So, people want a lot of things out of life, but I think, more than anything else, they want happiness. Aristotle called happiness "the chief good," the end towards which all other things aim. According to this view, the reason we want a big house or a nice car or a good job isn't that these things are intrinsically valuable. It's that we expect them to bring us happiness.
所以人們總是想從生活中得到許多東西 但我認為,相較於其他,人們想要的是幸福 亞里斯多德將幸福稱為「最重要的好事」,也是 所有其他事情最終的歸宿 這樣來看的話,我們想要大房子 或一部好車子 或是好工作的原因 並不是這些事物本身的價值 而是期待這些東西可以帶給我們 幸福
Now in the last 50 years, we Americans have gotten a lot of the things that we want. We're richer. We live longer. We have access to technology that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. The paradox of happiness is that even though the objective conditions of our lives have improved dramatically, we haven't actually gotten any happier.
半個世紀以來,我們美國人已經得到 很多很多東西。我們變得富有。 我們的壽命更長。我們透過科技 過著幾年前還是被認為科幻小說中 才有的生活 這種存在於矛盾的幸福就是 我們的物質生活得到了前所未有的提高 而實際上我們卻沒有更快樂
Maybe because these conventional notions of progress haven't delivered big benefits in terms of happiness, there's been an increased interest in recent years in happiness itself. People have been debating the causes of happiness for a really long time, in fact for thousands of years, but it seems like many of those debates remain unresolved. Well, as with many other domains in life, I think the scientific method has the potential to answer this question. In fact, in the last few years, there's been an explosion in research on happiness. For example, we've learned a lot about its demographics, how things like income and education, gender and marriage relate to it. But one of the puzzles this has revealed is that factors like these don't seem to have a particularly strong effect. Yes, it's better to make more money rather than less, or to graduate from college instead of dropping out, but the differences in happiness tend to be small.
這或許是因為這些傳統意義上的進步 從幸福的角度來說並沒有給我們帶來多大的價值 這些年,人們更加關注 幸福本身。 人們爭辯幸福的成因 由來已久,事實上已歷經數千年了 但似乎這些爭辯尚未得到結果 我覺得,對於生活中的其它領域 用科學的研究方法是有希望回答這個問題的 事實上,近幾年來,研究幸福 已蔚為風潮。例如,我們學到很多 關於這方面的統計資料,例如收入 教育、性別和婚姻這些與幸福有關聯的因素 而困擾我們的問題是 以上這些因素對於人的幸福來說似乎沒有特殊的影響 當然,賺的錢越多越好 拿到大學學位勝過於輟學 但是對於幸福與否,差異卻很小
Which leaves the question, what are the big causes of happiness? I think that's a question we haven't really answered yet, but I think something that has the potential to be an answer is that maybe happiness has an awful lot to do with the contents of our moment-to-moment experiences. It certainly seems that we're going about our lives, that what we're doing, who we're with, what we're thinking about, have a big influence on our happiness, and yet these are the very factors that have been very difficult, in fact almost impossible, for scientists to study.
問題是,究竟甚麼是成就幸福的主因呢? 我想這個問題我們還沒真正得到答案 但是已經有些端倪 或許幸福在很大程度上 和我們轉瞬之間的思考內容有關聯 很明顯地,我們如何過日子 我們正在做甚麼,和誰一起,想些甚麼 都和我們的幸福息息相關,而且 這些重要的因素,一直是很難 事實上是不可能,用科學方法去研究的
A few years ago, I came up with a way to study people's happiness moment to moment as they're going about their daily lives on a massive scale all over the world, something we'd never been able to do before. Called trackyourhappiness.org, it uses the iPhone to monitor people's happiness in real time. How does this work? Basically, I send people signals at random points throughout the day, and then I ask them a bunch of questions about their moment-to-moment experience at the instant just before the signal. The idea is that, if we can watch how people's happiness goes up and down over the course of the day, minute to minute in some cases, and try to understand how what people are doing, who they're with, what they're thinking about, and all the other factors that describe our day, how those might relate to those changes in happiness, we might be able to discover some of the things that really have a big influence on happiness. We've been fortunate with this project to collect quite a lot of data, a lot more data of this kind than I think has ever been collected before, over 650,000 real-time reports from over 15,000 people. And it's not just a lot of people, it's a really diverse group, people from a wide range of ages, from 18 to late 80s, a wide range of incomes, education levels, people who are married, divorced, widowed, etc. They collectively represent every one of 86 occupational categories and hail from over 80 countries.
