金錢買不到幸福 也許時間可以大綱

While on vacation in distant locales, people often find that time moves quite differently than in the places they’re used to. In the tropics, we settle into the grooves of “island time” and relax thanks to a more leisurely rhythm. A trip to a big city can leave us exhilarated but also drained by the energetic whir of life there.

The different paces of different communities also seem to be connected to other cultural characteristics. Robert Levine and his colleagues have studied the speed of life in cities around the world and across the U.S. In a series of experiments they measured how fast solitary pedestrians in a downtown core covered a distance of 60 feet (being careful to exclude those who are obviously window shopping), timed how long it took to complete a simple commercial transaction, and recorded the accuracy of randomly selected clocks in the downtown business area. They found that places with a faster pace of life also had more robust economies (as measured by GDP per capita, average purchasing power, and average caloric intake), and that people in larger cities tended to move faster than those in less populated areas. They also found truth to the stereotype that people move slower in hotter places.

So as you might expect, fast-moving people are associated with fast-moving economies. But does that faster life translate into greater happiness? In faster places (specifically, economically developed areas of North America, Western Europe, and Asia), people were more likely to smoke, less likely to take the time to help strangers in need, and more likely to die from coronary heart disease. Yet Levine and his colleagues found that residents in faster places tended to report feeling somewhat happier with their lives than those who lived in slower places. A city’s pace of life was indeed “significantly related” to the physical, social, and psychological well-being of its inhabitants.

Perhaps the higher reported rates of happiness simply reflect the fact that faster places have more robust economies. But the relationship between income and reported happiness is far from obvious. According to the “Easterlin paradox” (named after economist Richard Easterlin), once people have enough money to meet their basic needs, having more money is not necessarily correlated with higher self-reported happiness. Easterlin’s claims are controversial and not universally accepted; even if his theory is correct, wealthier nations might be happier overall if they address the basic needs to more of their people. In any case, the ongoing debate indicates that we need to tread carefully when making connections between happiness and overall economic factors.

Among individuals in a society, busyness—or the feeling of busyness—seems to be an important factor in well-being. That feeling of busyness—of having a lot to do and too little time in which to do itis often associated with stress and anxiety. However in many contexts being “busy” is badge of honor: Busy parents are seen as devoted to their children’s well-being, the busy real estate agent must be closing lots of sales, and the busy lawyer can charge a premium hourly rate. In US studies, the happiest people reported that they were busy, in the sense that they had little excess time, yet did not feel rushed. Like big-city dwellers, they seemed to thrive at a faster pace.

Levine’s work raises the intriguing possibility that an individual’s feelings about their use of time contribute as much or more to their happiness as does economics. Now the big challenge is to find out which way the causal chain works: Does the feeling of being active, yet not rushed, contribute to happiness? Or does happiness allow people to perceive their use of time in positive ways?據科技雜誌Nautilus報道，當人們去遠方度假時，往往會發現時間過得與平時很不一樣。熱帶地區悠閒的節奏讓我們習慣於“島上的時間”，過得更加放鬆。去大城市令人興奮，卻也被充滿活力的快節奏生活弄得筋疲力盡。

羣體間不同的生活節奏是與他們的文化有關的。羅伯特•萊文和他的同事們對全球各個城市和美國各地的生活節奏做了一個調查。通過一系列的實驗，他們計算出了每個城市裏的人走過60英尺需要的時間（他們仔細地將其中明顯是在逛街的人排除在外），計算了一樁買賣成交需要的時間，並且記錄了在中心商業區隨機挑選的時鐘的準確性。他們發現節奏快的地方往往是那些經濟更加發達的地方（通過對比人均GDP、平均購買力還有平均熱量攝入），並且人們在大城市裏比在人口少的地方走得更快。他們也發現了人們在熱的地方走得更慢這一慣例。

正如你所想象的那樣，快節奏的人們和高速增長的經濟相關。但是快節奏的生活就意味着幸福麼？在快節奏的地方（尤其是經濟發達地區，如北美、西歐和亞洲），更多的人抽菸，更少的人會去幫助那些需要幫助的人，並且更容易死於冠心病。但是萊文和他的同事們發現，在快節奏城市生活的人覺得自己比那些生活在慢節奏城市的人更加幸福。一個城市的生活節奏明顯與居民的身體健康、社會意識和心理狀態息息相關。

也許更高的幸福指數反應出了這樣一個事實：快節奏的城市擁有更好的經濟發展。但是收入與幸福指數間的關係並不明顯。根據伊斯特林悖論（以經濟學家理查德•伊斯特林的名字命名），一旦人們擁有足夠的錢滿足基本的生活需求，收入與幸福指數關聯得並不緊密。伊斯特林悖論存在着爭議也沒有被普遍接受，儘管他的理論是對的，在滿足了更多人們的基本生活需求時，總的來說更富有的國家幸福指數會高些。無論如何，依舊持續着的爭議告訴我們將幸福指數和整體經濟因素進行關聯時需要多加小心。

對社會中的個體來說，忙碌——或者感覺忙碌——似乎是影響狀態的重要因素。忙碌的感覺——有很多的事情要做，卻沒有多少時間的感覺經常帶來壓力與焦慮。但在很多的情況下，忙碌是一個光榮的標誌：忙碌的父母被認爲是爲了讓孩子過得好；忙碌的房地產經紀人則與客戶更加親密；忙碌的律師的時薪也更高。在美國的調查發現，幸福指數最高的人都很忙，也就意味着他們沒有多餘的時間，也不覺得匆忙。就好像大城市的居民們，他們似乎喜歡更快的生活節奏。

萊文的研究顯示了對時間利用的個人感覺可能比經濟更加影響幸福指數。現在的問題時需要找出這樣的影響是怎樣發生的：是因爲充實並不匆忙的感覺令人幸福？還是幸福讓人們更加積極地利用他們的時間？