲事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Only the tip of an iceberg pokes up above water. 只有冰山的尖端突出于水面。 来自辞典例句

14 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

15 curry   

n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革

参考例句：

• Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish.有咖喱的菜配米饭最棒。
• Add a teaspoonful of curry powder.加一茶匙咖喱粉。

16 lash   

v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛

参考例句：

• He received a lash of her hand on his cheek.他突然被她打了一记耳光。
• With a lash of its tail the tiger leaped at her.老虎把尾巴一甩朝她扑过来。

17 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

18 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

19 sarcastic   

adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的

参考例句：

• I squashed him with a sarcastic remark.我说了一句讽刺的话把他给镇住了。
• She poked fun at people's shortcomings with sarcastic remarks.她冷嘲热讽地拿别人的缺点开玩笑。

20 scrolled   

adj.具有涡卷装饰的v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的过去式和过去分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Wherever the drop target can possibly be scrolled offscreen, the program needs to auto-scroll. 无论拖放的目标对象是否在屏幕之外，程序都需要自动滚动。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• If It'still is then you've not scrolled up enough lines. 如果还在说明你向上滚动的行数不够。 来自互联网

21 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

22 sarcasm   

n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic）

参考例句：

• His sarcasm hurt her feelings.他的讽刺伤害了她的感情。
• She was given to using bitter sarcasm.她惯于用尖酸刻薄语言挖苦人。

23 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

24 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

25 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。