幾年前,我想到一個研究幸福的方法 我們試圖關注人們日常生活中片刻之間的生活片段 而得到的數據是基於世界範圍內的調查的,而這個研究也是前所未有的 我們為此建立了一個網站 網址是trackyourhappiness.org (你的幸福足跡) 我們透過蘋果手機去實時監測人們真實的幸福時刻 如何進行呢?基本上,我會傳送受測者一些訊號 一天中隨機幾次,我問他們 一系列的問題,關於每個片刻的體驗 就在收到訊號前的當下感覺 這個想法是,如果我們能觀察人們 在那一天中幸福感的高低起伏 有些是分鐘之間的體驗 並試著去了解當人們做甚麼 和誰在一起,想些甚麼 所有能形容自己那天的重點,那些因素是如何 和幸福感的改變產生關聯,我們就有可能 發覺那些對於人的幸福 有著重大影響的因素。 我們很幸運地透過這個項目收集到了 很多很多資訊 比我先前預想的還多 我們收到了超過65萬筆的即時紀錄 而這些是從1萬5千多人中得到的 不僅人數眾多,還涵蓋各式各樣的群體 各個年齡層,18歲到80多歲 不論學歷高低,收入多寡 已婚、離婚、守寡者等等 這些受訪人代表了 來自超過80多個國家和86個不同行業的群體
What I'd like to do with the rest of my time with you today is talk a little bit about one of the areas that we've been investigating, and that's mind-wandering. As human beings, we have this unique ability to have our minds stray away from the present. This guy is sitting here working on his computer, and yet he could be thinking about the vacation he had last month, wondering what he's going to have for dinner. Maybe he's worried that he's going bald. (Laughter) This ability to focus our attention on something other than the present is really amazing. It allows us to learn and plan and reason in ways that no other species of animal can. And yet it's not clear what the relationship is between our use of this ability and our happiness. You've probably heard people suggest that you should stay focused on the present. "Be here now," you've probably heard a hundred times. Maybe, to really be happy, we need to stay completely immersed and focused on our experience in the moment. Maybe these people are right. Maybe mind-wandering is a bad thing. On the other hand, when our minds wander, they're unconstrained. We can't change the physical reality in front of us, but we can go anywhere in our minds. Since we know people want to be happy, maybe when our minds wander, they're going to someplace happier than the place that they're leaving. It would make a lot of sense. In other words, maybe the pleasures of the mind allow us to increase our happiness with mind-wandering.
剩下的時間,我想和大家 分享一下我們調查中涉及到的一個領域 那就是「分心」 身而為人,我們擁有一項獨特能力 就是讓思緒脫離現況 這傢伙坐在電腦前工作 但他可能正想到 上個月的假期 想著晚餐要吃甚麼 或許正煩惱自己可能會禿頭 這種可將注意力從現狀轉移到 其他地方的能力其實相當神奇。讓我們能用許多方式 學習、計畫和推理,這是其他物種無法做到的 可是還不能清楚說明這項能力的運用和 幸福之間的關係 或許有人曾向你建議 專注眼前的事。「活在當下」 可能都聽膩了 也許,要幸福,我們還真的要完完全全地 專心致志在當下的體驗 這些忠告也許是對的,分心 不是一件好事 換言之,分心 是自然而然的事情。我們不能改變物質的現狀 卻能任由心思隨意奔馳 我們知道人們都想快樂,或許 任由思緒四處晃蕩,會帶我們到比眼前更快樂的地方 也是有道理的 換句話說,也許透過分心 能帶給我們心情的愉快,增加幸福感
Well, since I'm a scientist, I'd like to try to resolve this debate with some data, and in particular I'd like to present some data to you from three questions that I ask with Track Your Happiness. Remember, this is from sort of moment-to-moment experience in people's real lives. There are three questions. The first one is a happiness question: How do you feel, on a scale ranging from very bad to very good? Second, an activity question: What are you doing, on a list of 22 different activities including things like eating and working and watching TV? And finally a mind-wandering question: Are you thinking about something other than what you're currently doing? People could say no -- in other words, I'm focused only on my task -- or yes -- I am thinking about something else -- and the topic of those thoughts are pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. Any of those yes responses are what we called mind-wandering.
