調查:年入五萬英鎊最幸福

Money can buy you happiness but only if you earn £50,000 a year – after that you really have to work for it, a study claims.

Earning less than that amount can make you miserable – but earning more does not greatly increase enjoyment of life, it was found.

Researchers found that life contentment only rose steadily with annual income up to level – $75,000, or just below £50,000.

Once earnings soared above this the important things in life such as family and wellbeing made money much less significant

The quality of the randomly-selected participants' everyday experiences did not improve significantly beyond a salary of £48,960.98.

But as income dropped from that amount, respondents reported decreasing happiness and increasing sadness and stress, according to the findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The psychologists Prof Daniel Kahneman and Prof Angus Deaton explained people's life evaluations rise steadily with income but the quality of emotional daily experiences levels-off once earnings reach a certain amount.

Life evaluations were measured by asking 1,000 respondents to rate their lives on a scale of zero to 10 while emotional wellbeing was measured according to experiences of certain positive and negative emotions the previous day.

The data also suggested the emotional pain of unfortunate events or circumstances including disease, divorce and being alone are exacerbated by poverty.

The researchers said the study does not imply people's lives will not improve after a raise in annual income from $100,000 (£64,900) to $150,000 (£97,350).

But above a certain income people's emotional wellbeing is held back by other more important issues.

Prof Kahneman and Prof Deaton, of Princeton University, New Jersey, said: "The question of whether 'money buys happiness' comes up frequently in discussions of subjective wellbeing in both scholarly debates and casual conversation.

"More money does not necessarily buy more happiness, but less money is associated with emotional pain.”

最新研究表明，金錢的確能買來幸福，但前提是你恰好年入5萬英鎊。如果你掙得更多，幸福不幸福就要靠你自己爭取了。

研究稱，收入低於5萬英鎊會使人痛苦，但高於5萬英鎊也不會大大增加幸福感。

研究者發現，在年收入7.5萬美元（剛不及5萬英鎊）以內時，生活的滿意度才和收入成正比。

一旦收入超出這一範圍，家庭、幸福感等生活中的重要因素就會大大弱化金錢的地位。

當隨機抽樣的受訪者年收入高於48960.98英鎊時，他們平時體會到的幸福感並未隨收入明顯提高。

但受訪者也表示，當收入低於這一數額時，幸福感會隨之下降，失落感和壓抑感會上升。這項研究成果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》上。

心理學家丹尼爾•卡尼曼和安格斯•迪頓教授解釋到，雖然人們對生活的評價會隨着收入的增加而穩步提高，但是一旦收入達到某個臨界值，人們平時體會到的幸福感就會保持平穩。

研究人員共對1000名受訪者進行了調查，他們被要求按滿分爲10分來評價生活質量，並依據之前一天經歷的消極或積極情緒衡量幸福感。

調查數據還表明，貧困會加劇疾病、離異、孤獨等不幸遭遇所帶來的情感傷痛。

研究者稱，這並不意味着年收入從10萬美元（6.49萬英鎊）漲至15萬美元（9.735萬英鎊）時，人們的生活不會改善。

但收入高於某個臨界數額後，人們的幸福感會受到其它更爲重要因素的影響。

新澤西州普林西頓大學的卡尼曼和迪頓教授說：“‘金錢是否能夠買到幸福’這個問題常常出現在有關主觀幸福感的討論中，不僅學者會激辯，人們閒聊也會談起。”

“錢多不一定會更幸福，但是錢少肯定與感情痛苦有關。”

Vocabulary:

levels-off: become level or even（停止升降而保持水平，保持平穩）