According to a new meta-analysis, there are significant personality differences between students in different academic majors.

根据一项新的元分析，学生学术专业上有巨大的个性差异。

Anna Vedel, a psychologist from Aarhus University in Denmark, analyzed¹ 12 studies examining the correlation² between personality traits and college majors. Eleven of them found significant differences between majors. The review examined the so-called “Big Five” traits: neuroticism⁴, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness⁶.

安娜·维戴尔是丹麦奥尔胡斯大学的心理学家，她做了12项研究，分析了性格特点和大学专业间的关联，其中11项研究发现了专业间的巨大差异。研究检验了所谓的“五大”特点：神经过敏、性格外向、乐于体验、友好和善和做事认真。

Arts and humanities majors are in the position of being anxious, but not very organized.They were less conscientious⁵ than students in fields like science, law, or engineering. They also tended to score higher on ‘neuroticism’.

艺术和人文专业学生焦躁、条理欠佳，不及科学、法律和工程学专业的学生认真。他们“神经过敏”一项分数更高。

On the plus side, along with political-science majors, arts and humanities students also scored higher on openness than did economics, engineering, law, or science students. Openness is characterized by an active imagination, love of variety, and a wide range of intellectual interests.

从好的一面看，和政治学专业学生一样，艺术和人文专业的学生要比经济、工程学、法律和科学专业的学生要更开明，体现在想象力丰富、喜欢变化、求学兴趣广泛。

Economics and business students rated consistently lower in neuroticism. Along with law students, business and economics students were also less agreeable than students in the other majors. Economics, law, political-science, and medicine students were more extroverted⁷ than students in the arts, humanities, and the sciences.

经济和商学专业学生在神经质一项评分始终偏低。和法学学生一样，商业和经济专业的学生没有其他专业的学生好相处。经济、法律、政治学和医学专业的学生要比艺术人文和科学专业的学生要更外向。

Vedel hopes her findings can help college counselors⁸ guide students into the best majors for their personalities⁹.

维戴尔希望她的发现可以帮助大学辅导员引导学生根据其个性选择最好的专业。

The findings are explained somewhat by the gender¹⁰ distribution among college majors. It's well-known, for instance, that women are far less likely to enter engineering fields than men are, and women tend to be more neurotic³, agreeable, and conscientious than men, according to the study.

研究多多少少解释了大学专业的性别分布。比如，众所周知，女性远远不及男性那样容易进入工程学领域。根据研究所说，女性更神经质、性格更讨喜、比男性更认真。