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If you're the kind of person who, like, feels all the feels,
如果你是那种可以感受所有情绪的人，
you've maybe found yourself wishing at some point or another that you could shut them down for a little while.
你可能会发现自己在某一时刻希望它们消停一段时间。
Like, take the emotion chip and dial it from an 8 to a 2.
比如，抽出情绪芯片，把它从8调到2。
It's a little tiring being the person who cries during the cell phone commercials
在手机广告期间哭泣，
or gets all riled up about the injustices in the world or can't get over that broken heart.
或者对世界上的不公正感到愤怒，或者无法让破碎的心复原，成为这样的人可能有点儿疲惫。
So you might wish you could rely a little more on your head than your heart.
所以你可能希望自己能多依靠头脑而不是心。
But the more we study our brains, the more that kind of dichotomy between reason and emotion is disappearing.
但我们对大脑的研究越多，理性和情绪之间的分裂就越消失。
And though you might wish you could rein in your feelings,
虽然你可能希望能控制自己的感情，
and sometimes you can, sometimes, you shouldn't.
但有时你可以做到，有时不应该这样做。
We have a long history of thinking of reason and emotion as totally different things.
我们很长一段时间都认为理性和情绪是完全不同的事物。
Plato described them as two horses pulling us in opposite directions…
柏拉图把它们描述为两匹马把我们拉向相反的方向……
and the idea hasn't really gone away since then.
这个观点从那时起就没有消失过。
We even think about our brains in those terms.
我们甚至用这些术语来思考我们的大脑。
Complex thought and reasoning is right there in the term we use for the brain region associated with it, the "cerebral cortex."
复杂的思考和推理在“大脑皮层”中进行，我们用这一术语来描述与之相关的大脑区域。
Structures like the amygdala, on the other hand, play key roles in emotion. And that's not wrong.
另一方面，杏仁核这样的结构在情绪中扮演关键角色。这并没有错。
There is lots of evidence to support the idea that those separate brain regions are associated with those particular functions.
很多证据支持这一观点，即大脑的不同区域与这些特定的功能有关。
But it's also not as simple as that, reason and emotion are also very intertwined.
但它也并非那么简单，理性和情绪也是相互交织的。
Lesion and imaging studies have shown that
损伤和影像学研究表明，
another part of your brain, the anterior cingulate cortex, plays a role in both.
大脑的另一部分——前扣带皮层，在两者中都起作用。
And while different sections of it process cognition and emotion, they do have an effect on each other.
虽然是不同的部分处理认知和情绪，但它们确实对彼此有影响。
Several meta analyses have shown that doing something cognitively demanding, like, say, your math homework,
一些荟萃分析显示，做一些认知上有要求的事情，比如，做数学作业，
reduces activity in the emotional parts of the anterior cingulate cortex.
能减少前扣带皮层情绪部分的活动。
It works the other way, too: strong emotion can suppress activity in the cognitive parts.
反过来也奏效：强烈的情绪可以抑制认知部分的活动。
And the studies and reviews arguing that our so-called "emotional" and "logical" brains
研究和评论认为，我们所谓的“情感”和“逻辑”大脑
are almost impossible to disentangle, continue to pile up.
几乎不可能解开纠缠，而是继续积聚。
The fact that our feelings aren't boxed off in a separate part of our brain explains why they affect our decision making.
我们的情绪并没有被大脑单独隔开的事实可以解释它们影响我们做决定的原因。
Fear and anger have been shown in particular to make people worse at negotiating for something, for example.
例如，尤其是恐惧和愤怒让人们在谈判时表现得更差。
And a 2014 study that showed upsetting negative feedback on a test made people do worse on subsequent logic problems.
2014年的一项研究显示，一项测试中令人沮丧的负面反馈会让人在随后的逻辑问题上表现更差。
But while we think of being quote-unquote "emotional" as something that makes us make bad choices or think irrationally,
虽然我们认为所谓的“情绪”是一种让我们做出错误选择或非理性思考的东西，
emotions can actually help us with judgment and decision making.
但实际上，它可以帮助我们做出判断和决策。
Take the case of "Elliot", a man who underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor from his frontal lobe.
以“埃利奥特”(Elliot)为例，他接受了切除前额叶脑瘤的手术。
While his brain seemed totally normal afterwards… his life completely changed.
虽然他之后的大脑似乎完全正常，但他的生活完全改变了。
He got fired, he made a bunch of terrible financial decisions,
他被解雇了，他做了很多糟糕的财务决策，
and he got divorced and then remarried and then divorced again.
他离婚了，然后再婚，然后又离婚了。
The conclusion that the neuroscientist studying him came to
研究他的神经学家得出的结论是
was that his surgery had disrupted interactions between his amygdala and his frontal lobe.
他的手术中断了杏仁核和前额叶之间的相互交流。
His intelligence was still intact, but he wasn't really able to feel emotions.
他的智力虽然仍完好无损，但他并不能真正感受情绪。
And that made him completely incapable of making decisions.
这使得他完全不能做决定。
Since he couldn't tell how his choices would make him feel later on,
因为他不知道他的选择会让自己以后有什么感觉，
he couldn't assign value to different options, so he endlessly deliberated every little thing.
