快乐会传染吗
Is Happiness Contagious?2008年12月16日
We know that a lot of things are communicable in close quarters: colds, chicken pox, yawns. How about happiness?
A new study out today suggests that happiness may be spread through social networks, and the happier the people you associate with are, the happier you are. If someone in your social network — friends, family, spouse — becomes happy, it increases your likelihood of happiness. Great.
Happiness might seem like an odd thing to tote up in a spread sheet and plot on a chart. But the Harvard and University of California, San Diego researchers who produced the paper — using data from the widely followed Framingham Heart Study say their work helps demonstrate that the health and well-being of one person affects that of others. And that's the fundamental idea behind public health. The researchers examined the self-reported mental-health status of the more than 5,000 Framingham participants, and the over 50,000 social ties they reported with a total of about 12,000 people.
To be sure, the researchers' methodology has its critics. As one researcher told the New York Times, it's awfully hard to accept that a spouse's happiness has less impact on you than, say, a neighbor's does. The study found that that if a live-in partner becomes happy, it increases your likelihood of happiness by 8%. Siblings who lived nearby increase your chances by 14%, and neighbors 34%. The researchers surmise that we may take more emotional cues from same-sex associates.
Maybe.
Interestingly, co-workers seemed to have no measurable impact on your happiness. And that also makes some aspects of the study hard to swallow. After all, who do you spend more time with, your co-workers, or your next-door neighbor?
We've discussed in the past how strong family relationships may be more important than money in achieving happiness. Readers, do you think your happiness is affected by the happiness of those around you? What about sadness? The researchers found that sadness is not transmitted to the same degree that happiness is. But I can imagine that a grumpy co-worker would have an outsize impact on my mood.
Stefanie Ilgenfritz 快乐会传染吗？ 我们知道很多事物都会近距离传染：感冒、水痘、哈欠。那么幸福会传染么？
一项新公布的研究结果显示，幸福可能会通过社交网络扩散，你交往的人越幸福，你也会感到越快乐。如果你的社交网络（朋友、家庭和配偶）中有人变得快乐，那也会增加你快乐的可能性。真棒。
幸福似乎是一种难以量化、无法衡量的东西。但哈佛大学和加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究人员借助了受到广泛推崇的佛莱明罕心脏研究的数据进行了此项研究。研究人员表示，他们的工作有助于揭示一个人的健康快乐会影响到其他人这样一个事实。这是公众健康研究背后的基本思路。研究人员分析了超过5,000个佛莱明罕受访者的心理健康状况，以及他们所述与大约12,000人的超过50,000个社交关系。
Getty Images
当然，研究人员的方法有待商榷。正如一名研究人员对《纽约时报》所说的，确实很难接受配偶的幸福感对你的影响力还比不上一个邻居的影响力。研究发现，如果一个生活伙伴变得快乐，那么你快乐的几率会增加8%；住在附近的兄弟姐妹感到快乐，你快乐的几率会上升14%；而邻居感到快乐，你的快乐几率会提高34%。研究人员对此猜测，我们可能会从同性伙伴那里接受更多的感情线索。
或许吧。
有趣的是，同事似乎对你的幸福感没有明显影响。这个结果也使得研究某些方面很难让人接受。毕竟，谁和你的相处时间更长呢？是你的同事还是隔壁的邻居？
我们过去曾讨论过，紧密的家庭关系可能比金钱更能给人带来幸福感。读者们，你们是否觉得自己的快乐受到了周围人的感染？悲伤是否也会传染？研究人员发现，悲伤的扩散程度不像快乐那么明显。但我可以想像，一个坏脾气的同事可能会对我的情绪造成巨大的影响。
Stefanie Ilgenfritz
页:
[1]