【TED演讲28】金钱真的买不到幸福吗？演说者：Michael Norton

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演说题目：金钱真的买不到幸福吗？演说者：Michael Norton

在TEDx大会上，Michael分享了一个很有趣的调查结果。调查发现，当你把钱花在他人身上的时候，金钱的确可以买到幸福。现在请仔细倾听，看看这些数据是如何说明"利他主义"的消费是如何惠及自己，惠及工作以及他人的。

中英对照演讲稿

So I want to talk today about money and happiness,which are two things a lot of us spend a lot of our time thinking about,either trying to earn them or trying to increase them.

我今天想讲的是有关金钱与快乐，这是两样我们经常花很多时间去想的事情。要如何赚取它们或是让它们变更多。

And a lot of us resonate with this phrase,we see it in religions and self-help books:money can’t buy happiness.

而很多人对这句话很有共呜，我们可以在宗教或自助手册中看到：金钱是买不到快乐的。

And I want to suggest today that, in fact, that’s wrong.I’m at a business school, so that’s what we do.So that’s wrong,

而我今天想告诉大家，事实上，这是错的。我是在商学院工作，而研究这些是我们的工作。以上那句是错的。

And in fact, if you think that, you’re just not spending it right.So instead of spending it the way you usually spend it,maybe if you spent it differently, that might work a little bit better.

若你想清楚其实，你只是没有把金钱花得对。所以，与其花在你经常花的地方里，你可能要花在不同的地方这可能会有一点点的帮助。

Before I tell you the ways you can spend it that will make you happier,let’s think about the ways we usually spend it，that don’t, in fact, make us happier.

在我告诉你们要如何花钱才能令你更快乐之前，试想想你平常是怎样花钱，而没有让你更快乐。

We had a little natural experiment.So CNN, a little while ago, wrote this interesting article，on what happens to people when they win the lottery.

我们做了一个小小的自然实验。CNN，前阵子，有一篇很有趣的文章，是人们在赢得乐大透后会变成怎样。

It turns out people think when they win the lottery their lives will be amazing，This article’s about how their lives get ruined.

结果是其他人都认为那些人的生活定必变成更美好，而那篇文章是有关他们的生活如何变得糟糕，

What happens when people win the lottery。is, one, they spend all the money and go into debt;and two, all of their friends and everyone they’ve ever met find them and bug them for money.It ruins their social relationships, in fact.

那些中了乐透的人究竟发生什么事情呢。第一，他们把所有的钱花光还欠了一身债。第二，所有曾经认识他们的朋友都来问他们要钱，而这影响他们的社交关系。

So they have more debt and worse friendships than they had before they won the lottery.What was interesting about the article was,people started commenting on the article, readers of the thing.

因此相比他们在中奖之前，他们有更多的债和更差的友谊。这篇文章有趣的地方是，其他人开始回应这篇文章，他们不是谈论这篇文章如何。

And instead of talking about how it made them realizethat money doesn’t lead to happiness,everyone started saying, "You know what I’d do if I won the lottery ...?"

让他们明白金钱没有带给他们快乐，每一个人却是马上地开始说，若然我中了乐透，我会如何如何....

and fantasizing about what they’d do.Here’s just two of the ones we saw that are interesting to think about.

并开始幻想他们会做的事情，而这是其中两个值得我们想一想的回应。

One person wrote, "When I win, I’m going to buy my own little mountain and have a little house on top."

一人写着"若然我中了乐透，我会买下一座小山，然后在山上建一个小房子。"

And another person wrote, "I would fill a big bathtub with money and get in the tub while smoking a big fat cigar and sipping a glass of champagne."

而另一人写着"我会把钱填满一个大浴缸，然后走进浴缸抽一支大雪茄和啜饮一杯香槟。"

This is even worse: "... then I’d have a picture taken and dozens of glossies made.Anyone begging for money or trying to extort from me would receive a copy of the picture and nothing else."

