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Everyone loves a good fictional villain.
每个人都有自己喜欢的虚构中的坏人。
Whether it's the hero's sinister brother, primary foe or creepy not mom,
不管那是主人公的邪恶兄弟、死敌还是令人毛骨悚然的恶棍，
it seems like the worst characters in books, films, comics and games often inspire as much empathy as they do enmity.
似乎书、电影、漫画和游戏中坏蛋往往会像正面角色一样激起人们的同情心。
And that's a little confusing because we tend to dislike real-life baddies.
这有点令人困惑，因为我们往往不喜欢现实生活中的坏人。
But psychologists think they've figured out why so many of us cheer on fictional terrible people when we shun real ones.
但是心理学家认为他们已经明白了，为什么很多人回避真实生活中的坏人，却为虚构的恶棍欢呼雀跃。
And the answer might help us better understand how everyone in our lives real or fictional shape how we think of ourselves and who we are.
这也许能帮助我们更好地理解，真实生活或虚构中每个人是如何塑造对自己以及我们是谁的看法的。
To understand our love of villains, we first have to understand how we see ourselves.
要理解我们对恶棍的喜爱，要先了解我们如何看待自己。
In general, we human beings want to perceive ourselves as competent, compassionate and well, as good people.
总的来说，人类希望把自己看作有能力、有同情心的善良人。
It's the reason we're likely to think that we'd always do what's right, even if others wouldn't.
这就是为什么我们可能认为自己总是做正确的事，即使别人不那么做。
Like we'd always leave a note if we hit a parked car and we'd never hang the toilet paper in the under position,
就像我们撞到一辆停着的车时总会留下张纸条，我们也从不把卫生纸倒挂，
because people in the under toilet paper camp are agents of chaos.
因为那样做的话，用纸时会乱成一团。
Psychologists refer to the need to see ourselves as good as self-positivity bias and it has a big impact on our actions and behaviors.
心理学家认为，需要把自己看作是好人的自我积极偏见，对我们的行为有很大的影响。
For example, a team of American psychologists found that women whose first names are or resemble state names like Georgia, Virginia or even Florence
例如，一个由美国心理学家组成的研究小组发现，名字与乔治亚、弗吉尼亚甚至佛罗伦萨等州名相同或相似的女性
are 44 percent more likely to have lived in that state.
居住在该州的可能性要高出44%。
They think that's because the women have positive personal associations with their first names.
他们认为，这是因为这些女性与自己的名字产生了积极的个人联系。
Basically, they subconsciously connected their identities to their namesake states.
基本上，她们下意识地将自己的身份与同名的州联系起来。
And because we would all like to think of ourselves as awesome that made them more likely to think that that state was a good place to live.
又因为我们都想把自己看作是了不起的人，这让她们更可能认为那个州是定居的好地方。
This phenomenon where we just naturally gravitate towards things that resemble us in some way is called implicit egotism
这种自然而然地在某种程度上被与我们相似的事物所吸引的现象称为内隐利己主义，
and it's essentially the flip side of what happens when we're confronted with real-life villains.
它本质上是与我们面对现实生活中的坏人时所发生的事情相对。
When we encounter a bad person we share similarities with, like we read about a criminal who has the same name, job or whatever,
当我们遇到一个和我们有共同点的坏人时，比如读到一个与我们同名或有相同工作的罪犯时，
our positive self-image can become threatened.
我们积极的自我形象会受到威胁。
So, we distance ourselves from those people.
所以，我们会和那些人保持距离。
And psychologists have demonstrated this in controlled studies.
心理学家已经在对照研究中证明了这一点。
For instance, researchers from Yale conducted an experiment where test subjects were given personality tests
例如，耶鲁大学的研究人员进行了一项实验，对受试者进行人格测试，
and then partnered with an undercover researcher.
然后与一名隐瞒身份的研究员合作。
The participants were either told their personalities were similar or different from their partners.
参与者要么被告知他们的个性与合作者相似，要么不同。
Then they were asked to give their impressions of them,
然后要求他们描述对合作者的印象，
the trick is that for some of the participants the undercover researcher behaved pleasantly.
关键在于对一些参与者来说，扮演合作者的研究员行为令人愉快。
For others they were totally obnoxious.
对其他参与者来说，其行为则令人厌恶至极。
And what was interesting is that the participants ratings of this researcher depended on whether they had been told they were similar to them.
