【英语生活】金钱能买到幸福吗？

The old saw that money can't buy happiness always struck me as too vague.

What kind of money? What kind of happiness? Is it money that takes a person from $1 to $1 million, or from $100 million to $200 million? And is it happiness as in freedom and fun? Or happiness as in inner peace?

The flood of happiness research is finally providing more specifics. A new analysis of Gallup World Poll data, surveying 136,000 people across 132 nations from 2005 to 2006, suggests that income is much more highly correlated to happiness (or at least a form of it) than previously thought.

The study divided happiness into two varieties: 'life satisfaction,' and the other 'enjoyment of life.'

When asked about life satisfaction, those with higher incomes invariably ranked themselves higher than those with lower incomes.

'Money is an object that many or most people desire, and pursue during the majority of their waking hours,' wrote study researcher Ed Diener of the University of Illinois and the Gallup Organization.

Since most people want money, they use their financial success as a measure of overall success and a reference for how 'good' their lives are, he wrote.

What was interesting about the study was how universal the desire for financial success was across the world. 'People in Togo and Denmark have the same idea of what a good life is, and a lot of that has to do with money and material prosperity,' Daniel Kahneman, professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, told the Washington Post. 'That was unexpected.'

That doesn't mean money makes everything better. The study found that income had far less correlation to the more emotional 'enjoyment of life,' which include things like laughing, joy, and connections to family and friends.

'What we didn't know before is the extent to which life evaluation and emotional well-being are so distinct,' Mr. Kahneman said.

In short, when measuring their life in comparison to others, incomes mattered most. When measuring their inner life, money has less of an impact.

Do you think income effects your 'life satisfaction' more than your enjoyment of life?

常言道，金钱买不来幸福。可这话老让我觉得过于模糊了。

Bloomberg News 多少钱？什么样的幸福？是让只有1块钱的穷光蛋突然有了100万，还是给有1亿元身家的富翁再多个1亿元？幸福是指自由或者乐趣，还是指内心的平静？

关于幸福的研究多不胜数，最终会提供些细节以供探讨。盖洛普世界民意调查(Gallup World Poll)发布了最新分析报告，在2005年至2006年对132个国家的13.6万人进行的调查显示，收入与幸福(至少是某种形式的幸福)的相关度远高于之前所认为的。

该项研究将幸福分为两类：“生活的满意度”与“享受生活”。

就生活的满意度而言，高收入者通常比低收入者高。

伊利诺伊大学(University of Illinois)与盖洛普公司(Gallup Organization)的研究员迪纳(Ed Diener)在报告中说，金钱是许多人或者说是大多数人，在醒着的大多数时间里向往并追求之物。

迪纳在报告中说，由于多数人有对金钱的欲望，他们就把财力上的成功视为总体成功的一种衡量方式，并将其视为象征生活优越度的一种参考指标。

这项研究的有趣之处是，渴望财力上的成功在全球是多么普遍。普林斯顿大学(Princeton University)的心理学与公共事务名誉教授卡尼曼(Daniel Kahneman)接受《华盛顿邮报》(The Washington Post)采访时说，多哥与丹麦的人对美好生活的看法相同，而且大多与金钱及物质上的富有有关。这一点真出乎意料。

这并非是说金钱会使一切更美好。研究发现，收入与更为情绪化的“享受生活”的关联度要小得多，这包括欢笑、喜悦以及与家人及朋友的联系等。

卡尼曼说，之前我们不知道对生活的评判与情绪上的满足感是如此不同。

简言之，在与他人的生活进行比较时，收入起关键作用。而在衡量自己的内心生活时，金钱的影响力就小得多了。

收入影响着你对生活的满意度而非你享受生活的状态，你同意吗？