秘诀1：很多幸福用钱是买不到的 Money buys you little happiness One of the most infamous findings in happiness research is that money doesn’t buy a lot of happiness – or at least not as much as we think it should. According to the economist Richard Easterlin, part of the reason for this is that we care a great deal more about what other people earn than what we do ourselves. 幸福研究领域的最著名发现之一是，很多幸福是金钱买不来的，或者至少不像我们想象的那么多。经济学家理查德•伊斯特林(Richard Easterlin)表示，部分原因在于，我们对于别人收入的关心程度，要远远超出对我们自己收入的关心。 For those whose most basic needs are already met, money buys additional happiness only if it can lead to higher status in society, which is hard when everyone else is also getting richer over time. Since people’s comparison group varies from place to place, those living in more affluent areas of London, for example, would probably need to earn at least £200k a year to ensure that they are staying well ahead of most other Londoners – and even that might not be enough. 对于那些最基本需求已得到满足的人而言，只有当金钱可以带来更高的社会地位时，才会意味着更多幸福。要做到这一点很难，因为其他人也逐渐变得更为富有。不同地区的人们的对比群组不同，举例而言，那些生活在伦敦较富裕地区的人，每年或许得挣至少20 万英镑，才能确保自己的处境远远强于多数其他伦敦人——即使是这样的收入或许都不够。 Moreover, according to the Princeton University psychologist Daniel Kahneman, the weak relationship between happiness and income can also be explained, in part, by the evidence that richer people tend to spend more time engaging in activities associated with no greater happiness, on average, but with slightly higher tension and stress – such as work, childcare and shopping. By contrast, people with lowe...
