MAX KIM2026年11月9日在曼谷哇集拉医院工作的外科医生塔纳·坦提南开展了一项研究，测试一项与肯德基有关的流行医学迷信。 Lauren DeCicca for The New York TimesThanat Tantinam, a colorectal surgeon in Thailand, knows a lot of things from his medical training, like the ins and outs of the human digestive system, or bowel cancer rates. But also: Never eat Kentucky Fried Chicken at work.泰国结直肠外科医生塔纳·坦提南从他的医学训练中了解到了许多事情，比如人体消化系统的细节，或是肠癌的发病率。但除此以外，还有一条准则：绝对不要在上班时吃肯德基。Since he was a medical student, around a decade ago, the American fast food franchise has been the subject of an odd superstition among Thai doctors, many of whom believe that eating its chicken at work will lead to intolerably busy shifts.大约十年前，他还是医学生的时候，这家美国快餐连锁就已经是泰国医生群体中一个离奇迷信的主题。他们中的许多人深信，在工作时吃肯德基会导致班次极其繁忙，令人难以忍受。“It’s a serious superstition in some hospitals,” said Dr. Thanat, 35. “Your colleagues might be mad if you bring KFC.”“在某些医院里，这是个十分严肃的迷信，”35岁的塔纳说。“如果你带肯德基来，同事可能会跟你急。”He recently tested this theory. Between 2023 and 2024, he and several co-workers at Phatthalung Hospital in southern Thailand, his employer at the time, conducted a randomized control trial of 345 surgical shifts, comparing metrics like case load or estimated blood loss in patients from three groups of surgeons: a group that ate KFC, another that got food from a local brand named Five Star Chicken, and one that ate nothing.他最近对这一说法进行了测试。2023年至2024年间，他与当时所在医院——泰国南部博他仑医院的几位同事，针对345个外科班次进行了一项随机对照试验。他们将外科医生分为三组：一组吃肯德基，一组吃本土品牌“五星烤鸡”，另一组什么都不吃，随后比较各组患者的病例数和预估失血量等指标。在泰国许多医院，医生和护士长期以来一直担心，值班时吃肯德基会招致患者数量突然激增。“五星烤鸡”是对标肯德基的泰国品牌。塔纳的研究追踪了三组外科医生：一组吃肯德基，一组吃“五星烤鸡”，另一组什么都不吃。The study, which was published earlier this year in the Annals of Surgery Open, a medical journal based in Philadelphia, found that eating KFC does not, in fact, lead to more work. But it also left many questions unanswered: Where did the KFC curse come from? And how had it gripped some of the most educated scientific minds in the country, including Dr. Thanat himself?这项研究于今年早些时候发表在总部位于费城的医学期刊《外科学年鉴开放版》上。研究发现，吃肯德基实际上并不会导致工作量增加。但这也留下了诸多未解之谜：肯德基诅咒究竟从何而来？它又是如何让这个国家最有学养的科学头脑——包括塔纳本人——深信不疑的？“Yes, I still believe it — maybe 80 percent out of 100,” he said. “If someone brought me KFC at work, I would keep it until past my shift.”“是的，我仍然相信——大概80%吧，”他说。“如果有人在上班时给我带了肯德基，我会一直放到下班后才吃。”Such superstitions abound in Thailand, where Buddhism has blended with a mélange of other spiritual traditions like animism, Hindu rituals and Chinese astrology to create a strong affinity for the supernatural in contemporary life.这种迷信在泰国极为普遍。在这里，佛教与万物有灵论、印度教仪式及中国占星术等其他精神传统相融合，使得当代生活与超自然现象产生了强烈的联结。“In Thailand, superstition isn’t the opposite of modernity — it lives comfortably alongside it,” said Theeranuch Pusaksrikit, a business school professor at Chulalongkorn University who researches how superstitions affect consumerist behavior. “The same person can hold a science degree, consult an auspicious date before signing a contract and wear an amulet to work.”“在泰国，迷信并非现代性的对立面，而是与现代性和谐共存，”朱拉隆功大学商学院研究迷信如何影响消费行为的教授提拉努·普萨斯里吉表示。“同一个人可以拥有科学学位，在签合同前查阅黄道吉日，然后戴着护身符去上班。”