"We sat down and tried to figure out what is the insult that would go to the heart of an eighteen-to-twenty-year old's brain," Cohen says.

"我们坐了下来，试图找出什么样的侮辱，会刺激这些18至21岁的年轻人的神经，"科恩说，

"It didn't take too long to come up with 'asshole.'"

"很快，我们就得到了答案：骂他是'混蛋！'"。

The experiment went like this.

实验是这样进行的。

The social science building at the University of Michigan has a long, narrow hallway in the basement lined with filing cabinets.

密歇根大学的社会科学教学楼的地下室有一条狭长的走廊，两旁排着档案柜。

The young men were called into a classroom, one by one, and asked to fill out a questionnaire.

这些年轻人被带到一个教室里，一个挨一个坐着，并要求填写了一份调查问卷。

Then they were told to drop off the questionnaire at the end of the hallway and return to the classroom, a simple, seemingly innocent academic exercise.

然后，告诉他们把问卷放到走廊尽头并返回教室――一种简单，看似无意义的学术活动。

For half the young men, that was it. They were the control group.

一半的青年男子。他们是控制他人的小组。

For the other half, there was a catch.

另一半，则是目标组。

As they walked down the hallway with the questionnaire, another man, a confederate of the experimenters, walked pass them and pulled out a drawer in one of the filing cabinets.

当这些年轻人带着问卷穿行在走廊里时，一个人--这个实验的策划者之一--从他们身边走过，并抽出档案柜的一个抽屉。

The already narrow hallway became even narrower.

于是，本已狭窄的走道更加狭窄。

As the young men tried to squeeze by, the confederate looked up, annoyed.

这个策划者看到，一个青年男子很生气地要将抽屉按回去。

He slammed the filing cabinet drawer shut, jostled the young men with his shoulder, and, in a low but audible voice, he said the trigger word: "Asshole."

他"砰"地一下把档案柜的抽屉关上，年轻人用肩膀抵住这个人，用低沉但听得见的声音说："混蛋"。

Cohen and Nisbett wanted to measure, as precisely as possible, what being called that word meant.

科恩和尼斯贝特想尽可能精确地定义这个词的意思。

They looked at the faces of their subjects and rated how much anger they saw.

他们观察这些测试对象的脸并据此来划分他们的愤怒程度。

They shook the young men's hands to see if their grip was firmer than usual.

他们与这些年轻男子握手，看看他们是不是会比平常更用力。

They took saliva samples from the students, both before and after the insult,

他们取走受辱前、和受辱后的唾液样本，

to see if being called an asshole caused their levels of testosterone and cortisol, the hormones that drive arousal and aggression, to go up.

看看是否被称为混蛋会造成皮质醇的睾酮激素水平上升，皮质醇即驱使觉醒和侵略性的荷尔蒙。

Finally, they asked the students to read the following story and supply a conclusion:

最后，他们要求学生阅读下面的故事并要求他们得出一个结论：

It had only been about twenty minutes since they had arrived at the party when Jill pulled Steve aside, obviously bothered about something.

从他们来到这个舞会时，大约有20分钟了，吉尔把史蒂夫拉到一边，显然有什么麻烦事情。

"What's wrong?" asked Steve.

"发生什么了？"史蒂夫问。

"It's Larry. I mean, he knows that you and I are engaged, but he's already made to passes at me tonight."

"这是拉里。我的意思是，他知道，我们已经订婚了，但今晚他已经在我身边转悠了两次了。"