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If you've ever watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, you've probably been envious of Deanna Troi's empathic abilities — always being able to tell what other people are feeling, and how best to react to it.
如果你看过《星际迷航：下一代》，你可能会嫉妒迪安娜·特洛伊的移情能力——总是能够分辨别人的感受，还知道该如何最好地应对。
The thing is, you're not alone.
问题是，你不是唯一这么想的人。
In particular, lots of companies have also started to look for people who aren't just good at the technical parts of their jobs, but also have high emotional intelligence.
特别是，许多公司也开始寻找那些不仅擅长工作的技术部分，而且还具有高情商的人。
From Coca-Cola to the U.S. Air Force, organizations have claimed that if they start to focus on hiring people who are skilled at dealing with emotions, they can improve sales, productivity, and even employee turnover.
从可口可乐到美国空军，各组织都声称，如果他们开始专注于雇佣善于处理情绪的人，就能提高销售、生产力，甚至改善员工流动率。
But psychologists think about these claims a little more critically.
但心理学家们对这些说法的看法更具有批判性。
They've wondered if emotional intelligence is really what's helping these organizations succeed, or if so-called "EI" isn't what it's cracked up to be.
他们想知道情商是否真能帮助这些组织成功，或者所谓的“情商”是否不像人们所说的那样。
What they've found, though, is actually pretty encouraging.
不过，他们的发现事实上相当令人鼓舞。
"Emotional intelligence" is a relatively new idea — at least, compared to general intelligence.
“情商”是一个相对较新的概念，至少与一般智力相比是很新的。
It basically refers to your knowledge about your own emotions and others' emotions, as well as your ability to reason about them.
大体上而言，它是指你对自己和他人情绪的了解，以及推断他人想法的能力。
Like, if someone with high EI notices you're having a bad day, they'll probably know not to take your frown as a sign you're upset with them personally.
比如说，如果某个情商高的人注意到你今天过得不好，他们可能会知道不要把皱眉头当作你对他们个人感到不高兴的信号。
On the flip side, if that person knows they're in a sour mood, they can stop minor letdowns from starting them on an angry rampage.
另一方面，如果这个人知道他们心情不好，就不会做一些令人失望的事，避免他们暴怒。
Emotional intelligence is something that's talked about all the time in management and professional development courses.
在管理和职业发展课程中，情商一直是人们谈论的话题。
But proper, peer-reviewed research shows that, if you're good at this sort of thing, it does actually have a real-world effect on your life.
但恰当的同行评议研究表明，如果你擅长此道，它确实会对你的生活产生现实的影响。
For example, a meta-analysis in 2015 observed that self-reported emotional intelligence was related to job performance, as rated by a supervisor, as well as objective performance — like sales numbers.
例如，2015年的一项元分析发现，自我报告的情商与主管评定的工作表现，以及销售量等客观表现有关。
Researchers who gave EI tests to one hundred eighty-six executives also found that they had higher emotional intelligence than the general population.
对186名高管进行情商测试的研究人员还发现，高管们的情商高于普通人。
Some EI abilities, like empathy, were also related to being more profitable.
某些情商能力，如同理心，也与公司利润更高有关。
Even though emotional intelligence seems to help people in all these areas, not all researchers are on board with it.
尽管情商似乎对所有这些领域的人都有所帮助，但并非所有的研究人员都赞同这种说法。
The problem isn't that the research is wrong, though.
但问题不在于这类研究是错的。
Some psychologists just think that "emotional intelligence" isn't the best name for what's being studied.
一些心理学家只是认为“情商”并不是被研究事物最恰当的名字。
Like, that meta-analysis that found EI was related to job performance.
比如，那个元分析研究发现，情商与工作绩效相关。
Those researchers noticed that...the relationship basically disappeared once they controlled for things like general intelligence and other personality traits.
这些研究人员注意到，一旦他们控制了诸如一般智力和其他性格特征之后，这种关系就基本消失了。
And other studies tell a similar story.
其他研究也讲述了类似的故事。
In a 2004, researchers gave 102 people tests for emotional and general intelligence, along with a test measuring the Big Five personality traits.
2004年，研究人员对102人进行了情感和一般智力测试，同时还进行大五人格特征测试。
That's extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.
分别是对经验的外倾性、宜人性、责任心、稳定性和开放性。
They found they could do a great job predicting someone's EI score by just using their general intelligence, agreeableness, and sex.
他们发现，只要运用他们的一般智力、宜人性和性生活，就能很好地预测某人的情商得分。
So it's not that understanding emotions is bad or unhelpful.
所以理解情绪不是件坏事，也不是没用。
It's just that psychologists are worried about reinventing the wheel.
只是心理学家担心在调查已经研究过的事物。
General intelligence and the Big Five are pretty well-established, reliable, and valid psychological traits, and it looks like EI could just be those things traveling under a different name.
