幸福生活的七大秘诀

秘诀7：幸福可以传染？ 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.
         幸福有许多好处。更幸福的人往往更健康、更长寿、挣得更多。他们通常也会从事更多的志愿工作、更善于处理人际关系、发出更多心理学家所说的“杜兴微笑”(Duchenne smile)，即真诚的微笑。让人不太理解的是，为什么幸福可以传染。
 
       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.
       全球畅销书Connected的作者詹姆斯•福勒(James Fowler)和尼古拉斯•克里斯塔基斯(Nicholas Christakis)发现，如果你身边那些人际网络中重要的朋友、家人与邻居，有许多都很幸福，那么你将来也会幸福很多。他们表示，更准确地说，如果居住在离你1英里内的一个朋友生活幸福感得到显著提升，你的生活幸福感就会增加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.
       存在同样效应的还有同居配偶（幸福感提升8%）、居住在1英里之内的兄弟姐妹（14%）和邻居（34%）。这意味着，幸福传播的强度似乎更多有赖于社会交往的频繁度（与地域邻近相关），而不是社会关系的深度。哎呀，可惜出于某种原因，这并不适用于工作场合。
 
      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，为什么幸福能够传染？一个原因或许是，幸福的人会与亲朋好友分享好运气（例如，提供实际的帮助，或在经济上慷慨解囊）。另一个原因可能是，幸福的人往往会改善自己的行为，会对周围的人更加友好，或不那么有敌意。又或许只是因为正面情绪具有高度传染性。