科学美国人60秒 为了买到幸福，可以花钱节省时间

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 Proceedings¹ of the National Academy of Sciences.

我们都知道金钱买不到幸福。但据最近的一项研究显示，这句话可能存在一个漏洞。一组研究人员发现，与简单地花钱购买更多东西相比，付钱购买能节省时间的服务会为生活带来更高的满足感。该项研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

It’s safe to say that most of us regularly feel crunched² 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 chronic³ lack of time takes its toll⁴ on our health.

可以肯定地说，我们大多数人都经常感到时间紧张。那么，我们就是在经历该研究的首席作者、哈佛商学院的阿什莉·威利斯所说的“时间饥荒”。“跟其他所有饥荒一样，长期时间紧张会对我们的健康造成损害。”

“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, thereby⁵ undermining our personal well-being⁶.”

“当我们感觉完成任务清单需要的时间比一天中的可用时间要长时，可能就会觉得生活正在失去控制，从而破坏我们的个人幸福。”

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, mow⁷ the lawn, or deliver the groceries.

好吧，如果时间就是金钱，威利斯和她的团队想知道，用于购买时间的金钱是否会给人带来些许安慰。比如付钱请别人打扫房子、修剪草坪或者送杂货。

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.

为找出答案，研究人员请来自美国、加拿大、丹麦和荷兰的6000多人对他们生活的总体满意度进行评估，并估算他们每个月会花多少钱来将日常琐事进行外包，或者通过其他方式花钱节省时间。

And they found that respondents who willingly swap⁸ funds for free time also report feeling more content—regardless of their income or how many hours they work each week.

他们发现，那些愿意用资金来换取自由时光的受访者同时也是感觉更满足的人——不管他们的收入有多少或者每周工作多少小时。

To follow up, the researchers conducted a smaller experiment in which they gave volunteers forty bucks⁹ 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 alleviate¹⁰ anxiety.

为了进一步研究，研究人员进行了一项较小的实验：他们给志愿者40美元，让他们去为自己买一些东西。然后再次给同样的参与者40美元，并告知他们要将钱花在可以节省时间的事情上。结果再次显示，花钱节省时间更有可能让人提高情绪，缓解焦虑。

These findings may be hard for some people to, well, buy:

有一些人对于这些发现可能很难……买账：

“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.”

“即使在对850个百万富翁进行的调查中，也只有超过一半的受访者会花钱为自己节省时间。这些发现恰与一个更广泛的文献相关连，该文献表明人们并不会总是为提升幸福感而花钱。”

Even when we should know better.

甚至在我们知道那样做会更好的情况下。

“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.”

“就我个人而言，当我最近搬到一个新的城市时，我知道我有很多事情要做。我不得不让自己的数据来说服我，花钱购买时间会让我的生活更轻松、更少压力和更快乐。”

1 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

2 crunched   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• Our feet crunched on the frozen snow. 我们的脚嘎吱嘎吱地踩在冻雪上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He closed his jaws on the bones and crunched. 他咬紧骨头，使劲地嚼。 来自英汉文学 - 热爱生命

3 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

4 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

5 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

6 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

7 mow   

v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆

参考例句：

• He hired a man to mow the lawn.他雇人割草。
• We shall have to mow down the tall grass in the big field.我们得把大田里的高草割掉。

8 swap   

n.交换；vt.交换，用...作交易

参考例句：

• I will swap you my bicycle for your radio.我想拿我的自行车换你的收音机。
• This comic was a swap that I got from Nick.这本漫画书是我从尼克那里换来的。

9 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。