Loneliness is an emotion that doesn’t always make a lot of sense. Two people may have very similar social lives, and yet one might feel isolated¹ more often than the other — even when surrounded by people they know and love, who know and love them back.

孤独就是一时的情绪，没有什么大不了的。哪怕是身处差不多环境的两个人，周围都有熟人和爱人的陪伴，对于他们的关心会也会给予反馈，但其中一个人也可能比另一个人感到寂寞。

These are the contradictions at the heart of a large new study published online last week in the Nature journal Neuropsychopharmacology, which finds that loneliness appears to be a “modestly heritable” trait. A predisposition to feeling lonely may run in the family, in other words. But there’s a caveat² here, in that the authors of this study contend the link between genetics and a predisposition toward feeling isolated isn’t as strong as others have claimed.

最近网上发布的自然杂志神经心理药物学专栏提供的研究引发热议，因为该研究表明，孤独感具有隐性遗传的特质，换句话说，孤独情绪会在家庭成员中相传染。但是需要说明的是，该文的作者所强调的孤独症和遗传基因的关系并不是其他人所认为的那么明显。

A quick rundown of these new findings: The researchers drew from the Health and Retirement⁴ study, from which they gathered genetic³ information for 10,760 Americans aged 50 or older. Their results suggest that a tendency to feel lonely may be 14 to 27 percent genetic, considerably⁵ lower than the 37 to 55 percent suggested by other studies.

简要介绍一下这个新发现：来自健康和退休试验研究人员，选取1万760位年龄在50及以上的人的基因样本进行调查，结果显示只有14%-27%的人认为孤独情绪来自遗传，明显低于另外37%-55%认为感到孤独是受他人的影响所致。

And so, much like physical health markers, you can inherit loneliness, but that might not be the whole story. The researchers argue that others should follow their lead, and investigate the potential genetic causes of psychological and psychiatric phenomena⁶, which remain largely unexplored. For now, at least, it adds another layer to the explanation as to why lonely people tend to stay lonely.

此外，就像其他遗传性生理病痛一样，你可能就遗传到了孤独，但你也不必就此认命。你可以遵循相关研究人员的指导，来帮助他们研究孤独这种隐形基因的心理和精神现象，弥补在这一领域的空白。到目前为止，至少我们知道了除遗传以外，寂寞的人喜欢独处会传染。