Recognizing when a friend or colleague feels sad, angry or surprised is key to getting along with others. But a new study suggests that being sensitive to people’s feelings may sometimes come with an extra dose of stress. This and other research challenge the prevailing view that emotional intelligence is uniformly beneficial to its bearer.

        In a study, psychologist Myriam Bechtoldt of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Germany asked 166 male university students a series of questions to measure their emotional intelligence. For example, they showed the students photographs of people’s faces and asked them to what extent feelings such as happiness or disgust were being expressed. The students then had to give job talks in front of judges who displayed serious facial expressions. The scientists measured concentrations of stress hormones in the students’ saliva (唾液) before and after the talk.

        In students who were rated more emotionally intelligent, the stress measures increased more during the experiment and took longer to go back to baseline. The findings suggest that some people may be too emotionally clever for their own good, says Bechtoldt. “Sometimes you can be so good at something that it causes trouble,” she notes.

        Indeed, the study adds to previous research hinting at a dark side of emotional intelligence. A study published in 2002 in Personality and Individual Differences suggested that emotionally perceptive people might be particularly influenced by feelings of depression and hopelessness. Furthermore, several studies have implied that emotional intelligence can be used to manipulate others for personal gains.

        More research is needed to see how exactly the relation between emotional intelligence and stress would play out in women and in people of different ages and education levels. Nevertheless, emotional intelligence is a useful skill to have, as long as you learn to also properly cope with emotions—both others’ and your own, says Bechtoldt. For example, some sensitive individuals may assume responsibility for other people’s sadness or anger, which ultimately stresses them out. Remember, as Bechtoldt says, “you are not responsible for how other people feel.”

解析：C。根据题干中的new study和题文同序原则可定位至原文首段第二句。该句提到，一项新的研究表明，对他人的感受敏感有时可能会带来额外的压力。C项与此内容相符，其中的are aware of others’ feelings是对原文中being sensitive to people’s feelings的同义替换，experience more stress是对原文中come with an extra dose of stress的同义替换，故C项为正确答案。

错项排除：文章开头提到，能够察觉出朋友或同事何时感到悲伤、愤怒或惊讶，是与他人相处的关键。但这只是作者的观点，并不是新研究的发现，故排除A项。原文首段末句提到，这项新研究质疑了高情商会使当事人受益这一主流观点，由此可知，B项内容与新研究的结果正好相反，故排除。D项在原文中无依据，故排除。