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Are you a cynic?
你是愤世嫉俗的人吗？
I, for one, am definitely an expect-the-worst, hope-for-the-best kind of girl.
就我而言，我绝对是一种做最坏打算、抱最好希望的女孩。
It’s not that I lack faith in all other people or even all organizations, but at the same time, I don’t count on positive actions or outcomes from most of them.
我并不是对所有其他人甚至所有组织都缺乏信心，但同时，我不指望他们中的大多数人采取积极的行动或取得积极的结果。
And apparently, I might be more optimistic than a lot of you out there listening.
显然，我可能比你们中的许多人更乐观。
Over the past few decades, trust in not just our peers, but also our political leaders, institutions, and corporations has plummeted.
在过去的几十年里，人们不仅对我们的同行，而且对我们的政治领导人、机构和企业的信任都急剧下降。
Unfortunately, that kind of cynicism can have really negative consequences for both the people who feel that way and the workplaces in which they’re employed.
不幸的是，这种玩世不恭可能会对那些有这种感觉的人和他们所在的工作场所产生真正的负面后果。
Today’s guest, a professor of psychology at Stanford University has studied this phenomenon and has advice for how to combat it.
今天的嘉宾是斯坦福大学的一位心理学教授，他研究了这一现象，并提出了如何应对它的建议。
Jamil Zaki wrote the HBR article, “Don’t Let Cynicism Undermine Your Workplace,” and he joins me now.
贾米尔·扎基为《哈佛商业评论》撰写了一篇文章《不要让玩世不恭破坏你的工作场所》，现在他加入了我们的讨论。
Jamil, welcome. Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.
贾米尔，欢迎你。谢谢你邀请我。很高兴来到这里。
First, how do you define cynicism?
首先，你如何定义玩世不恭？
It’s a really important place to start.
这是一个非常重要的起点。
I would say that cynicism is a theory about the world, and in particular, about the social world.
我想说，玩世不恭是一种关于世界的理论，尤其是关于社会世界的理论。
It’s a theory that is kind of like a dark lens that changes the way that we see other people, and in particular, it’s the theory that individuals are, in general, selfish, greedy, and dishonest, and when you take that as a starting point for your view of the world, the way that you start thinking about other people, about social interactions changes.
这是一种类似于黑暗透镜的理论，它改变了我们看待他人的方式，特别是，这种理论认为，总的来说，个人是自私、贪婪和不诚实的，当你把这一点作为你世界观的起点时，你开始思考其他人、思考社会互动的方式就会改变。
You start to detect ulterior motives in everything that people do and to distrust the people around you, and unfortunately, as you said, this has lots of toxic effects on individuals and on their communities, including on the workplace.
你开始发现人们做的每件事都别有用心，你开始不信任你周围的人，不幸的是，就像你说的，这对个人和他们的社区，包括工作场所都有很多有害影响。
Now, you heard my intro, and I would describe myself as a little bit cynical, a little bit skeptical.
现在，你听到我的介绍了，我会说我自己有点愤世嫉俗，有点怀疑。
Is there degrees to which a person can have this affliction and it isn’t a problem versus it is, or is just any bit of cynicism not good for you?
这种痛苦有没有一种程度，不会形成问题，或者只是一点点的玩世不恭对你没有好处？
Yeah, I think it’s really important to differentiate two terms that, I think people often consider pretty similar, and that’s cynicism and skepticism.
是的，我认为区分两个术语非常重要，我认为人们通常认为这两个术语非常相似，那就是玩世不恭和怀疑主义。
Cynics would probably tell you that the opposite of cynicism is gullibility, blindly trusting other people, and that cynicism is a sort of wisdom, a hard-earned sense that, in fact, people cannot be trusted.
玩世不恭的人可能会告诉你，玩世不恭的反义词是轻信，盲目相信别人，玩世不恭是一种智慧，一种来之不易的感觉，事实上，人们不能信任。
Skepticism is different.
怀疑主义则不同。
Skepticism is using a more scientific perspective, trying to test the waters with people and with relationships to see who can be trusted.
怀疑主义使用了更科学的视角，试图与人和人之间的关系中试水，看看谁可以信任。
In fact, it turns out that if anything, cynics are much closer to the gullible people who they often revile because they might not blindly trust people, but they often blindly mistrust people.
事实上，事实证明，如果说有什么不同的话，那就是玩世不恭者更接近那些他们经常辱骂的容易上当的人，因为他们可能不会盲目信任别人，但他们往往盲目地不信任别人。
So I think skepticism, waiting for evidence to figure out who you can trust is really smart and really wise, and not a little, but a lot of it is a good thing, but when it moves over into cynicism, an assumption about people based on no evidence that they can’t be trusted, well then, I think that is less useful.
所以我认为，怀疑主义，等待证据来找出你可以信任的人是非常聪明和非常明智的，很大程度上是一件好事，但当它转变为玩世不恭，对人的不能信任的假设毫无证据，我认为这就不那么有用了。
