People say money doesn't buy happiness. Except, according to a new study from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, it sort of does — up to about $75,000 a year. The lower a person's income falls below that benchmark, the unhappier he or she feels. But no matter how much more than $75,000 people make, they don't report any greater degree of happiness.
人們常說金錢買不來幸福。不過，普林斯頓大學(xué)伍德羅·威爾遜學(xué)院一項新研究表明，在某種程度上錢的確能買到幸福 - 只要你每年賺到大約7.5萬美元。一個人的收入越是低于這個基準(zhǔn)，他/她越是感覺不幸福。但是，收入只要是高于7.5萬美元，無論再高出多少，幸福感都不會有所增加。
But before employers rush to hold — or raise — everyone's salary to $75,000, the study points out that there are actually two types of happiness. There's your changeable, day-to-day mood: whether you're stressed or blue or feeling emotionally sound. Then there's the deeper satisfaction you feel about the way your life is going — the kind of thing Tony Robbins tries to teach you. While having an income above the magic $75K cutoff doesn't seem to have an impact on the former (emotional well-being), it definitely improves people's Robbins-like life satisfaction. In other words, the more people make above $75K, the more they feel their life is working out on the whole. But it doesn't make them any more jovial in the mornings.
雇主們先別急著把每個員工的薪水保持在或提高到7.5萬美元。這項研究指出，幸福感其實有兩種類型。一種是指你每日變化的情緒：或壓力大或憂郁，或心理感覺正常。另一種是你對自己生活方式的更深層次的滿足，這正是托尼·羅賓斯(Tony Robbins)要教給你的。賺到高于神奇臨界值7.5萬美元的收入，似乎對前者（情緒福祉）沒有什么效果，但肯定能夠改善羅賓斯所指的生活滿意度。換句話說，收入超出7.5萬美元越多，人越覺得自己的生活總體上令人滿意。不過，這并不會令他們每天早上感覺更愉快。
The study, by economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who has won a Nobel prize in economics, analyzed the responses of 450,000 Americans polled by Gallup and Healthways in 2008 and 2009. Participants were asked how they had felt the previous day and whether they were living the best possible life for them. They were also asked about their income.
這項研究是由由經(jīng)濟學(xué)家安格斯·迪頓（Angus Deaton）和諾貝爾經(jīng)濟學(xué)獎得主、心理學(xué)家丹尼爾·卡納曼（Daniel Kahneman）共同完成的。研究分析了2008年和2009年蓋洛普和Healthways所調(diào)查的45萬美國人的答卷。他們被問及收入狀況、前一天感覺如何，以及是否過上了他們所能過上的最理想生活。
The authors found that most Americans — 85% — regardless of their annual income, felt happy each day. Almost 40% of respondents also reported feeling stressed (which is not mutually exclusive with happiness) and 24% had feelings of sadness. Most people were also satisfied with the way their life is going.
作者發(fā)現(xiàn)，大多數(shù)美國人（85%）每天都感到幸福，這跟與年收入多少無關(guān)。約有40％的受訪者回答他們感到壓力大（壓力大和幸福感并不相互排斥），另有24％的人的感到難過。大多數(shù)人對自己的生活感到滿意。
So, where does the $75,000 come into play? Researchers found that lower income did not cause sadness itself, but made people feel more ground down by the problems they already had. The study found, for example, that among divorced people, about 51% who made less than $1,000 a month reported feeling sad or stressed the previous day, while only 24% of those earning more than $3,000 a month reported similar feelings. Among people with asthma, 41% of low earners reported feeling unhappy, compared with about 22% of the wealthier group. Having money clearly takes the sting out of adversities.
那么，7.5萬美元到底有什么作用？研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，低收入本身并未造成難過，而是使人更真切地感到了當(dāng)前問題的折磨。例如，研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在離婚的人當(dāng)中，約有51%月收入不足1000美元者回答前一天感覺難過或壓力大，而只有24%的月收入超過3000美元者回答有類似的感覺。在患有哮喘病的人當(dāng)中，有41％的低收入者感到不快樂，而收入較高一組這一比例只有22%。金錢明顯具有消除不快的效果。
At $75,000, that effect disappears. For people who earn that much or more, individual temperament and life circumstances have much more sway over their lightness of heart than money. The study doesn't say why $75,000 is the benchmark, but "it does seem to me a plausible number at which people would think money is not an issue," says Deaton. At that level, people probably have enough expendable cash to do things that make them feel good, like going out with friends. (The federal poverty level for a family of four, by the way, is $22,050.)
