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Social psychologists have long been intrigued¹ by what they call automatic behavior–the ways people react to stimuli² without consciously thinking about their actions.
社会心理学家一直对所谓的"自动行为"存有浓厚兴趣，这是人们对刺激产生的未经过有意识思考的反应方式。

All Hot And Bothered
焦虑不安

In fact, it seems that most people can be unconsciously influenced to behave in certain ways. For example, in one experiment, participants were told to unscramble sentences using words such as “bother”, “disturb”, and “obnoxious.” When they completed the task, these participants were more likely to act rudely than participants who were given words such as “patient” and “appreciate.”
实际上，绝大部分人会被无意识地影响，做出特定的行为。例如，在一个实验中，参与者被要求用“烦扰”，“打搅”和“可恶”等词来整理语句。在完成任务时，这些参与者比那些用“耐心”和“赞赏”这类词整理语句的参与者更容易表现得粗鲁一些。

But wait, things get even more interesting. After being asked to unscramble sentences using words such as “old, ancient, Florida, and retired,” participants tended to walk more slowly when leaving the experiment, even though slowness was not mentioned.
但是，等一下。事情变得更加有趣。参与者在被要求用“老年，古老，佛罗里达，退休”等词整理句子之后，当他们离开实验室时，他们更倾向于慢慢行走，虽然实验中并未提及“慢”这个词。

Why?
为什么？

Researchers speculate that words such as “Florida” and “retired” invoke³ stereotypes⁵ of the elderly, and these stereotypes also include slowness.
研究者们猜想，类似于“佛罗里达”和“退休”的词语让人脑中浮现老人的特定印象，而缓慢就是人们对老人的特定印象之一。

This experiment also confirms the power of what is commonly known as self-fulfilling prophecy, the idea that our expectations make us behave (consciously or unconsciously) in a way that makes those expectations come true.
这个实验同时也验证了通常被认为“自我应验预言”的力量。这是一种“我们的期望让我们（有意识或无意识地）按能让期望成真的方式行动”的思想。

When you meet someone who fits into a stereotype⁴, you automatically act toward him or her in a manner consistent with that stereotype. So if you think men in red baseball caps tend to be hostile, when you run into such a man you unconsciously begin to act defensively. That causes the man to react defensively, which then confirms the original stereotype. In short, it’s a vicious cycle, and one that’s not entirely⁶ under our control.
当你遇到特定模式的人时，你会自觉地用那种特定方式回应他（她）。因此，如果你认为戴红色棒球帽的男人可能有敌意，当你撞上这样的男人时你会下意识地表现出防御姿态，这也导致这个男人以防御姿态回应你。如此就印证了你原来设想的印象。简言之，这是个恶性循环，完全超出我们的掌控。