FW: 資料來自時代雜志(Time Magazine) <div><div style="border: medium none ; overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
Peoplesay money doesn't buy happiness. Except, according to a new study fromPrinceton University's Woodrow Wilson School, it sort of does — up toabout $75,000 a year. The lower a person's annual income falls belowthat benchmark, the unhappier he or she feels. But no matter how muchmore than $75,000 people make, they don't report any greater degree ofhappiness.
Before employers rush to hold — or raise — everyone's salary to$75,000, the study points out that there are actually two types ofhappiness. There's your changeable, day-to-day mood: whether you'restressed or blue or feeling emotionally sound. Then there's the deepersatisfaction you feel about the way your life is going — the kind ofthing Tony Robbins tries to teach you.While having an income above the magic $75,000 cutoff doesn't seem tohave an impact on the former (emotional well-being), it definitelyimproves people's Robbins-like life satisfaction. In other words, themore people make above $75,000, the more they feel their life isworking out on the whole. But it doesn't make them any more jovial inthe mornings.
The study, by economist Angus Deaton and psychologist DanielKahneman, who has won a Nobel Prize for Economics, analyzed theresponses of 450,000 Americans polled by Gallup and Healthways in 2008and 2009. Participants were asked how they had felt the previous dayand whether they were living the best possible life for them. They werealso asked about their income.
The authors found that most Americans — 85% — regardless of theirannual income, felt happy each day. Almost 40% of respondents alsoreported feeling stressed (which is not mutually exclusive withhappiness) and 24% had feelings of sadness. Most people were alsosatisfied with the way their life was going. (See TIME's special issue on the science of happiness.)
So, where does the $75,000 come into play? Researchers found thatlower income did not cause sadness itself but made people feel moreground down by the problems they already had. The study found, forexample, that among divorced people, about 51% who made less than$1,000 a month reported feeling sad or stressed the previous day, whileonly 24% of those earning more than $3,000 a month reported similarfeelings. Among people with asthma, 41% of low earners reported feelingunhappy, compared with about 22% of the wealthier group. Having moneyclearly takes the sting out of adversities.
At $75,000, that effect disappears. For people who earn that much ormore, individual temperament and life circumstances have much more swayover their lightness of heart than money. The study doesn't say why$75,000 is the benchmark, but "it does seem to me a plausible number atwhich people would think money is not an issue," says Deaton. At thatlevel, people probably have enough expendable cash to do things thatmake them feel good, like going out with friends. (The federal povertylevel for a family of four, by the way, is $22,050.)
But in the bigger view of their lives, people's evaluations weremuch more tied to their income. The more they made, the more they felttheir life was going well. The survey asked respondents to placethemselves on a life-satisfaction ladder, with the first rung meaningtheir lives were not going well and the 10th rung meaning it was asgood as it could be. The higher their income, the higher the rungpeople chose. "Importantly, the same percentage increase in income hasthe same effect on evaluation for everyone, rich or poor alike, eventhough the absolute dollar amounts differ," the authors write. So every10% rise in annual income moves people up the satisfaction ladder thesame amount, whether they're making $25,000 or $100,000. "High incomesdon't bring you happiness, but they do bring you a life you think isbetter," conclude the authors. Might it be time for Oprah to give theseguys their own show? (Comment on this story.)
Past research on money and happiness has also found that it's notabsolute wealth that's linked with happiness, but relative wealth orstatus — that is, how much more money you have than your neighbors.
It's no surprise, then, that when the same polls are done indifferent countries, Americans come out as a bit of a mixed lot:they're fifth in terms of happiness, 33rd in terms of smiling and 10thin terms of enjoyment. At the same time, they're the 89th biggestworriers, the 69th saddest and fifth most stressed people out of the151 nations studied. Even so, perhaps because of the country's generalwealth, they are in the top 10 citizenries where people feel theirlives are going well, beaten out by such eternal optimists as theCanadians, New Zealanders and Scandinavians.
Right. Now that Princeton researchers have untangled that lifemystery, maybe someone at MIT can look into the optimal amount of moneyrequired to buy us love.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2016291,00.html#ixzz0ytCksNX5</div></div>
