金錢和時間 哪一樣會帶來更大的幸福感?

Given the choice between more time or more money, which would you pick?

得到更多時間或者更多金錢，二選一，你選哪個？

For a beach vacation, you might pay more for a direct flight to gain a couple of extra hours getting sand between your toes.

去海灘度假時，你或許會多花一些錢乘坐直達航班，好讓自己多享受幾個小時細沙在腳趾縫間流淌的感覺。

On the other hand, you might take a better-paying job that requires late nights at the office.

另一方面，你或許又會接受一份薪水不錯但需要在辦公室加班到深夜的工作。

Which would lead to greater happiness — the money or the time?

金錢和時間，哪一樣會帶來更大的幸福感？

For a research project, we put this question to more than 4,000 Americans of different ages, income levels, occupations and marital and parental status.

爲了開展研究，我們把這一問題拋給了年齡、收入水平、職業、婚育狀況各異的逾4000名美國人。

In a paper in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, which we wrote with our student Uri Barnea, we found that most people valued money more than time. Sixty-four percent of the 4,415 people we asked in five surveys chose money.

我們和學生烏里·巴爾內亞共同撰寫了一篇論文，發表在了《社會心理與人格科學》期刊上。我們發現，大多數人更珍視金錢，而非時間。五次調查中的4415名受訪者，有64%選擇了金錢。

Is money the right choice? We had also asked our survey respondents to report their level of happiness and life satisfaction.

選擇金錢是正確的嗎？我們還讓受訪者報告了幸福程度和生活滿意度。

We found that the people who chose time were on average statistically happier and more satisfied with life than the people who chose money.

我們發現，平均而言，選擇時間的人比選擇金錢的人更幸福，對生活也更滿意。

So money may turn out to be the wrong choice.

這或許可以證明選擇金錢是錯誤的。

But maybe this result simply shows that the people who chose money are more financially constrained and therefore less happy.

不過，調查結果也許僅僅表明，選擇金錢的人在財務上受到更大的羈絆，因此幸福感較低。

To check this, we also asked respondents to report their annual household income along with the number of hours they work each week (to measure how much time they have).

爲了驗證這一點，我們還讓受訪者報告了他們的家庭年收入，以及他們每週工作的小時數（以便計算他們究竟有多少時間）。

We found that even when we held constant the amount of leisure time and money respondents had (as well as their age, gender, marital status, parental status and the extent to which they valued material possessions), the people who chose time over money were still happier.

我們發現，即便是讓受訪者擁有的時間和金錢（以及他們的年齡、性別、婚姻狀況、育兒狀況、重視物質財富的程度）保持恆定，更看重時間而非金錢的人依然更幸福一些。

So if we were to take two people who were otherwise the same, the one who chose time over money would be happier than the one who chose money over time.

因此，如果有兩個人，除了一個更看重時間、另一個更看重金錢以外，其他方面都一模一樣，那麼前者會更幸福。

Our research isn't claiming that having more of either resource is better or worse for happiness.

我們的研究不能證明，更多地擁有這兩種資源中的任何一種，對提高幸福感而言是好是壞。

Other research examines the relationship between wealth and happiness and suggests, for example, that more income is positively related to happiness up to a certain point ($75,000, in the United States) and that life satisfaction continues to increase with income beyond that point.

其他一些研究探尋了財富和幸福之間的關係，其結論包括：收入達到一定高度之前（在美國爲每年7.5萬美元），收入水平和幸福程度呈正相關；收入達到那個高度之後，生活滿意度仍會隨着收入水平的提高而上升。

But our research does show that the value individuals place on these resources relative to each other is predictive of happiness.

但我們的研究也的確表明，人們對兩種資源的相對重視程度，對幸福程度具有預示性。

Why? The people in our studies who chose time over money thought about the resources differently and had different intentions for how they would spend the time or money gained.

到底爲什麼呢？在我們的研究中，選擇時間而非金錢的人，會用不同的角度看待這兩種資源，對如何花掉自己獲得的時間或金錢會有不同的想法。

Unlike those who chose money, who were more likely to be fixated on not having enough, people who chose time focused more on how they would spend it, planning to "spend" on wants rather than needs (e.g., cultivating a hobby versus completing chores at home) and on other people rather than themselves — two expenditures that have previously been linked to elevated levels of happiness.

跟選擇了金錢而更有可能被慾求不滿之感束縛的人不同，選擇時間的人更看重的是，如果花掉時間，他們會想要把它花在所願而非所需上面（例如，是培養一種愛好還是在家做家務），花在其他人而非自己身上——這兩種時間支出早前被研究者發現和更高的幸福程度有關。

If, when answering our opening question, you chose money, don't worry.

如果你在回答我們的開放式問題時選擇了金錢，也別擔心。

We have presented this choice as a reflection of a stable preference, but there is room for change.

我們把這一選擇視爲一種穩定偏好的反映，但其中並非沒有轉圜的餘地。

When we asked a group of our respondents to make this choice again a year later, some (25 percent) changed their mind.

當我們在一年後讓一組受訪者重新選擇時，一些人（25%）改變了主意。

Moreover, when we conducted an experiment in which we asked people to focus on the value of time (by listing reasons they would want more time), they subsequently felt happier than the people whom we had instructed to focus on the value of money (by listing the reasons they would want more money).

此外，在一項實驗裏，比起受我們引導關注金錢價值的人（通過列出他們想要更多金錢的理由），受我們引導關注時間價值的人（通過列出他們想要更多時間的理由）後來覺得更幸福一些。

In our pursuit of happiness, we are constantly faced with decisions both big and small that force us to pit time against money.

在追求幸福的過程中，我們經常面臨或大或小的抉擇，迫使我們在時間與金錢之間做出判斷。

Of course, sometimes it's not a choice at all: We must earn that extra pay to make ends meet.

當然，有時它根本不是一個選擇問題：我們必須賺更多錢，好維持收支平衡。

But when it is a choice, the likelihood of choosing more time over more money — despite the widespread tendency to do the opposite — is a good sign you'll enjoy the happiness you seek.

但如果可以選擇，決定擁有更多時間而非金錢——儘管普遍的傾向與之相反——的可能性是一個良好的信號，顯示你會享受自己追求的幸福。