They were all obsessively studied by Jim Jones, the cult leader who convinced and coerced some 900 members of his People's Temple to drink poison flavor aid in 1978 in what came to be called the Jonestown Massacre.

吉姆-瓊斯是一位邪教領袖，他在 1978 年說服並脅迫其 "人民聖殿教 "的約 900 名成員喝下毒藥調味劑，製造了後來被稱為 "瓊尼斯鎮大屠殺 "的事件。

All these figures are known as charismatic leaders, people who inspire intense devotion or emotional attachment in their followers through their communication skills.

所有這些人物都被稱為魅力型領導人，他們通過自己的溝通技巧激發追隨者的強烈奉獻精神或情感依戀。

While Jones had little in common with these men spiritually or philosophically, he was fascinated with their ability to sway people.

雖然瓊斯在精神或哲學上與這些人沒有什麼共同之處，但他對這些人動搖人心的能力非常著迷。

Even from a young age, he exhibited a desire to control, and he knew that the best tool for the job was language.

他從小就表現出一種控制慾，他知道語言是最好的工具。

I'm Dr. Erika Brzozowski, and this is Otherwords.

我是Erika Brzozowski博士 這裡是 "異語

Otherwords.

其他語言

Men have so dastardly distorted what my spirit is.

人類如此卑鄙地扭曲了我的精神。

You can't go against that culture because going against that culture...

你不能違背這種文化，因為違背這種文化...

My father gave me, long before this seminar...

早在這次研討會之前，我父親就給了我...

If there's one thing that cult leaders do, it's talk.

如果說邪教領袖最擅長的是什麼，那就是說話。

A lot.

很多。

Like Jim Jones, Heavensgate's Marshall Applewhite, or NXIVM's Keith Raniere, the traditional image of a cult leader is a person, usually but not always male, orating for hours on end while a congregation hangs on his every word.

與吉姆-瓊斯、"天堂之門 "的馬歇爾-阿普爾懷特或 NXIVM 的基思-拉尼爾一樣，邪教領袖的傳統形象是一個人（通常但不一定都是男性）連續演講數小時，而會眾則對他的每一句話都翹首以待。

While there are common linguistic features of cult leader speech, which we'll get to in a bit, the quantity of words seems to matter as well.

雖然邪教領袖講話有一些共同的語言特點，我們稍後會討論到，但字數似乎也很重要。

For decades, researchers have been testing the Babel hypothesis, which proposes that leaders are chosen for how much they speak rather than the quality of their ideas.

幾十年來，研究人員一直在驗證 "巴別假說"（Babel hypothesis），該假說認為，領導者之所以被選中，是因為他們說得多，而不是因為他們的思想品質高。

Since the 1950s, scientists and psychologists have been questioning the theory's credibility, but in 2020, the most thorough tests ever conducted had surprising results.

自 20 世紀 50 年代以來，科學家和心理學家一直在質疑這一理論的可信度，但在 2020 年，有史以來最徹底的測試得出了令人驚訝的結果。

Diverse groups of people with varying personalities and skill sets were tasked to solve challenging strategy games as a team.

由不同性格和技能的人組成的不同小組的任務是以團隊的形式解決具有挑戰性的戰略遊戲。

Each member's total speaking time was carefully measured, as well as the substance of their utterances.

每位成員的總髮言時間及其發言內容都經過仔細測量。

Afterwards, the subjects were all asked to nominate other group members for leadership positions.

之後，受試者都被要求提名其他小組成員擔任上司職位。

The results weren't even close.

結果根本不相上下。

Speaking time had by far the highest correlation with leadership emergence, beating out intelligence, agreeableness, game proficiency, and even extroversion.

到目前為止，演講時間與領導力崛起的相關性最高，超過了智力、合群性、遊戲熟練度，甚至外向性。

The only other factor that came close was gender.

唯一接近的其他因素是性別。

While the study doesn't purport to explain the psychological factors behind it, it seems likely that humans use quantity of speech as a mental shortcut to determine who would make a good leader.

雖然這項研究並不打算解釋其背後的心理因素，但人類似乎很可能把說話的數量作為一種心理捷徑，來判斷誰會成為一個好的領導者。

If everyone else is listening to this guy, maybe I should too.

如果其他人都在聽這傢伙的話，也許我也該聽聽。

But not all leaders are cult leaders.

但並非所有領袖都是邪教領袖。

In her book Cultished, linguist Amanda Montell seeks to tease out some common linguistic features of the men and women who run so-called destructive cults, authoritarian groups that exploit or otherwise cause harm to their members.

語言學家阿曼達-蒙泰爾（Amanda Montell）在她的《邪教》（Cultished）一書中，試圖找出經營所謂破壞性邪教（剝削或以其他方式傷害成員的獨裁團體）的男人和女人的一些共同語言特徵。

And one of the most common is loaded language.

