幸福生活的七大秘訣

秘訣7：幸福可以傳染？ Happiness is contagious

         There are many benefits to being happy. Happier people tend to be healthier, live longer and earn more. They also tend to volunteer more, be better at relationships and smile more of what psychologists call “Duchenne” or genuine smiles. Less well understood is why happiness is contagious.
         幸福有許多好處。更幸福的人往往更健康、更長壽、掙得更多。他們通常也會從事更多的志愿工作、更善于處理人際關(guān)系、發(fā)出更多心理學(xué)家所說的“杜興微笑”(Duchenne smile)，即真誠的微笑。讓人不太理解的是，為什么幸?？梢詡魅尽?br />  
       According to James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis, authors of the international bestseller Connected, people surrounded by many happy friends, family members and neighbours who are central to their social network become significantly happier in the future. More specifically, they say we will become 25 per cent happier with our life if a friend who lives within a mile of us becomes significantly happier with his or her life.
       全球暢銷書Connected的作者詹姆斯•福勒(James Fowler)和尼古拉斯•克里斯塔基斯(Nicholas Christakis)發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果你身邊那些人際網(wǎng)絡(luò)中重要的朋友、家人與鄰居，有許多都很幸福，那么你將來也會幸福很多。他們表示，更準(zhǔn)確地說，如果居住在離你1英里內(nèi)的一個朋友生活幸福感得到顯著提升，你的生活幸福感就會增加25%。
 
       Similar effects are seen in co-resident spouses (8 per cent happier); siblings who live within a mile of each other (14 per cent); and next-door neighbours (34 per cent). What this implies is that the magnitude of happiness spread seems to depend more on frequent social contact (due to physical proximity) than on deep social connections. Alas, for some reason this doesn’t translate to the workplace.
       存在同樣效應(yīng)的還有同居配偶（幸福感提升8%）、居住在1英里之內(nèi)的兄弟姐妹（14%）和鄰居（34%）。這意味著，幸福傳播的強度似乎更多有賴于社會交往的頻繁度（與地域鄰近相關(guān)），而不是社會關(guān)系的深度。哎呀，可惜出于某種原因，這并不適用于工作場合。
 
      So, why is happiness contagious? One reason may be that happy people share their good fortune with their friends and family (for example, by being pragmatically helpful or financially generous). Another reason could be that happy people tend to change their behaviour for the better by being nicer or less hostile to those close to them. Or it could just be that positive emotions are highly contagious.
       那么，為什么幸福能夠傳染？一個原因或許是，幸福的人會與親朋好友分享好運氣（例如，提供實際的幫助，或在經(jīng)濟上慷慨解囊）。另一個原因可能是，幸福的人往往會改善自己的行為，會對周圍的人更加友好，或不那么有敵意。又或許只是因為正面情緒具有高度傳染性。