In today's personality stakes, nothing is more highly valued than a sense of humor.
如今，人的性格因素中没有其他因素能比幽默感更受推崇。
We seek it out in others and are proud to claim it in ourselves, perhaps even more than good looks or intelligence.
我们在他人身上寻求幽默感，同时也因自己具有幽默感而感到骄傲，或许拥有幽默感更胜于拥有姣好的外貌或智慧。
If someone has a great sense of humor, we reason,
如果一个人极富幽默感，
it means that they are happy, socially confident and have a healthy perspective on life.
我们推测这意味着这类人的生活是幸福的、在社会交际中是自信的、对生活的态度是健康积极的。
This attitude would have surprised the ancient Greeks, who believed humor to be essentially aggressive.
这种看法可能会使那些认为幽默是具有攻击性质的古希腊人感到惊讶。
And in fact, our admiration for the comically gifted is relatively new and not very well-founded,
事实上，我们对于幽默这种喜剧天赋的推崇赞美才刚刚开始，并没有多少根据。
says Rod Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario.
西安大略大学的一位名叫罗德·马丁的心理学家表示
Being funny isn't necessarily an indicator of good social skills and well-being, his research has shown.
他的研究显示：风趣幽默未必说明一个人具有良好的社交技巧并且生活幸福。
It may just as likely be a sign of personality flaws.
它有可能正是人格缺陷的一种迹象。
He has found that humor is a double-edged sword.
他发现幽默是一把双刃剑。
It can forge better relationships and help you cope with life,
幽默感可以使人与人之间的关系更加融洽同时让你轻松应对生活；
or it can be corrosive, eating away at self-esteem and irritating others.
或者它可以具有“腐蚀性”，蚕食掉你的自尊并且激怒他人。
It's a form of communication, like speech, and we all use it differently, says Martin.
马丁说，幽默感是交流的一种形式，就像演讲一样，我们使用幽默感的方式都各不相同。
We use bonding humor to enhance our social connections,
我们用迎合式幽默来提升我们的社交关系，
but we also may employ it as a way of excluding or rejecting an outsider.
但我们也可以借此来排斥或拒绝一个异己。
Though humor is essentially social, how you use it says a lot about your sense of self.
虽然幽默具有社交性的本质特点，但是如何运用幽默很大程度上反映了一个人的自我感知。
Those who use self-defeating humor, making fun of themselves for the enjoyment of others,
那些运用自嘲式幽默取笑自己娱乐他人的人，往往对自身持有那种敌意，
tend to maintain that hostility toward themselves even when alone.
即使当他们孤身一人时也是如此。
Similarly, those who are able to view the world with amused tolerance are often equally forgiving of their own shortcomings.
同样地，那些能够以自娱式的宽容眼光看待世界的人也往往很容易宽恕自己的缺点。