谁说金钱买不到快乐？近日，一项来自哈佛商学院的调查结果显示，愿意付出金钱来处理生活琐事的人往往感到更加快乐，他们可以节省出大量的时间去做自己想做的事情，从而获得愉悦与幸福感。
科学美国人60秒：To Buy Happiness, Spend Money on Saving Time
金钱也能买到幸福
燕山大学 刘立军 宋葳 编写
◆TRANSCRIPT
We all know money can't buy happiness. But according to a recent study, there may be a loophole. A team of researchers finds that shelling out for services that save time can bring greater feelings of life satisfaction than, say, simply buying more stuff. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It's safe to say that most of us regularly feel crunched for time. So much so that we are experiencing what Ashley Whillans of the Harvard Business School, the lead author of the study, describes as a “time famine.” And like any famine, this chronic lack of time takes its toll on our health.
“When we feel like our to-do lists are longer than the hours that we have time in the day to complete them, we can feel like our life is spiraling out of control, thereby undermining our personal well-being.”
Well, if time is money, Whillans and her team wondered whether money that's used to buy time could offer some relief. Like paying someone else to clean the house, mow the lawn, or deliver the groceries.
To find out, the researchers asked more than 6,000 people from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands to rate their overall satisfaction with life, and to estimate how much money they lay out each month to outsource unenjoyable daily tasks or otherwise purchase some time off.
And they found that respondents who willingly swap funds for free time also report feeling more content - regardless of their income or how many hours they work each week.
To follow up, the researchers conducted a smaller experiment in which they gave volunteers forty bucks to buy a little something for themselves. The same participants got another forty dollars that they were told to spend on something that would save them time. And again, buying time was more likely to elevate mood and alleviate anxiety.
These findings may be hard for some people to, well, buy:
“Even in a sample of 850 millionaires, just over half of our respondents spent money to buy themselves time. These findings link to a broader literature suggesting that we do not always spend money in ways that promote happiness.”
Even when we should know better.
“Personally I know that when I recently moved to a new city I had a lot of errands to run. I had to let my own data convince me that buying time would make my life easier, less stressful and happier.”
Adapted from 金钱也能买到幸福
◆VOCABULARY
1. loophole n. loophole (in sth.) a mistake in the way a law, contract, etc. has been written which enables people to legally avoid doing sth. that the law, contract, etc. had intended them to do （法律、合同等的）漏洞，空子。例如：
○a legal loophole法律的漏洞
○to close existing loopholes堵住现有的漏洞
2. outsource v. (business 商) to arrange for sb. outside a company to do work or provide goods for that company 交外办理；外购。
○We outsource all our computing work. 我们把全部计算机技术工作包给外边去做。
3. swap v. swap sb./sth. (for sb./sth.) | swasp sb./sth. (over) (especially British English) to replace one person or thing with another 用…替换；把…换成；掉换。例如：
○I think I'll swap this sweater for one in another colour. 我想把这件毛衣换成一件其他颜色的。
○I'm going to swap you over. Mike will go first and John will go second. 我打算把你俩掉换一下。迈克先去，约翰后去。
4. elevate v. (formal) to improve a person's mood, so that they feel happy 使情绪高昂；使精神振奋；使兴高采烈。例如：
○The song never failed to elevate his spirits. 这首歌总使他精神振奋。
5. alleviate v. to make sth. less severe 减轻；缓和；缓解。 ease 例如：
○to alleviate suffering减轻苦难
○A number of measures were taken to alleviate the problem. 采取了一系列措施缓解这个问题。
6. errand n. a job that you do for sb. that involves going somewhere to take a message, to buy sth., deliver goods, etc. 差使；差事。例如：
○He often runs errands for his grandmother. 他经常给他的祖母跑腿儿。
○Her boss sent her on an errand into town. 老板派她进城办事去了。
◆QUESTIONS
Read the table. Then listen to the news and complete the table.
Topic | | To Buy Happiness, Spend Money on Saving Time |
Introduction | Statement | l We all know money can't buy happiness. But according to a recent study, there may be a loophole. A team of researchers finds that shelling out for services that save time can bring _______________________ than, say, _______________. l It's safe to say that most of us regularly feel crunched for time. l Well, if time is money, Whillans and her team wondered whether money that's used to buy time could offer some ________. Like ________________________ to clean the house, mow the lawn, or deliver the groceries. |
Body | Example 1 | To find out, the researchers asked more than 6,000 people from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands to __________ their overall satisfaction with life, and to ____________ how much money they lay out each month to _______________ unenjoyable daily tasks or otherwise ________________ some time off. |
| Finding 1 | And they found that respondents who willingly swap funds for free time also report feeling more content - regardless of their ___________ or ____________________ they work each week. |
| Example 2 | To follow up, the researchers conducted a smaller experiment in which they gave ________________ forty bucks to buy a little something for themselves. The same participants got another forty dollars that they were told to ____________ something that would save them time. |
| Finding 2 | And again, buying time was more likely to _______________ and ________________________. |
Conclusion | | These findings may be __________________ for some people to well buy even when we should know better. |
◆KEY
1. greater feelings of life satisfaction
2. imply buying more stuff
3. relief
4. paying someone else
5. rate
6. estimate
7. outsource
8. purchase
9. income
10. how many hours
11. volunteers
12. spend on
13. elevate mood
14. alleviate anxiety
15. well buy