一般智力和大五智力都是公认、可靠、有效的心理特征，而且情商似乎可以被冠上不同的名字。
Still, the fact that EI is related to general intelligence supports the idea that they're both based on reasoning and problem-solving.
尽管如此，情商与一般智商相关的事实，支持这样一种观点，即它们都基于推理和问题解决。
One is just reasoning about emotions in particular.
一个是对情绪的推理。
Regardless of what you call it, though, it seems like this ability is important — which means that some researchers have tried to see if you can get better at it.
不管你怎么称呼它，这种能力似乎很重要。这意味着一些研究人员已经在尝试，看你是否能在这方面做得更好。
And their results suggest that you can!
他们的结果表明你是可以做到的！
Although it's going to take some time and effort.
虽然这需要一些时间和努力。
For example, one study published in the Journal of Adolescence investigated what would happen if researchers included emotional intelligence training in a regular classroom curriculum.
例如，一项发表在《青春期杂志》上的研究，调查了如果研究人员将情商训练纳入常规课程中情况会怎样。
Those classes focused on things like practicing emotional expression and perception using stories, art, and news.
这些课程的重点是通过故事、艺术和新闻来练习情感表达和感知。
Students also practiced identifying the causes and consequences of those emotions, and they did exercises where they discussed challenging classroom situations and how to best cope with them.
学生们还练习识别这些情绪的因果，并在讨论具有挑战性的课堂情境以及如何最好地应对这些情境时进行练习。
Basically, they practiced solving emotional problems.
基本上，他们练习解决情感问题。
And it really seemed to pay off.
它似乎真的很有回报。
At the end of the study, the researchers found that they had been able to improve teenagers' empathic perspective taking, as well as reduce levels of aggression and distress.
研究结束时，研究人员发现，他们能够改善青少年的移情视角，并减少攻击和痛苦的水平。
This isn't the only study that's tested this kind of thing, either.
这也不是唯一一个测试这类事物的研究。
A similar experiment by most of the same researchers found that their students reported fewer clinical symptoms, like anxiety or mood disturbances, six months after finishing a program like this.
大多数相同研究者的一个类似实验发现，他们的学生在完成这样一个项目六个月后，报告的临床症状，如焦虑或情绪障碍较少。
The thing is, though… those results took twenty four one-hour sessions over the course of two years.
但问题是，这些结果是在两年的时间里进行的24次测查，每次时间为1小时。
So even if that training sounds like something you did at leadership camp or at a work meeting, it's not quite the same.
所以，即使这种培训听起来像是你在领导力训练营或工作会议上所做的，但也不完全一样。
Still, psychologists have investigated less time-intensive training options, too, and thankfully for all of us, on-the-job practice does seem to help.
尽管如此，心理学家们也调查了一些时间密集性较低的培训选择，幸运的是，这对我们所有人来说，在职实践似乎确实有帮助。
For example, a pair of small studies used methods like interviews and focus groups to study healthcare employees, including hospice workers and mental health nurses.
例如，一对小型研究采用访谈和焦点小组等方法来研究医疗保健员工，包括临终关怀工作者和精神卫生护士。
Those people didn't undergo any special training, but their jobs are great for practicing things like empathy on a day-to-day basis.
这些人没有接受过任何特殊的培训，但他们的工作对于在日常基础上练习移情作用是很好的。
The scientists found that those groups attributed their personal coping skills to all the on-the-job practice they got — especially if they had supervision or a social network to help them out.
科学家们发现，这些群体把他们的个人应对能力归因于他们所获得的在职实践，尤其是在他们有监督或社交网络帮助他们时。
So with some practice resolving emotional problems and helping people sort out their feelings, this is probably a skill that you can develop — with time.
因此，通过一些练习来解决情绪问题，帮助人们理清自己的感受，这可能是一种随着时间推移，可以培养的技能。
And one day, you, too, can be on the bridge of the Enterprise, using your skills to negotiate with alien species, and… well, wait, probably not.
总有一天，你也可能站在创业的桥梁上，利用你的技能与外来物种谈判，而且......等等，也许不会。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看这一集的心理科学秀！
We're really thankful to have such a curious and emotionally intelligent audience — and we'd love to hear what topics you think we should cover next.
我们真的很感谢有你们这些充满好奇心和情商高的观众，我们很想听听你们认为我们接着应该讨论什么话题。
If you have an idea for us, you can leave it in the comments below.
如果有什么想法，可以在下面的评论区中留言。
And if you want to make sure we get your idea, you can submit it to our Patreon inbox over at patreon.com/scishow.
如果想确保我们能得到你提出的想法，可以把它提交到我们在的Patreon上的收件箱，网址是patreon.com/scishow。
