科學研究告訴你 敗錢真的能買開心
Science finds money can buy happiness, if you spend it right.
科學發現如果花對了，錢確實可以買到快樂。
Despite decades of people telling us that money can't buy happiness ("it's all about the experiences!"), researchers have found new evidence that spending actually can make our lives a whole lot better - as long as you buy the right things.
儘管很多人告訴我們說錢可以買到快樂(全部是經驗之談)，研究人員發現新證據表明消費確實可以讓我們的生活變得更好，只要你買了對的東西。
So what should you purchase in order to bring yourself some much-needed joy? The scientists looked at nearly 77,000 bank transactions in the UK, and found that people who spend money on purchases that suited their personality traits were more satisfied with life.
那麼爲了給自己創造必要的快樂，你究竟應該買什麼呢?科學家調查了英國將近77000張銀行交易單，發現那些把錢花在適合自己個性特點東西上的人對生活更滿意。
That sounds pretty obvious, but this is one of the first studies to show that spending money on ourselves - and not just giving it away - can actually make us happier, if we do it right.
聽起來是十分顯而易見的，但是這僅僅是其中一個研究顯示在自己身上花錢(不只把錢花出去)可以使我們更開心，如果做得恰當的話。
"Historically, studies had found a weak relationship between money and overall wellbeing," said lead researcher Joe Gladstone from the University of Cambridge. "Our study breaks new ground by mining actual bank-transaction data and demonstrating that spending can increase our happiness when it is spent on goods and services that fit our personalities and so meet our psychological needs."
“歷史上的研究發現了錢和幸福之間比較微弱的關係，”劍橋大學的首席研究員喬·格萊斯頓說。我們的研究開闢了新天地，通過挖掘實際的銀行交易數據，證明當我們花錢購買那些契合我們個性和滿足我們心理需求的商品和服務的時候，支出會增加我們的幸福感。
But in order to unlock the benefits of spending money, you first need to understand yourself.
但是，爲了解鎖消費的益處，你必須首先要了解你自己。
In the study, the researchers worked with a major bank and convinced 625 anonymous participants to take a test that measured how strong they were in the 'Big Five' personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
在研究當中，研究學者們與一大銀行進行合作，確定了625名匿名參與者，讓他們參加一個測試，看他們在五大個性特點中的佔比問題，這五大個性特點是：開放、盡責、外向、親和、神經質。
They also asked them to take a life satisfaction questionnaire, and looked at their bank transaction data over a six-month period to see what they were spending on. Almost 77,000 transactions were broken down into categories associated with personality traits.
他們也要求參與者做一份生活滿意度調查表，調查了他們近六個月的銀行交易水單中的消費明細。將近77000份銀行交易單根據他們的個性特點被分類。
You can see an example of those categories below, and where they fall in each personality trait (either low or high). And believe it or not, some personality types out there don't mind spending their money on traffic fines:
下面是分類的例子，以及他們具體在那一類別裏(或高或低)。不管你信與不信，具有某些個性的人確實不在乎把錢花到交通罰單上面。
The researchers found that not only did people spend more money on things linked to their strong personality traits - for example, extraverts spent on average US$73 more per year on pub nights than introverts.
研究人員發現人們不僅僅將錢花在和其個性特點相關的事情上面，比如，外向性格比內向性格的人每年平均多花費73美金在夜店裏。
Not only that, but life satisfaction was more closely tied to those 'personality appropriate' purchases, rather than total income or total spending - so it wasn't just that these people were enjoying more money, it was what they were spending it on making all the difference.
不止這些，生活滿意度也與那些“性格合適”的花費緊密聯繫，而不是總收入或者是總支出。因此，讓人幸福的並不僅僅是有很多金錢，而是花錢讓生活發生改變。
The team backed this up with a second experiment that involved giving people one of two vouchers: either to spend at a bar, or to spend at a bookshop. The extroverts who were forced to spend their vouchers at a bar were happier than introverts, while the introverts were more satisfied than the extroverts when they spent the book voucher.
研究團隊爲了加以佐證而進行了第二個試驗，試驗有兩類人蔘與，分別給予一類人酒吧的抵用券，另外一類人書店的抵用券。那些被迫在酒吧消費抵用券的外向型人比內向型人要快樂很多，而那些在書店消費抵用券的內向型人比外向型的人也感覺到更滿意。
Although the research hands down some pretty great advice for all of us - think about how what you're about to buy fits your personality traits before you spend - the scientists also hope it could one day help online retailers make better suggestions.
儘管此項研究爲我們總結出了一些非常好的建議，即在消費之前你如何思考購買適合你的個性特徵的東西，科學家也希望此項研究在某天可以幫在線零售商提出更好的建議。
"By developing a more nuanced understanding of the links between spending and happiness, we hope to be able to provide more personalised advice on how to find happiness through the little consumption choices we make every day,"
通過更深入地瞭解消費和幸福感之間的關係，我們希望能夠提供關於怎麼通過每天的小小消費選擇來尋找快樂的更爲個性化的建議。
After all, money does make the world go round.
歸根結底，有錢能使鬼推磨呀~~