‘This Is Not KFC’“这不是肯德基”No occasion is too big or too small for a sprinkle of superstition. There are the infamous black magic rituals that occasionally surface in politics, and popular customs like dressing in lucky colors corresponding to each day of the week. Last year, when a sinkhole opened up and stranded a pickup truck near Bangkok’s Vajira Hospital, Dr. Thanat’s current employer, people rushed to buy lottery tickets matching the vehicle’s license plate number.无论场合大小，人们总能掺杂一点迷信元素。有时政领域偶尔浮现的臭名昭著的黑魔法仪式，也有按一周每天的幸运色穿衣的流行习俗。去年，当曼谷哇集拉医院（塔纳目前在那里就职）附近发生地陷并困住一辆皮卡车时，人们纷纷抢购与该车车牌号一致的彩票。“Each hospital has their own superstition culture,” Dr. Thanat said. He has also heard of colleagues avoiding nuts, pizza or coffee while at work, and knows of at least one hospital where bananas — otherwise regarded as a lucky food — are taboo.“每家医院都有属于自己的迷信文化，”塔纳说。他还听说有同事在上班时不碰坚果、披萨或咖啡，并且知道至少有一家医院将香蕉列为禁忌，尽管它在其他地方常被视为吉祥食物。曼谷的一名医护人员拿取送到哇集拉医院的椰奶甜点外卖。许多泰国医生和护士将肯德基视为工作时的饮食禁忌。10月，一名护士在曼谷哇集拉医院外购买水果。在泰国，香蕉通常被视为一种吉祥食物。But few medical superstitions have been as universal and long-running as the KFC curse, a fact that has been a point of fascination at KFC itself.然而，很少有医学迷信能像“肯德基诅咒”这般普遍且持久，这甚至引起了肯德基自身的极大兴趣。“We dug into the data, it was pretty clear,” said Suhayl Limbada, who was until recently the chief marketing officer of KFC Thailand. “There was a noticeable trend at restaurants around hospitals, there was a dip in sales.”“我们深入分析了数据，结果非常明显，”前不久还担任肯德基泰国区首席营销官的苏海尔·林巴达说。“医院周边餐厅出现了一个明显的趋势，销售额会下降。”Two years ago, he parlayed the curse into a marketing campaign. Though riffing on cultural practices had gotten Mr. Limbada in trouble before — the fried chicken-scented incense sticks the company released for Lunar New Year were widely panned — this one was much more warmly received.两年前，他将这一诅咒转化利用为一场营销活动。尽管拿文化习俗做文章曾让林巴达惹上过麻烦——该公司为农历新年推出的炸鸡味线香就曾广受批评，但这次活动受到了欢迎。Launched on doctor’s day in November 2024, the campaign offered a kind of cleansing ritual: Chicken was sold in packaging labeled with slogans like “This is not KFC” in stores near hospitals.活动于2024年11月的医生节推出，提供了一种类似净化的仪式：在医院附近的门店里，炸鸡包装上印有“这不是肯德基”之类的标语进行售卖。直肠外科医生塔纳在他位于哇集拉医院的办公室里。尽管肯德基厄运已被科学证伪，他表示自己依然相信它。塔纳的这项研究于今年早些时候发表在医学期刊《外科学年鉴开放版》上，研究发现，吃肯德基并不会导致工作量增加。Mr. Limbada has his own ideas about how the curse came to be. KFC opened in Thailand in 1984 and has since become one of the most ubiquitous fast food franchises in the country — and a trailblazer of late night delivery. It operates around 1,300 stores, far outnumbering McDonald’s, which has around 240. In even the smallest rural town, chances are there is at least a KFC.对于这个诅咒的由来，林巴达有自己的看法。肯德基在1984年进入泰国，此后便成为该国最普及的快餐连锁店之一，同时也是深夜外卖的先驱。它拥有约1300家门店，数量远超约有240家门店的麦当劳。哪怕是在最偏远的乡村小镇，也很可能至少有一家肯德基。He thinks one of these rural locations might have been the ground zero, delivering one late night to an understaffed local hospital where a hungry doctor, unaware that they were about to be hit with a sanity-shattering deluge of patients, was waiting.他认为，这些乡村门店中的某一家可能就是诅咒的发源地。在某个深夜，一份外卖被送到当地一家人手短缺的医院，那里有一位饥肠辘辘的医生正在等待，他并不知道自己即将被如潮水般涌来、令人精神崩溃的病患潮所淹没。Building Solidarity形成凝聚力The superstition has since racked up a catalog of very specific lore.自那时起，这种迷信便衍生出了一系列非常具体的传说。