因為我是科學家,比較傾向 透過數據來解決爭辯,我在這裡特別 為大家提供3個問題的一些數據 這些得自於「你的幸福足跡」。別忘了,這是來自於 一系列受訪者真實生活的每個片刻的經驗 3個問題。首先是關於幸福的問題 從量表最壞到最好的分數,你感覺如何? 其次,關於活動的問題 你正在做甚麼?表列中有22個不同的活動 包含像吃東西、工作和看電視 最後是分心的問題 對於當下進行的活動中 你心有旁騖嗎? 他們可能回答「不」--也就是「我專注在眼前的事情」-- 或「是」--「我正在胡思亂想」-- 以及這些想法會讓你愉快 沒特別感覺或是不愉快 對於所有「是」的答覆,我們歸類為「分心」
So what did we find? This graph shows happiness on the vertical axis, and you can see that bar there representing how happy people are when they're focused on the present, when they're not mind-wandering. As it turns out, people are substantially less happy when their minds are wandering than when they're not. Now you might look at this result and say, okay, sure, on average people are less happy when they're mind-wandering, but surely when their minds are straying away from something that wasn't very enjoyable to begin with, at least then mind-wandering should be doing something good for us. Nope. As it turns out, people are less happy when they're mind-wandering no matter what they're doing. For example, people don't really like commuting to work very much. It's one of their least enjoyable activities, and yet they are substantially happier when they're focused only on their commute than when their mind is going off to something else. It's amazing.
我們發現了甚麼 這個圖表顯示幸福感在垂直軸線上 可以看到條狀圖表示當人們 專注在當下時,感覺有多快樂 當他們不分心時 事實證明,人們分心時遠比 不分心時不快樂 你們現在看著這個結果,可能說:好吧,應該是這樣 一般人處在分心狀態時,比較不快樂 但是當他們的思緒能從一些 不開心的事情中脫離 至少,分心對我們還是有些好處 不,事實證明 人們處於分心狀態時,都是較不快樂的 不管他們當時在做甚麼。例如 應該沒有人喜歡長時間的上班 這是最無趣的活動之一,但是 他們覺得專注在上班這件事上 相較於胡思亂想 還要快樂許多 真令人意想不到
So how could this be happening? I think part of the reason, a big part of the reason, is that when our minds wander, we often think about unpleasant things, and they are enormously less happy when they do that, our worries, our anxieties, our regrets, and yet even when people are thinking about something neutral, they're still considerably less happy than when they're not mind-wandering at all. Even when they're thinking about something they would describe as pleasant, they're actually just slightly less happy than when they aren't mind-wandering. If mind-wandering were a slot machine, it would be like having the chance to lose 50 dollars, 20 dollars or one dollar. Right? You'd never want to play. (Laughter)
為什麼會這樣?我猜想部分原因 大部分的原因,當我們胡思亂想時 通常會想到不愉快的事 當做這些事情時會讓他們相當不愉快 想到憂愁、焦慮和後悔的事情 即使想到一些沒有特別感覺的事情 比起心無旁騖 還是會覺得較不快樂 甚至他們想的是愉快的事情 比起心無旁騖 還是少了一點快樂 如果分心是一部吃角子老虎 讓我們有機會損失50元、20元 或是1元。你不會想玩,對吧
So I've been talking about this, suggesting, perhaps, that mind-wandering causes unhappiness, but all I've really shown you is that these two things are correlated. It's possible that's the case, but it might also be the case that when people are unhappy, then they mind-wander. Maybe that's what's really going on. How could we ever disentangle these two possibilites? Well, one fact that we can take advantage of, I think a fact you'll all agree is true, is that time goes forward, not backward. Right? The cause has to come before the effect. We're lucky in this data we have many responses from each person, and so we can look and see, does mind-wandering tend to precede unhappiness, or does unhappiness tend to precede mind-wandering, to get some insight into the causal direction. As it turns out, there is a strong relationship between mind-wandering now and being unhappy a short time later, consistent with the idea that mind-wandering is causing people to be unhappy. In contrast, there's no relationship between being unhappy now and mind-wandering a short time later. In other words, mind-wandering very likely seems to be an actual cause, and not merely a consequence, of unhappiness.
