Are you a good judge of character? Can you make an accurate judgement of someone's personality based only on your first impression of them? Ironically, the answer lies as much in them as it does in you.

你能很好地判断人品吗？仅凭第一印象就可以准确判断一个人的性格吗？具有讽刺意味的是，答案在他们身上和在你身上一样多。

One of the first people to try to identify good judges of character was US psychologist Henry F Adams in 1927. His research led him to conclude that people fell into two groups – good judges of themselves and good judges of others. Adams's research has been widely criticised since then, but he wasn't entirely wrong about there being two distinct types.

1927 年，美国心理学家亨利·F·亚当斯 (Henry F Adams) 是最早尝试确定良好的品格判断力的人之一。他的研究使他得出结论，人们分为两类——善于自我判断的人和善于判断他人的人。从那时起，亚当斯的研究受到了广泛批评，但他认为存在两种截然不同的类型并不是完全错误的。

More on that in a moment, but first we need to define what a good judge of character is. Is it someone who can read personality or someone who can read emotion? Those are two distinct skills. Emotions such as anger or joy or sadness can generate easily identifiable physical signs. Most of us would probably be able to accurately identify these signs, even in a stranger. As such, most of us are probably good judges of emotion.

稍后会详细介绍，但首先我们需要定义什么是良好的品格判断力。是能读懂人格的人，还是能读懂情感的人？这是两种截然不同的技能。愤怒、喜悦或悲伤等情绪可以产生易于识别的体征。我们中的大多数人可能能够准确地识别这些迹象，即使是在陌生人身上也是如此。因此，我们大多数人可能都是情绪的良好判断者。

In order to be a good judge of personality, however, there needs to be an interaction with the other person, and that person needs to be a 'good target'. 'Good targets' are people who reveal relevant and useful cues to their personality. So this means 'the good judge' will only manifest when reading 'good targets'. This is according to Rogers and Biesanz in their 2019 journal entitled 'Reassessing the good judge of personality'. "We found consistent, clear and strong evidence that the good judge does exist", Rogers and Biesanz concluded. But their key finding is that the good judge does not have magical gifts of perception – they are simply able to "detect and utilise information provided by the good target".↳

然而，为了成为一个好的人格判断者，需要与另一个人互动，那个人需要成为一个“好的目标”。 “好的目标”是那些能够揭示与其个性相关且有用的线索的人。所以这意味着“好法官”只会在阅读“好目标”时出现。这是 Rogers 和 Biesanz 在他们 2019 年题为“重新评估人格的良好判断力”的期刊中所说的。罗杰斯和比桑兹总结道：“我们发现了一致、明确和有力的证据，证明好法官确实存在。”但他们的主要发现是，好的判断者并没有神奇的感知天赋——他们只是能够“检测和利用好目标提供的信息”。

So, are first impressions really accurate? Well, if you're a good judge talking to a 'good target', then it seems the answer is 'yes'. And now we know that good judges probably do exist, more research can be done into how they read personality, what kind of people they are – and whether their skills can be taught.

那么，第一印象真的准确吗？好吧，如果你是一个与“好目标”交谈的好法官，那么答案似乎是“是”。现在我们知道优秀的法官可能确实存在，可以对他们如何解读人格、他们是什么样的人以及他们的技能是否可以传授进行更多研究。

词汇表

good judge of character 善于判别性格的人
judgement 判断
ironically 具有讽刺意味地
lie in (the answer/solution) （答案、解决方法）在于
identify 识别
fall into 分为
distinct 截然不同的，差别明显的
read (personality) 读懂（个性）
generate 产生
identifiable 很容易识别的
accurately 准确地
interaction 互动
good target 可判读的 “好目标”
reveal 透露
relevant 相关的
cue 暗示，线索
manifest 显现出来
consistent 一致的
perception 感知能力
detect 发现
utilise 利用
provide 提供