有趣的是，参与者对这位研究员的评分取决于他们是否被告知研究员与他们相似。
If so, then the researcher got higher scores for niceness when they acted nice
如果相似，当研究员表现得很好时，评分就高，
and worse scores for unpleasantness when they acted like a jerk.
而当其表现得像个混蛋时，评分就低。
The team concluded this was because negative qualities can be perceived as a self-threat, since they lead us to question our positive self-image.
研究小组得出结论，这是因为消极的品质会被视为一种自我威胁，因为它们会让我们质疑自己的积极自我形象。
So if another person is obnoxious but also a lot like you, it makes you wonder if you're a little bit obnoxious too.
所以，如果另一个人很讨厌，但却很像你，这会让你怀疑自己是否也有点讨厌。
But fictional villains don't work this way.
但虚构中的坏人不是这样。
Take the results of a study published in psychological science in April 2020 for instance.
以2020年4月发表在《心理科学》上的一项研究结果为例。
Researchers from Northwestern University analyzed data from Carrick Tour,
西北大学的研究人员分析了Carrick Tour网站的数据，
a website that allows hundreds of thousands of registered users to take goofy personality quizzes to see which fictional characters they most resemble.
该网站让数十万注册用户做胡搞式的个性测试，看看他们最像虚构中的哪个人物。
Users can then become a fan of those characters, which is a lot like liking something on facebook.
然后用户可以当这些角色的粉丝，很像在脸书上追星。
And each of these characters, whether heroic or villainous, is also assigned personality trait scores based on their fictional portrayals.
无论这些人物是英雄还是恶棍，也都会根据他们的虚构形象获得人格特质分数。
So, researchers could mathematically determine if characters and their fans share personality traits.
这样，研究人员可以从分数上确定虚构人物和粉丝是否有共同的性格特征。
The data revealed that people are actually drawn to villains that are similar to them,
数据显示，人们实际上被与自己相似的反派所吸引，
as they tended to share similar personality traits with the characters they were fans of.
因为他们往往与自己喜欢的人物有着相似的性格特征。
And this didn't just apply to good things like intelligence or charisma, fans of villains were twice as likely to identify as selfish than the fans of heroes.
这不仅适用于智力或魅力等好的方面，反派的粉丝比英雄的粉丝更倾向于自私。
And were disproportionately dishonest manipulative and rude.
而且极其不诚实具有操纵欲、粗鲁。
This is the opposite of what you'd expect if people were shying away from the bad characters that are similar to them.
这与我们所期望的正好相反，人们没有回避与他们相似的坏角色。
And much more like implicit egotism.
这更像是内隐的利己主义。
The researchers think the fact that these villains are fictional makes all the difference.
研究人员认为，反派都是虚构人物才会出现这样的差异。
The idea is that in a story world, we're free to explore the darker sides of our personalities
其理论是，我们在故事中可以自由探索性格的阴暗面，
without having to worry if we're actually bad people because if the villain isn't real.
而不必担心自己是否真是坏人，因为恶棍不是真人。
Then in a way we can't really be like them.
在某种程度上，我们不可能真像他们那样。
So similarities aren't a threat to our self-positivity bias.
因此，相似性不会威胁到我们的自我积极偏见。
And this may extend beyond made-up villains.
这也可能不仅限于虚构的恶棍。
We also storify actual bad people like in true crime television shows, documentaries books and podcasts or even through reality television.
我们还会在真实的犯罪电视节目、纪录片、书籍和播客，甚至真人秀中来讲述真实中坏人的故事。
That could give them an air of fictionality, allowing others to empathize with them or even support them without harming their self-image.
这会让人们对他们产生虚构感，进而同情甚至支持他们，而不会损害到人们的自我形象。
Even before the character studies some psychologists thought
在研究这些角色前，一些心理学家就认为
the popularity of true crime shows stemmed from their ability to let us explore the dark side of human nature at a safe distance.
犯罪节目的流行源于它们能让人们在安全距离内探索人性的阴暗面。
Now researchers have shown that our brains do make an exception of sorts when it comes to fictional people.
现在研究人员已经表明，我们的大脑在处理虚构人物时确实会做例外性处理。
So studying the edges of that exception could help us better understand
研究这种例外性可以帮助我们更好地理解
how our self images or even who we are can be shaped by the media we consume real or not.
媒体对人们的自我形象，甚至我们是谁所产生的影响。