我的重點是,告訴你們或許 分心是導致感覺不幸福的成因 我已經證明二者是有關係的 這個案例可能互成因果 當人們不快樂時,他們就容易分心 或許這樣更講得通。我們如何 釐清這兩種可能呢? 有一個我們可以運用的事實,這個事實 你們都會同意,時間只會往前 不會倒退,對吧?成因總是在結果之前 我們很幸運地,這些資料包含每個受訪者的許多回應 我們得以好好觀察,分心是否 產生在感覺不幸福之前,或者不幸福感 在分心前產生,就能夠多少理解 這不同的方向 事實證明,兩者之間有強烈關聯 分心後會立即感覺不幸福 和分心造成人們不快樂的想法是一致的 對照下,並沒有發現這樣的關聯 不快樂會立即分心 換言之,分心似乎就是感覺不幸福的主因 而非結果
A few minutes ago, I likened mind-wandering to a slot machine you'd never want to play. Well, how often do people's minds wander? Turns out, they wander a lot. In fact, really a lot. Forty-seven percent of the time, people are thinking about something other than what they're currently doing. How does that depend on what people are doing? This shows the rate of mind-wandering across 22 activities ranging from a high of 65 percent — (Laughter) — when people are taking a shower, brushing their teeth, to 50 percent when they're working, to 40 percent when they're exercising, all the way down to this one short bar on the right that I think some of you are probably laughing at. Ten percent of the time people's minds are wandering when they're having sex. (Laughter) But there's something I think that's quite interesting in this graph, and that is, basically with one exception, no matter what people are doing, they're mind-wandering at least 30 percent of the time, which suggests, I think, that mind-wandering isn't just frequent, it's ubiquitous. It pervades basically everything that we do.
幾分鐘前,我將分心比喻為 你不會想玩的吃角子老虎 那麼,我們常分心嗎? 事實證明,常常。事實上,相當多 47%的時間,人們想著 不是眼前進行的事情 程度取決於正在做甚麼事 這裡顯示22種活動的分心程度 從最高的65% 在沖澡時,刷牙時 50%在工作時 40%在運動時 一路往下到最右邊最短的條狀圖 或許有些人會覺得好笑 10%的機率會分心 當從事性行為時 圖表中我認為相當有趣的是 基本上也是一個例外 不論人們做甚麼,都會分心 我認為至少30%的時間 分心不僅常常發生,簡直無處不在 遍及我們所做的每件事
In my talk today, I've told you a little bit about mind-wandering, a variable that I think turns out to be fairly important in the equation for happiness. My hope is that over time, by tracking people's moment-to-moment happiness and their experiences in daily life, we'll be able to uncover a lot of important causes of happiness, and then in the end, a scientific understanding of happiness will help us create a future that's not only richer and healthier, but happier as well. Thank you. (Applause) (Applause)
我今天告訴大家一些關於分心的研究 一個被證明是非常重要的變數 可以和幸福畫上等號 我希望花更多時間,通過追蹤人們每天 每個片刻的幸福感和經驗 我們將可以揭開更多成就幸福的重要原因 最終,經由科學方式解讀的幸福 將幫助我們建立一個不僅更豐富 更健康也更幸福的未來 謝謝 (掌聲)