科学家研究出一条“中年危机”曲线

科学家研究出一条“中年危机”曲线

In 2007. David Blanchflower co-authored a study with Andrew Oswald. They assembled evidence that midlife crises are real, widespread and not just made up by frustrated yuppie parents.

2007年，大卫·布兰奇弗劳尔与安德鲁·奥斯瓦尔德合著了一项研究。他们收集的证据表明，中年危机是真实的、普遍存在的，而不仅仅是沮丧的雅皮士(属于中上阶层的年轻专业人士)父母编造出来的。

Using data from about a half-million Americans and Europeans, Blanchflower and Oswald found that, all other things being equal, people reported happiness hitting rock bottom in their mid-to-late 40s.

布兰奇弗劳尔和奥斯瓦尔德利用来自大约50万美国人和欧洲人的数据发现，在其他条件相同的情况下，人们的幸福感在45岁中后期跌至谷底。

The study launched a cottage industry for academics and journalists, who worked to build on their findings or pick them apart.

这项研究为学者和记者们开创了一个“家庭手工业”，他们在自己的研究成果上做文章，或者把它们剖析。

Scholars had many objections. Blanchflower and Oswald, they said, are economists with no business invading psychologists' territory; they studied only rich countries; their data weren't good enough. "And so that made me think, 'Well, we need to go back and redo it,' " Blanchflower says. Blanchflower has released two papers on happiness this month, and, he says, he has another one on the way.

学者们对此有很多异议。他们说，布兰奇弗劳尔和奥斯瓦尔德是经济学家，没有理由侵入心理学家的领地;他们只研究富裕国家;他们的数据不够充分。布兰奇弗劳尔说:“这让我想到，‘好吧，我们需要回去重新做一遍。’”布兰奇弗劳尔本月发表了两篇关于幸福的论文，他说，他还在撰写另一篇。

One of his studies uses a broad range of data from 132 countries and confirms the finding from his 2007 paper. When you statistically control for things like education and employment status, happiness, he finds, is always a "U-shaped" curve over people's lifetimes.

他的一项研究使用了来自132个国家的广泛数据，并证实了他2007年论文中的发现。他发现，当你对教育和就业状况等因素进行统计控制时，幸福感在人们的一生中总是呈“u形”曲线。

That is, it starts high in youth, then trends down and hits bottom in middle age, and picks back up in old age. This is true in all the countries he analyzes, including 95 developing nations. He finds that people are, on average, most unhappy at age 48 in developing nations and age 47 in developed ones. "The happiness curve is everywhere," he concludes.

也就是说，它在年轻时开始很高，然后在中年时下降并触底，然后在老年时回升。他分析的所有国家都是如此，包括95个发展中国家。他发现，平均而言，发展中国家的人在48岁时最不快乐，而发达国家的人在47岁时最不快乐。“幸福曲线无处不在，”他总结道。

There are many potential reasons for a midlife crisis — from the physical effects of aging to the stresses placed on breadwinning parents — but Blanchflower believes part of the reason for it is that we reach a point where it becomes clear that we won't achieve all our dreams and aspirations. At first, that's a blow.

原因有很多潜在的中年危机——从衰老的生理效应的压力放在父母养家糊口,但布兰奇福劳认为,部分原因是我们达到一个明显的点,即我们不会实现我们所有的梦想和愿望。起初，这是一个打击。

But then we realize that's OK, and we start just wanting to enjoy what time we have left. He believes this is a natural process, and he points to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that even found a similar pattern among great apes.

但是当我们意识到这没关系的时候，我们就开始想要享受我们剩下的时间。他相信这是一个自然的过程，他指出《美国国家科学院院刊》上的一项研究甚至在类人猿中发现了类似的模式。

In a second study, Blanchflower tries to understand why so many middle-aged adults are increasingly killing themselves, either intentionally or through drugs and alcohol, a category that economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton call "deaths of despair."

在第二项研究中，布兰奇弗劳尔试图理解为什么越来越多的中年人自杀，要么是故意的，要么是通过毒品和酒精自杀。经济学家安妮·凯斯和安格斯·迪顿把这类自杀称为“死于绝望”。

Blanchflower believes this group is responding to not only the feelings of angst that come with middle age but to the lingering effects of the Great Recession.

布兰奇弗劳尔认为，这一群体不仅是在应对中年带来的焦虑情绪，也是在应对大衰退挥之不去的影响。

He also blames a long-term decline in social cohesion and civic engagement within communities as contributing to the problem. People feel more isolated. Blanchflower believes social support systems and health professionals can help. "The people who do OK are those with resources, health care, family, friends and good neighbors."

他还指责社区内社会凝聚力和公民参与的长期下降是造成这一问题的原因。人们感到更加孤立。布兰奇弗劳尔认为，社会支持系统和卫生专业人员可以提供帮助。“感觉良好的人是那些有资源、有医疗、有家庭、有朋友、有好邻居的人。”

The good news is that the return to happiness after middle age appears to be nearly universal. Blanchflower, to take just one example, is 67 years old. He says he's happy. He's a grandfather. He spends much of his time in Florida fishing. In fact, when we spoke to him, he had just caught a 28-inch, 20-pound red fish in the Florida mangroves. He sent us a picture. Look at that blissful face, the smile of a beaming U-shaped curve.

好消息是，人到中年后，幸福感的恢复几乎是普遍现象。举个例子，邦迟佛拉已经67岁了。他说他很高兴。他是一个爷爷。他大部分时间都在佛罗里达钓鱼。事实上，当我们和他谈话时，他刚刚在佛罗里达的红树林钓到了一条28英寸，20磅重的红鱼。他寄给我们一张照片。看看那张幸福的脸，微笑的u型曲线。