而这个更差：我会拍一张照片，然后印出几打。那些向我索钱或尝试向我敲诈的人，将只会得到这张相片而不会有其他。

And so many of the comments were exactly of this type,

大部份的评语都是这一类的

where people got money and, in fact, it made them antisocial.

人们得到金钱事实上，令他们变得反社会。

So I told you it ruins people’s lives and their friends bug them.

所以我告诉你中奖会令人的生活更差而他们的朋友也开始烦扰他们

Also, money often makes us feel very selfish

金钱往往令我们变得更自私

and we do things only for ourselves.

而我们只会顾著自己

We thought maybe the reason money doesn’t make us happy

金钱不会令我们更快乐可能是因为

is that we’re spending it on the wrong things;

我们时常把金钱用在错误的地方

in particular, we’re always spending it on ourselves.

尤其是我们经常把金钱用在自己身上

And we wondered what would happen

我很想知道

if we made people spend more of their money on others.

若我们把更多的金钱用在其他人的身上会怎样

So instead of being antisocial with your money,

与其有了钱而变得反社会

what if you were more pro-social with it?

不如有了钱后变得更亲社会

We thought, let’s make people do it and see what happens.

我们便想：让我们令他们这样做,看看会是什么结果。

Let’s have some people do what they usually do,

我们让一些人做他们平常做的

spend money on themselves,

把钱花在自己身上

and let’s make some people give money away,

然后令一些人把钱分掉

and measure their happiness and see if, in fact, they get happier.

然后量度他们的快乐，看看他们实际上是否变得更快乐

The first way we did this was, one Vancouver morning,

我们首先是这样做的

we went out on the campus at University of British Columbia,

在温哥华的一个早上，我们走到

approached people and said, "Do you want to be in an experiment?"

英属哥伦比亚大学的校园

They said, "Yes."

我们找人问他们是否愿意参加一项实验

We asked them how happy they were, and then gave them an envelope.

他们都说："好的。”

One of the envelopes had things in it that said,

我们问他们现在有多快乐，然后给他们一个信封

By 5pm today, spend this money on yourself.

而其中一个信封内有纸条写着

We gave some examples of what you could spend it on.

在今天下午五时前把金钱花在自己的身上

Other people got a slip of paper that said,

我们给了他们一些例子

By 5pm today, spend this money on somebody else.

而那天早上另外的人却得到一张纸条写着

Also inside the envelope was money.

在今天下午五时前把金钱花在其他人身上

And we manipulated how much money we gave them;

信封里面同样放了金钱

some people got this slip of paper and five dollars,

我们巧妙地操控我们给予的金额

some got this slip of paper and 20 dollars.

有些人得到字条和五加元

We let them go about their day and do whatever they wanted.

而有些人得到字条和二十加元

We found out they did spend it in the way we asked them to.

我们让他们自由地过他们的一天，任由他们做想做的事情

We called them up and asked them, "What did you spend it on?

我们发现他们依照我们要他们所做的去做

How happy do you feel now?"

我们晚上致电给他们问他们：

What did they spend it on?

“你们把钱花在哪里，现在你有多快乐？”

These are college undergrads;

他们究竟把钱花在哪里呢?

a lot of what they spent it on for themselves

他们都是大学的本科生，所以那些花在自己身上的

were things like earrings and makeup.

都是买一些耳环、化妆品之类的东西上

One woman said she bought a stuffed animal for her niece.

有一个女人说她花钱买了一个布娃娃给她姪女

People gave money to homeless people.

有些人把钱给了无家可归者

Huge effect here of Starbucks.

这里也有星巴克式的巨大效应

(Laughter)

(笑)

So if you give undergraduates five dollars,

如果你给这些大学生五元

it looks like coffee to them,

就好像给他们一杯咖啡

and they run over to Starbucks and spend it as fast as they can.

他们会跑到星巴克以最快的速度把它花掉

Some people bought coffee for themselves, the way they usually would,

但有些人会把咖啡买给自己，这是普遍的做法

but others bought coffee for somebody else.

