Over and over and over again
一遍一遍又一遍
You don’t have to spend a lot of time with executives to hear repeated words and phrases. They might be drumming home the critical elements of their strategy to investors.
你不需要和高管们相处太久，就能听到反复出现的词语和短语。他们可能是在向投资者反复强调战略的关键要素。
They might be reciting talking-points with the media. They might be inculcating the company’s culture at town halls with employees, or telling the firm’s origin story for the thousandth time. What they are not doing is starting afresh every time.
他们可能是在媒体面前背诵谈话要点。他们可能是在大会上向员工灌输公司的文化，或者第一千次讲述公司的发家故事。他们没有做的是每次都讲新的开场白。
When Kevin Lobo first became the chief executive of Stryker, a medical-technology firm in Michigan, his team drew up a mission statement (“Together with our customers, we are driven to make health care better”) that he used at the start of every presentation he gave.
当凯文·洛博首次成为位于密歇根的史赛克医疗科技公司的首席执行官时，他的团队起草了一份使命宣言（“我们与客户携手，致力于改善医疗保健”），从此他在每次演讲的开头都会说这句话。
He says that the combination of simplicity and repetition helped it to spread organically: presentations within Stryker now routinely start with its mission.
他说，简洁加上重复让这句话自然地传播开来：如今在史赛克公司内部，各种展示通常以这句使命宣言为开场白。
Repetition is partly a function of time constraints: in the same way that many politicians have a stump speech they can give at every rally, most bosses are too busy to craft their messages from scratch every time.
重复的部分原因是时间受限，就像许多政客在每场公众集会上都发表固定的巡回演讲一样，大多数老板太忙了，没有时间每次都从头构思演讲稿。
But mainly it’s to do with the way that people remember things and absorb ideas. Repetition makes things stick, as every schoolchild knows. That’s true in offices and beyond. David Gergen, a doyen of American political communications, advised candidates in debates to pick the three or four points they wanted to drive home.
但重复主要与人们记忆事物和吸收观点的方式有关。重复让事物深入人心，这是每个学生都知道的。在办公室和其他地方也是如此。美国政治沟通领域的元老级人物大卫·葛根建议候选人在辩论中挑出三到四个他们想让听众牢记的关键点。
Songwriters do something similar. One analysis, by Joseph Nunes of the University of Southern California and his co-authors, found that songs with more repetitive lyrics were more likely to make it into the top 40 singles chart in America.
词曲作者的做法也差不多。南加州大学的约瑟夫·努内斯及其合著者的一项分析发现，歌词重复性更高的歌曲更有可能进入美国单曲排行榜前40名。
Repetition helps persuade people that something is correct, a phenomenon known as the illusory truth effect.
重复有助于说服人们某件事是正确的，这种现象被称为“真相幻觉效应”。
In various studies, people have been given a list of plausible statements (the capybara is the largest of the marsupials, for example, or this column is the best one in The Economist), whose veracity they are asked to judge.
在各种研究中，人们被给予一系列看似合理的陈述（例如，水豚是最大的有袋动物，或者本专栏是《经济学人》中最好的栏目），然后他们被要求判断这些陈述的真实性。
They are then shown more statements, some new and some repeated. The more times someone is exposed to a statement (this column is the best one in The Economist), the more likely they are to say it is true.
然后他们会看到更多的陈述，有些是新的，有些是重复的。一个人听到某个陈述的次数越多，他们就越有可能认为这个陈述是真的。
重点词汇：
- Over and over and over again
一遍又一遍 - Executives
高管 - Repeated words and phrases
重复的词语和短语 - Critical elements of their strategy
战略的关键要素 - Talking-points
谈话要点 - Inculcating the company’s culture
灌输公司文化 - Town halls
全员大会 - Origin story
起源故事 - Starting afresh
从头开始 - Mission statement
使命宣言 - Simplicity and repetition
简洁与重复 - Time constraints
时间限制 - Stump speech
固定演讲 - Craft their messages
精心设计信息 - Remember things and absorb ideas
记忆事物和吸收观点 - Illusory truth effect
虚幻真实效应 - Plausible statements
看似合理的陈述 - Veracity
真实性 - Exposed to a statement
接触一个陈述 - Persuade people
说服人们