而其中最常見的一種就是負載語言。

Loaded language is a general term for words or phrases that have deep emotional associations for the listener, like genocide, patriot, toxic, or vermin.

有感情色彩的語言是指對聽者有深刻情感聯想的單詞或短語的總稱，如種族滅絕、愛國者、有毒或害蟲。

Cult leaders will craft their loaded language to have specific connotations.

邪教領袖會精心設計他們的語言，使其具有特定的內涵。

David Koresh used the phrase New Light to cast his teachings as divine inspiration.

大衛-科雷什用 "新光 "一詞將自己的教義說成是神的啟示。

Charles Manson repurposed the Beatles song lyric Helter Skelter to refer to an imminent race war.

查爾斯-曼森（Charles Manson）將披頭士樂隊的歌詞 "Helter Skelter "改編成了 "即將到來的種族戰爭"。

And Jim Jones borrowed the term revolutionary suicide from Black Panther activists to equate his plan for mass suicide with resistance to authoritarian state power.

吉姆-瓊斯從黑豹黨活動分子那裡借用了 "革命性自殺 "一詞，把他的集體自殺計劃等同於反抗專制國家權力。

Through repetition, these leaders ingrain an intense emotional association in their followers' psyche so that eventually, just invoking a short phrase can instantly summon powerful feelings of beauty, love, fear, or hatred.

通過不斷重複，這些領導者在追隨者的心靈中根深蒂固地形成了一種強烈的情感聯想，以至於最終，只需調用一個簡短的短語，就能立即喚起強烈的美、愛、恐懼或仇恨的情感。

It's like creating linguistic buttons that can be pushed to generate an immediate response.

這就像創造語言按鈕，按下按鈕就能立即產生反應。

Another trick in the cult leader's language toolkit is the thought-terminating cliche.

邪教領袖語言工具包中的另一個伎倆是陳詞濫調。

These are sayings that end uncomfortable conversations or trains of thoughts.

這些諺語可以結束令人不舒服的對話或思緒。

It is what it is.

它就是它。

Everything happens for a reason.

凡事皆有因果。

Let's agree to disagree.

讓我們達成共識吧。

They shut down argument and critical thinking, which is why they're so handy to authoritarians who don't like to be questioned.

它們扼殺了爭論和批判性思維，這就是為什麼它們對那些不喜歡被質疑的獨裁者來說如此得心應手。

Charles Manson countered any rational objections to his ravings by saying,

查爾斯-曼森（Charles Manson）用一句話反駁了任何對其囈語的理性反對、

No sense makes sense.

沒有道理就沒有道理。

Try arguing with that.

試著反駁一下。

Tian Dou, the leaders of the Heaven's Gate cult, would tell skeptical listeners that they didn't have the gift of recognition.

天門教教主天鬥會告訴持懷疑態度的聽眾，他們沒有識別天賦。

And Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, admonished dissatisfied female congregants to keep sweet.

耶穌基督後期聖徒原教旨主義教會的領袖沃倫-傑夫斯（Warren Jeffs）告誡不滿意的女教徒要保持甜美。

Thought-terminating cliches are a two-way street.

思想上的陳詞濫調是雙向的。

They allow the leader to avoid threatening questions, while giving followers permission to ignore their cognitive dissonance.

它們允許領導者回避具有威脅性的問題，同時允許追隨者忽略自己的認知失調。

Not sure whether you're doing the right thing?

不確定自己的做法是否正確？

Well, it's out of our hands, as Jim Jones would say.

正如吉姆-瓊斯所說，這不是我們能控制的。

You might be thinking that these traits aren't exclusive to cults.

你可能會想，這些特徵並不是邪教獨有的。

After all, mainstream religions are full of loaded language like heaven and hell and thought-terminating cliches like God works in mysterious ways.

畢竟，主流宗教中充斥著天堂和地獄這樣的晦澀難懂的語言，以及上帝以神祕的方式工作這樣的陳詞濫調。

A linguistic study from 2021 analyzed the speeches of destructive cult leaders like

2021 年的一項語言學研究分析了破壞性邪教領袖的言論，如

Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite and compared them to those of mainstream religious leaders like Billy Graham and Rick Warren.

吉姆-瓊斯（Jim Jones）和馬歇爾-阿普爾懷特（Marshall Applewhite），並將他們與比利-格雷厄姆（Billy Graham）和裡克-沃倫（Rick Warren）等主流宗教領袖進行比較。

And while there were some similarities, there were also some stark differences.

雖然有一些相似之處，但也有一些截然不同的地方。

For one, cult leader speech tends to be highly elaborative, using words like that, which, would, and because, to create novel worlds full of complex rules and causalities.