而有些人说他们会买咖啡给别人

So the very same purchase,

所以同样的消费

just targeted toward yourself or targeted toward somebody else.

目的可以是为了自己或者为了别人

What did we find when we called at the end of the day?

想知我们当天完结时打给他们发现了什么吗?

People who spent money on others got happier;

那些把钱花在其他人身上的人更快乐

people who spent it on themselves, nothing happened.

那些把钱花在自己身上的人没有分别

It didn’t make them less happy, it just didn’t do much for them.

那样没有让他们不快乐，只是没有对他们产生影响

The other thing we saw is the amount of money doesn’t matter much.

第二个发现是金钱的数额影响不大

People thought 20 dollars would be way better than five.

有些人会认为二十元会比五元好很多

In fact, it doesn’t matter how much money you spent.

但事实上，你能花多少是没有影响的

What really matters is that you spent it on somebody else

有影响的是你花在其他人身上

rather than on yourself.

而不是自己身上

We see this again and again

当我们给钱要他们把金钱花在其他人而不在自己身上

when we give people money to spend on others instead of on themselves.

这个结果我们重复又重复地见到

Of course, these are undergraduates in Canada --

当然他们是加拿大的大学生

not the world’s most representative population.

并不是世界上很有代表性的一群人

They’re also fairly wealthy and affluent and other sorts of things.

他们也蛮有钱和富裕等等

We wanted to see if this holds true everywhere in the world

我们想知道这个理论是否在世界各地都成立

or just among wealthy countries.

或是只在富裕的国家

So we went to Uganda and ran a very similar experiment.

因此我们到了乌干达做了一个类似的实验

Imagine, instead of just people in Canada, we say,

试想想，并不只是在加拿大的人

Name the last time you spent money on yourself or others.

我们问：“你们上一次花费是在自己身上还是他人身上

Describe it. How happy did it make you?

说一说。它带给你多少快乐?”

Or in Uganda, "Name the last time you spent money on yourself or others

而在乌干达，我们问：“说一说你们上一次花费

and describe that."

是花在自己身上还是他人身上。”

Then we asked them how happy they are, again.

跟着我们再次问他们有多快乐

And what we see is sort of amazing,

我们所看到的是有些惊人的

because there’s human universals on what you do with your money,

因为我们人类如何花钱是有共通的地方的

and real cultural differences on what you do as well.

另外又有文化差异影响我们怎样花钱

So for example, one guy from Uganda says this:

举一个例子有一个来自乌干达的男子说

I called a girl I wished to love.

我打给一个我喜欢的女孩

They basically went out on a date,

他们经常出去约会

and he says at the end that he didn’t "achieve" her up till now.

但他说到目前为止他仍未"得到"她的欢心

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Here’s a guy from Canada.

而这个来自加拿大的男子

Very similar thing.

说了类似的事情

I took my girlfriend out for dinner.

我带我的女朋友出去吃饭，

We went to a movie, we left early,

我们去看电影，我们很早离场，

and then went back to her room for ... cake, just cake.

然后回到她的房间...吃蛋糕...只是一片蛋糕（没有进一步发展）

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Human universal:

人类的共通点就是

you spend money on others, you’re being nice.

我们花钱在其他人身上，我们对他们好

Maybe you have something in mind, maybe not.

可能我们心里有一些目的，又可能没有

But then we see extraordinary differences.

但我们见到非常大的区别

So look at these two.

我们看看这两个例子

This is a woman from Canada.

她是一个来自加拿大的女人

We say, "Name a time you spent money on somebody else."

我们问：“试说出你把钱花在别人身上的例子。”

She says, "I bought a present for my mom.

她说：“我买了一件礼物给我的妈妈

I drove to the mall, bought a present, gave it to my mom."

我驾车到一个商场，买了一件礼物送给我的妈妈。”

Perfectly nice thing to do.

一件非常值得做的事情

It’s good to get gifts for people you know.

