幸福生活的七大秘诀
秘诀5：想幸福？找个胖朋友吧！ Fat friends make you happier than thin ones
New evidence in economics and epidemiology seems to suggest that we care about other people’s weight as much as we do our own. It’s always more desirable to be slim – perhaps because it offers a better chance of finding a person to date or marry, or even faster job promotion. However, when the people we normally compare ourselves with become fatter, the cost of putting on weight for many of us reduces. Put simply, when other people around me become fatter, I don’t have to compete so much with them to stay slim.
经济学和流行病学方面的新证据似乎表明，我们对他人体重的关注丝毫不亚于对自己体重的关注。人们总是更希望苗条一些——或许是因为这样更容易找到约会或结婚的对象，甚至能更快地升迁。然而，对于我们许多人而言，如果我们常常拿来和自己做对比的人变胖了，我们自己体重增加的成本就会降低。简言之，如果我身边的人变胖了，那么我不用太费劲就能比他们苗条。
According to research conducted by economists David G. Blanchflower, Andrew Oswald and Bert Van Landeghem, people with weight problems – those with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or over – are significantly unhappier than people within a healthy weight range (BMI 18.5–25). However, the overweight tend to report higher levels of happiness when other people of the same age and gender are as heavy or heavier than they are. The same also goes for individuals who live in the same household: our own weight doesn’t bother us as much, that is, when our partner is also putting on weight.
经济学家戴维•G•布兰奇弗劳尔(David G. Blanchflower)、安德鲁•奥斯瓦德(Andrew Oswald)和贝尔特•范兰德赫姆(Bert Van Landeghem)进行的一项研究显示，与体重在健康范围内的人（BMI体重指数在18.5至25之间）相比，存在体重问题的人（BMI指数在30或以上）明显更不快乐。然而，当看到其他同性别的同龄人与自己一样重，甚至更重时，肥胖人群的幸福感往往会更强烈。这也适用于同一家庭内的不同个体：当伴侣的体重也在增加时，自己的体重就不那么烦人了。
This positive relationship between our happiness and other people’s weight provides a good psychological explanation for the current obesity epidemic in the west. It’s psychologically easier for us to accept being overweight when everyone else is also overweight – assuming, of course, that most of us enjoy food a lot more than dieting.
我们的幸福感与他人体重之间的这种正相关关系，为当前西方肥胖症的流行提供了一个合理的心理学解释。当其他所有人都超重时，我们在心理上就更容易接受自己变胖的事实——当然，前提是我们当中大部分人对食物的热爱要远远大于节食。