首先，邪教領袖的言論往往非常詳盡，他們會使用that、which、would、because等詞來創造充滿複雜規則和因果關係的新奇世界。

Mainstream preachers, by contrast, don't have to explain new systems of morality and spiritualism, but instead work from those their audiences are already familiar with.

相比之下，主流傳教士不必解釋新的道德和靈性體系，而是從聽眾已經熟悉的體系出發。

They also found that cult leaders favored the pronouns us and them, while mainstream religious leaders preferred you.

他們還發現，邪教領袖更喜歡用 "我們 "和 "他們 "作為代詞，而主流宗教領袖則更喜歡用 "你"。

This is consistent with cults' tendency to reinforce in-group, out-group dynamics through language.

這與邪教通過語言強化群體內、外動態的傾向是一致的。

Believers of Heaven's Gate believed themselves to be evolved and next-level, while outsiders were stuck on the human level.

天門的信徒認為自己是進化者，是下一個層次，而外來者則停留在人類層次。

Nixxiom labeled unbelievers suppressives, and Scientology uses the derogatory wogs to refer to non-Scientologists.

尼克修姆給不信教者貼上了壓制者的標籤，而科學教則用貶義詞wogs來指代非科學論者。

Perhaps the most efficient linguistic tactic for reinforcing an us-versus-them mentality is the use of jargon.

要強化 "我們對他們 "的心態，最有效的語言策略或許就是使用行話。

While specialized vocabularies are necessary in many professions, cults use them for a secondary social purpose—to determine who is a trusted part of the family and who is an outsider to be avoided.

雖然專業詞彙在許多職業中都是必要的，但邪教使用專業詞彙的次要社會目的是確定誰是家庭中值得信賴的一員，誰是需要避免的外人。

Members of Heaven's Gate called their bodies vehicles, and their group the Classroom.

天堂之門的成員稱他們的身體為 "車輛"，稱他們的團體為 "教室"。

They didn't say Kitchen or Laundry Room, but Neutralab and Fiberlab.

他們說的不是廚房或洗衣房，而是 Neutralab 和 Fiberlab。

Nixxiom, the multi-level marketing company-turned-sex-trafficking cult, performed integrations to rid members of their mental dysfunctions, known as disintegrations.

由多層次傳銷公司轉變成性交易邪教組織的 Nixxiom 通過整合來擺脫成員的精神障礙，即所謂的 "解體"。

And the jargon of Scientology can quite literally fill a 300-page dictionary, which members were forced to study for hours on end.

科學論派的行話可以寫滿一本 300 頁的字典，成員們不得不連續學習幾個小時。

A 2020 study by researchers from Columbia University and USC examined the relationship between jargon and self-perception.

2020 年，哥倫比亞大學和南加州大學的研究人員對行話與自我認知之間的關係進行了研究。

They analyzed the writings of a broad spectrum of graduate students and found that the lower the ranking of the university the student attended, the higher the frequency of unnecessary jargon.

他們分析了眾多研究所學生的文章，發現學生就讀的大學排名越低，使用不必要的行話的頻率就越高。

Students from high-status schools tended to communicate more simply and clearly.

來自地位高的學校的學生傾向於更簡單明瞭地交流。

They also invited business school students to pitch ideas to a panel of experts, Shark

他們還邀請商學院的學生向專家小組提出想法，鯊魚

Tank style, but manipulated their feelings of status beforehand.

坦克風格，但事先操縱了他們的地位感。

Some were told that their competitors were successful entrepreneurs, while others were told they were competing against high school kids.

一些人被告知，他們的競爭對手是成功的企業家，而另一些人則被告知，他們的競爭對手是高中生。

Those that had been made to feel inferior were more likely to use jargon in their pitches.

那些曾被認為低人一等的人更有可能在推銷中使用行話。

The researchers concluded that jargon can function as a kind of linguistic conspicuous consumption, advertising a higher status using words.

研究人員的結論是，行話可以作為一種語言上的顯性消費，用文字來宣傳更高的地位。

Many ex-members of cults support this hypothesis, recollecting the early thrill of learning a mysterious terminology.

許多邪教前成員都支持這一假設，他們回憶起早年學習神祕術語時的激動心情。

Like kids sharing a secret code in a clubhouse, it made them feel part of an exclusive group which gave them a sense of superiority.

就像孩子們在會所裡分享暗號一樣，這讓他們覺得自己是專屬群體的一員，從而產生優越感。

In her book, Montel offers evidence that these linguistic tactics have seeped out from cults and into wider society.

蒙特爾在書中提供的證據表明，這些語言策略已經從邪教滲透到更廣泛的社會中。

Propelled by capitalist demands and the reach of social media, the language of cults, she says, is now everywhere.

她說，在資本主義需求和社交媒體的推動下，邪教語言現在無處不在。

If you question the business model of a multi-level marketing scheme, well that's just stinkin' thinkin', a thought-terminating cliché popular with MLMs like Amway.