给一个你认识的人一份礼物是很好的

Compare that to this woman from Uganda:

相比这个来自乌干达的女人

I was walking and met a longtime friend whose son was sick with malaria.

“我在街上碰到一个老朋友她的儿子患了疟疾

They had no money, they went to a clinic and I gave her this money.

他们没有钱，他们去了诊所然后我给了他们这些钱

This isn’t $10,000, it’s the local currency.

那不是一万加元，而是当地的货币

So it’s a very small amount of money, in fact.

所以事实上是很少的金钱

But enormously different motivations here.

但有很大不同的动机

This is a real medical need, literally a lifesaving donation.

这是真正的医疗需要简直是救命钱

Above, it’s just kind of, I bought a gift for my mother.

上一个只是买了一份礼物给妈妈

What we see again, though,

但我们再次见到的是

is that the specific way you spend on other people isn’t nearly as important

用哪一种的方式把钱用在别人身上，并不是最重要

as the fact that you spend on other people in order to make yourself happy,

而是把钱用在别人身上能令你快乐

which is really quite important.

才是最重要的

So you don’t have to do amazing things with your money

所以你不用花钱做很伟大的事情

to make yourself happy.

才会快乐

You can do small, trivial things and still get the benefits from doing this.

你只要做一些细微的琐事也能得到同样的效果

These are only two countries.

这只是两个国家

We wanted to look at every country in the world if we could,

我们希望去得更广，可以的话看看每一个国家里

to see what the relationship is between money and happiness.

金钱和快乐的关系

We got data from the Gallup Organization,

我们从盖洛普组织得到数据

which you know from all the political polls happening lately.

那是让我们知道最近发生的政治数据的机构

They asked people, "Did you donate money to charity recently?"

他们问：”最近你有没有捐钱给慈善团体呢?“

and, "How happy are you with life in general?"

亦问：”你对现在的生活总体感觉有多快乐呢?“

We can see what the relationship is between those two things.

而我们从中见到两者的关系

Are they positively correlated, giving money makes you happy?

它们是否成正比? 即捐钱会令你快乐

Or are they negatively correlated?

还是成反比呢?

On this map, green will mean they’re positively correlated,

在这地图中，绿色代表正比

red means they’re negatively correlated.

而红色代表反比

And you can see, the world is crazily green.

如你所见，地图非常绿

So in almost every country in the world where we have this data,

差不多在所有的国家从我们得到的数据中

people who give money to charity are happier people

那些捐钱的人比

than people who don’t give money to charity.

没有捐钱的更为快乐

I know you’re looking at the red country in the middle.

我知道你们会注意地图中心那个红色的国家

I would be a jerk and not tell you what it is,

若我不告诉你们那是哪一个国家，我会是很赖皮的人

but it’s Central African Republic.

事实上那是中非共和国

You can make up stories.

你可以编出很多故事。

Maybe it’s different there for some reason.

或者那里与众不同

Just below that to the right is Rwanda, though,

但在它的右下方是卢旺达

which is amazingly green.

它是非常绿的

So almost everywhere we look,

所以差不多所有的地方

we see that giving money away makes you happier

我们都见到捐钱会比留给自己

than keeping it for yourself.

令人更快乐

What about work, which is where we spend the rest of our time,

哪么你的工作又如何？它占据你生命的一大部分

when we’re not with the people we know.

当我们不是与我们认识的人在一起

We decided to infiltrate some companies and do a very similar thing.

我们想渗入几间公司进行类似的实验

These are sales teams in Belgium.

这是比利时的一支销售队伍

They work in teams, go out and sell to doctors

他们以团队方式工作，出去寻找业务，并卖给医生

and try to get them to buy drugs.

试图说服医生买药

We can look and see how well they sell things

我们去看看他们的销售业绩

as a function of being a member of a team.

以团队的一员下卖得如何

We give people on some teams some money

有一些队伍，我们给他们个人一些钱

Spend it however you want on yourself,

并说：”把这些钱随意地花在你们身上，”

just like we did with the undergrads in Canada.