他不能给不同的选择赋予价值，所以他不断地考虑每一件小事。
Studies in gamblers have also found that emotions helped them avoid making bad decisions.
对赌徒的研究也发现，情绪可以帮助他们避免做出错误的决定。
Mistakes and failures feel lousy and the gamblers don't want to feel that way again, so they learn to make better bets.
错误和失败让人感觉糟糕，赌徒们不想再有这种感觉，所以他们学会了更好地下注。
And the idea that emotions can actually help you make better decisions makes a lot of evolutionary sense.
情绪可以帮助你做出更好的决定，这个观点在进化上很有意义。
Negative emotions teach you what not to do
消极情绪教会你什么不该做，
kind of like how physical pain teaches you not to put your hand on a hot stove.
就像身体疼痛教会你不要把手放在火炉上一样。
And emotions shape other cognitive processes in helpful ways, too.
情绪也会以有益的方式影响其他的认知过程。
They optimize which sensory information we pay attention to,
他们优化我们关注的感官信息，
guide our social interactions, and help us to remember the things that are most important.
引导我们进行社会互动，帮助我们记住最重要的事情。
But all of this isn't to say that you don't have control over your emotions at all.
但这一切并不是说你根本不用控制自己的情绪了。
Emotional regulation is a well-studied process,
情绪调节是一个经过充分研究的过程，
and there are various points at which you can step in and tell your emotions to sit down.
你可以从不同的角度介入情绪，让情绪稳定下来。
So yes, you can change how you feel, how intense that feeling is, and how long it lasts.
所以，是的，你可以改变自己的感觉，改变它的强烈程度以及持续时间。
But... not everyone is super great at that.
但不是每个人都非常擅长这个。
A 2015 study of 176 people actually found differences between the brains of "emotional" people and more "rational" ones.
2015年一项针对176人的研究发现，“情绪化”人的大脑与“理性”人的大脑确实存在差异。
"Emotional" people that tend to cry a lot at sad movies or freak out during scary ones
“情绪化”的人往往会在看悲伤电影时哭泣，看恐怖电影时紧张害怕，
score higher on emotional empathy measures, which basically mean they tend to actually feel what others feel.
他们在情绪同理心测试中得分较高，该测试主要意味着他们倾向于真正感受别人的感受。
And the researchers found that people with higher emotional empathy scores
研究人员发现情绪同理心得分高的人
tended to have more gray matter density in the insula, a part of the cerebral cortex.
大脑皮层中脑岛的灰质密度更大。
While it's unclear whether that made them more emotional or whether being more emotional changed their brains…
虽然还不清楚是灰质密度变大让他们更情绪化了还是情绪化改变了他们的大脑……
it does really solidify the idea that there are individual differences in how we feel and deal with emotions.
但这确实巩固了我们在情绪感受和处理方式上存在个体差异的观点。
And in general, studies have found older people control their feelings better than younger ones,
总的来说，研究发现老年人比年轻人更能控制自己的情绪，
perhaps because practice makes perfect.
也许是因为熟能生巧。
But the good news is, if you're sometimes more emotional than you'd like to be,
但好消息是，如果你有时比自己想的更情绪化，
there are things you can do both to control your emotions and to use your emotional powers for good.
可以做一些事情来控制你的情绪，也可以一劳永逸地利用情绪。
For one, the timing of when you try to control an emotion is super important.
举例来说，控制情绪的时机非常重要。
So rather than trying to suppress an emotion once you're already in the midst of it,
所以，当你有情绪时，不要试图压抑它，
it's much more effective to reframe the way you're thinking about a situation while an emotion is forming.
在情绪形成时重塑你对一种环境的看法会更有效。
And this sounds weird, but…talking to ourselves in the third person
这听起来可能有点儿奇怪，但与第三个自己说话
can give us enough distance to think about things differently.
能给我们足够的距离去换角度思考事情。
So Hank, you should remember that next time you want to dial things back.
汉克，下次你想要回到情绪中时记住这一点。
And framing matters too.
框架也很重要。
Corny as it sounds, looking for the silver lining,
寻找一线希望，
or at least seeing the situation as a challenge to overcome rather than an emotional blow,
或者至少把这种情况看成是需要克服的挑战，而不是情绪上的打击，听起来虽然很俗气，
can help you bounce back faster.
但能帮助你迅速恢复活力。
But ultimately, it's not always a bad thing to feel those feels.
归根结底，感受这些情绪并不总是坏事。
While some feelings suck, they're kind of important.
虽然有些感觉很糟糕，但它们很重要。
Listening to your feelings instead of fighting them can help you identify what's really wrong,
感受你的感觉，而不是和它们抗衡，能帮助你认清什么是真正的错误，
so you have a chance to change it.
那么你就有机会改变它了。
Because emotions are not the mortal enemy of logical thought.
因为情绪不是逻辑思维的死敌。
They're just trying to help ... sometimes they just do it a little too much.
它们只是想帮忙……只是有时它们做的太多了。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych,
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀，
and if you want to better understand your emotions,
如果你想更好地理解自己的情绪，
you might like our episode on what emotions actually are.
你可能会喜欢我们那期“情绪究竟是什么”。