如果你質疑多層次傳銷計劃的商業模式，那麼這只是 "臭思想"，是安利等傳銷組織流行的一種思想終結陳詞濫調。

Similarly, when the predictions of QAnon and other conspiracy theorists don't come to pass, followers on social media are told to trust the plan.

同樣，當 QAnon 和其他陰謀論者的預測沒有成為現實時，社交媒體上的追隨者就會被告知要相信計劃。

Corporations employ mantras full of loaded language to enforce obedience, like Jeff Bezos' leadership principles, which include think big and dive deep.

公司採用充滿蠱惑人心語言的咒語來強制人們服從，比如傑夫-貝索斯的上司原則，其中包括大處著眼、深入思考。

Politics is rife with us-versus-them terminology, so that everyone is either a patriot or a traitor.

政治中充斥著 "我們與他們 "的術語，是以每個人要麼是愛國者，要麼是叛徒。

And fitness centers like SoulCycle or CrossFit use jargon like box, swan, tap backs, or doms to make membership feel exclusive.

而像 SoulCycle 或 CrossFit 這樣的健身中心則使用 box、swan、tap backs 或 doms 這樣的行話來讓會員感覺自己是獨一無二的。

Montel argues that as traditional institutions like churches, clubs, and unions have declined in popularity, people are desperate for new ways to feel a sense of belonging, and the majority turn to social media.

蒙特爾認為，隨著教會、俱樂部和工會等傳統機構日漸式微，人們急需新的方式來獲得歸屬感，於是大多數人轉向了社交媒體。

Online wellness gurus like Teal Swan and Bentino Massaro have been accused of cult-like behavior, though they deny it.

蒂爾-斯旺（Teal Swan）和本蒂諾-馬薩羅（Bentino Massaro）等在線健康大師被指責有邪教行為，但他們否認了這一點。

Technology has vastly lowered the bar, allowing them to influence an infinite number of followers from the comfort of their own homes.

技術大大降低了門檻，讓他們可以在自己的家中影響無數的追隨者。

Say what you want about Jim Jones, the guy could talk for hours IRL without editing.

隨你怎麼說吉姆-瓊斯，這傢伙可以在沒有編輯的情況下在現實生活中滔滔不絕地講上幾個小時。

Meanwhile, TikTokers are competing to coin the next trendy phrase like polywork, microtreating, or 75 cozy.

與此同時，TikTokers 也在爭相創造下一個時髦詞彙，如 polywork、microtreating 或 75 cozy。

This online jargon has little functional purpose, other than to create a sense of community amongst the people who know it, and confer status, in the form of viral views, to the ones who can successfully get others to adopt it.

這些網絡行話幾乎沒有任何實用價值，只是為了在瞭解這些行話的人中間營造一種社區感，並以病毒式傳播的形式，向那些能夠成功地讓其他人採用這些行話的人授予地位。

In a widely read essay in The Cut, financial columnist Charlotte Cowles explained in detail how she was talked into handing a box of $50,000 in cash to a stranger.

財經專欄作家夏洛特-考爾斯（Charlotte Cowles）在《剪報》上發表了一篇廣為流傳的文章，詳細解釋了她是如何被說服將一箱 5 萬美元的現金交給一個陌生人的。

The linguistic tactics the scammers used were compared to how police may coerce a false confession from a suspect, but could just as well apply to cult indoctrination.

詐騙者使用的語言策略被比作警察對嫌疑人的逼供，但同樣適用於邪教灌輸。

They do it incrementally, in a series of small steps that take you farther and farther from what you know to be true.

他們的做法是循序漸進，一小步一小步地走，讓你離你所知道的真理越來越遠。

It's not about breaking the will, they were altering the sense of reality.

這不是要摧毀意志，而是要改變現實感。

Montel cites the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who stated that language was "...our element as water is the element of fish."

蒙特爾引用法國哲學家莫里斯-梅洛-龐蒂的話說，語言是"......我們的元素，就像水是魚的元素一樣"。

Your perception of reality depends less on the physical things you see than the words you hear.

你對現實的感知與其說取決於你聽到的話語，不如說取決於你看到的實物。

Language empowers cult leaders to create a mini-universe, as Montel puts it, around their followers.

正如蒙特爾所說，語言能讓邪教領袖在追隨者周圍創造出一個小型宇宙。

The defense of that is not to block out language, but to hear more of it from as many sources as possible.

這樣做的目的不是封鎖語言，而是從儘可能多的管道聽到更多的語言。

That way, no one person has the power to shape your reality.

這樣，就沒有人能夠左右你的現實。

Nixxiom, the multi-level marketing company turned sex trafficking cult, performed integrations to rid members of their mental dysfunction.

Nixxiom是一家由多層次傳銷公司轉變成的性交易邪教組織，它通過整合來擺脫成員的精神障礙。