It is widely understood, for example, that it only applies to departments that cannot easily leave the hospital for meals, like surgery or emergency rooms, said Titaporn Nasaarn, a 34-year-old ER doctor at Kamalasai Hospital in northeastern Thailand.例如泰国东北部加马拉赛医院34岁的急诊科医生提塔蓬·纳萨安说，大家普遍默认它只适用于像外科或急诊室这样不便离开医院就餐的科室。She recalled how her colleagues once successfully co-opted the superstition for good. It was during an unusually quiet evening in the surgical intensive care unit, and some of the nurses, who wanted to work, were worried they were going to lose their upcoming shifts.她回忆起同事们曾有一次成功将这种迷信派上了用场。那是在外科重症监护室一个异常平静的夜晚，一些想干活的护士担心她们会失去接下来的排班。“The attending anesthesiologist performed a ritual to summon cases by ordering KFC and ordering pizza,” she said. The beds filled up. But “normally, hardly anyone dares to order it,” she added.“值班麻醉师通过点肯德基和披萨进行了一场召唤病例的仪式，”她说。随后病床果然住满了。不过她补充道：“通常情况下，几乎没有人敢去点它。”To everyone else, of course, KFC, with Thai spinoffs like Green Curry Chicken Rice, remains a desirable food. And at many hospitals, patients or their families occasionally treat their medical caretakers to the stuff, a gesture that invariably puts Jaruda Mamuangbon, a 42-year-old nurse at Vajira Hospital, on edge.当然，对于其他人而言，提供绿咖喱鸡肉饭等泰国本土化产品的肯德基依然是诱人的美食。在许多医院，患者或其家属有时会买这些东西来犒劳医护人员，但这一举动总会让哇集拉医院42岁的护士贾鲁达·马孟本神经紧绷。在曼谷哇集拉医院，护士贾鲁达·马孟本向一名患者行泰国传统敬意手势“合十礼”。在曼谷哇集拉医院，患者们正在等待配药。许多患者会带来礼物以感谢医护人员。但随着关于该厄运的消息传开，送肯德基作为礼物的情况已经减少。But she and her colleagues have noticed that the number of KFC gifts has plummeted in the last two or so years.不过她和同事们已经注意到，在过去大概两年里，收到肯德基礼物的情况已经大幅减少。“We have always graciously accepted the kind gift,” Ms. Jaruda said. “But I think the patients’ families have probably picked up on the superstition from social media.”“我们一直都礼貌地接受这份心意，”贾鲁达说。“但我认为患者家属可能已经从社交媒体上获知了这种迷信。”Ms. Theeranuch, the professor, sees the widespread belief in the jinx not as a posture of anti-science, but a way for Thailand’s medical workers to keep their spirits up.提拉努认为，人们对这种厄运的普遍信仰并非反科学，而是泰国医护人员保持精神振奋的一种方式。“Hospital work is intensely unpredictable, and a shared rule like ‘don’t eat KFC on shift’ may give staff a small sense of control over something inherently unpredictable,” she said. “They also build solidarity.”“医院工作充满了极大的不确定性，在面对那些本质上不可预测的事物时，‘值班时不吃肯德基’这种共同规则或许能让员工获得些许控制感，”她说。“他们还能形成凝聚力。”Dr. Thanat has settled into a similar view. Underneath the supernatural dress of the KFC curse are, he said, more sobering earthbound realities.塔纳也抱有类似的看法。他表示，在肯德基诅咒那超自然的外表下，隐藏着更令人清醒的现实问题。It is telling that the curse has largely been confined to the country’s public hospitals, where doctors — overworked and underpaid compared with their private sector counterparts — have long called for better working conditions.值得注意的是，这种诅咒主要局限于该国的公立医院。那里的医生长期面临工作强度大且薪酬低于私营部门同行的问题，并一直呼吁改善工作条件。“If you work at a private hospital, you would want more patients to come,” Dr. Thanat said, adding that doctors’ compensation at private hospitals scales with greater caseloads.“如果你在私立医院工作，你会希望有更多患者来看病，”塔纳说，因为私立医院医生的收入是与病例数挂钩的。“I think the KFC curse is a projection of fear,” he said. “We need a scapegoat.”“我认为肯德基诅咒是恐惧的一种投射，”他说。“我们需要一个替罪羊。”Phuriphat Dejsuphong对本文有报道贡献。翻译：经雷点击查看本文英文版。