到了7.5萬美元，這種效果就消失了。對于賺到這個數(shù)目或更多的人來說，個性氣質(zhì)和生活情況對心情暢快的影響比金錢的影響要大得多。該研究并未說明為何將基準(zhǔn)設(shè)為7.5萬美元，但“我感覺這似乎是個可信的數(shù)字，達到了這個水平后人們會覺得錢已不是問題，”迪頓說。在這個收入水平上，人們可能有足夠的現(xiàn)金去做喜歡的事，比如和朋友一起出去玩 （順便說一句，一個四口之家的聯(lián)邦貧困線是22,050美元。）
But in the bigger view of their lives, people's evaluations were much more tied to their income. The more they made, the more they felt their life was going well. The survey asked respondents to place themselves on a life-satisfaction ladder, with the first rung meaning their lives were not going well and the 10th rung meaning it was as good as it could be. The higher their income, the higher the rung people chose. "Importantly, the same percentage increase in income has the same effect on evaluation for everyone, rich or poor alike, even though the absolute dollar amounts differ," the authors write. So every 10% rise in annual income moves people up the satisfaction ladder the same amount, whether they're making $25,000 or $100,000. "High incomes don't bring you happiness, but they do bring you a life you think is better," conclude the authors. Might it be time for Oprah to give these guys their own show?
但是，我們考察更宏觀的生活視野后發(fā)現(xiàn)，社會評價越來越與人們的收入聯(lián)系在一起。人們賺得越多，對自己的生活越滿意。這項調(diào)查要求受訪者回答自己處于生活滿意度階梯的哪一級，第一級表示對自己的生活不滿意，第10級表示正過著理想的生活。結(jié)果是，收入越高，選擇的梯級也越高。 “重要的是，收入有了一定的增幅，人們對他的評價也有同等幅度的提高，不論他是富人還是窮人，甚至也和美元的絕對數(shù)目沒有關(guān)系，”作者寫道。所以，年收入每增長10%，人們也會在滿意度階梯上上升10%，無論他賺2.5萬美元或10萬美元。 “高收入帶不來幸福，但能帶來你認(rèn)為是更好的生活，”作者總結(jié)說?？赡苁菚r候讓這些家伙們上一下奧普拉秀了？ (譯者注：求眉批) 以往對于金錢與幸福的研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，與幸福發(fā)生聯(lián)系的并不是絕對財富，而是相對財富或地位－－就是說，你的財富比你的鄰居多多少。 這一調(diào)查是在多個國家進行的，美國人的結(jié)果五花八門也不就足為奇：在151個國家中，美國人幸福感排第5名，微笑第33名，喜悅第10名。同時，美國人煩惱排第89名，難過排第69名，壓力排第5名。即便如此，可能由于美國的總體財富，美國人進入了國民生活滿意度前10強國家之列，排在永遠的樂觀派加拿大人、新西蘭人和斯堪地納維亞人后面。 沒錯?，F(xiàn)在，普林斯頓大學(xué)的研究人員已經(jīng)解開了生命之謎，也許麻省理工學(xué)院的高人能夠告訴我們購買愛情所需的最準(zhǔn)確錢數(shù)。Past research on money and happiness has also found that it's not absolute wealth that's linked with happiness, but relative wealth, or status — that is, how much more money you have than your neighbors.
It's no surprise, then, that when the same polls are done in different countries, Americans come out as a bit of a mixed lot: they're fifth in terms of happiness, 33rd in terms of smiling and 10th in terms of enjoyment. At the same time, they're the 89th biggest worriers, the 69th saddest and fifth most stressed people out of the 151 nations studied. Even so, perhaps because of the country's general wealth, they are in the top 10 citizenries where people feel their lives are going well, beaten out by such eternal optimists as the Canadians, New Zealanders and Scandinavians.
Right. Now that Princeton researchers have untangled that life mystery, maybe someone at M.I.T. can look into the optimal amount of money required to buy us love.