就好像我们叫加拿大的大学生那样做

To other teams we say, "Here’s 15 euro. Spend it on one of your teammates.

但另一些团队，我们说：“这是十五元欧元，在这个星期把钱花在其中一位队员身上。”

Buy them something as a gift and give it to them.

给他们买一份礼物，并送给他们

Then we can see, we’ve got teams that spend on themselves

你可以见到，一些队伍把钱花在自己身上

and these pro-social teams who we give money to make the team better.

而支持社交的队伍用钱使团队更加好

The reason I have a ridiculous pinata there

我之所以有一个可笑的皮纳塔

is one team pooled their money and bought a pinata,

是因为有一支队伍把钱集合一起买了一个皮纳塔

they smashed the pinata, the candy fell out and things like that.

然后围在一起把皮纳塔打破，所有的糖果散落

A silly, trivial thing to do,

这是一件很幼稚的琐事

but think of the difference on a team that didn’t do that at all,

但想想另外一支没有这样做的团队的分别

that got 15 euro, put it in their pocket, maybe bought themselves a coffee,

他们有15元欧元在他们的口袋里他们可能给他们自己买一杯咖啡

or teams that had this pro-social experience

或那个有支持社交经验的团队

where they bonded together to buy something and do a group activity.

把钱合起来买东西来做团体活动

What we see is that the teams that are pro-social sell more stuff

我们见到的是支持社交的团队

than the teams that only got money for themselves.

比那只把钱留着的团队卖出更多东西

One way to think of it is: for every 15 euro you give people for themselves,

用一个方向去想想我们给团队的每个人15欧元

they put it in their pocket and don’t do anything different than before.

那些把钱放在自己口袋的人，所做的事情跟以前一样

You don’t get money from that;

你不会得到任何金钱

you lose money, since it doesn’t motivate them to perform better.

你事实上失去金钱因为它不能鼓励他们做得更好

But when you give them 15 euro to spend on their teammates,

但当你把十五元欧罗用在团员身上

they do so much better on their teams

他们会在团队中发挥得更好

that you actually get a huge win on investing this kind of money.

他们把钱这样的投放会得到更大的成功

You’re probably thinking to yourselves, this is all fine,

我想你们或许这样想它们都很好

but there’s a context that’s incredibly important for public policy,

这是对公共政策非常重要的

and I can’t imagine it would work there.

但我不认为会可行

And if he doesn’t show me that it works here,

如果他不展示给我看会在那里可行

I don’t believe anything he said.

我是不会相信他所说的

I know what you’re all thinking about are dodgeball teams.

我知道你们想着躲避球队。

(Laughter)

(笑)

This was a huge criticism that we got,

我们得到一个巨大的批评

that if you can’t show it with dodgeball teams, this is all stupid.

如果不能显示在躲避球队中，这只是空谈

So we went and found these dodgeball teams and infiltrated them,

所以我们出去找一支躲避球队

and did the exact same thing as before.

然后渗入其中我们做同样的事情

So we give people on some teams money to spend on themselves.

所以有一些队伍我们给钱要他们花在自己身上

Other teams, we give them money to spend on their dodgeball teammates.

另外一些团队我们给他们钱要他们花在队友身上

The teams that spend money on themselves

那些花钱在自己身上的队伍

have the same winning percentages as before.

他们的获胜比例跟以前一样

The teams we give the money to spend on each other

那些把钱花在其他人身上的队伍

become different teams;

他们变成不同的队伍

they dominate the league by the time they’re done.

事实上这样做之后他们在联赛上称霸。

Across all of these different contexts --

因此有不同的背景下

your personal life, you work life, even things like intramural sports --

你的私生活，你的工作，甚至乎一些小事情例如校内体育活动

we see spending on other people has a bigger return for you

都可见到把钱花在其他人身上

than spending on yourself.

比花在自己身上得到更大的回报

So if you think money can’t buy happiness, you’re not spending it right.

因此我想若你认为金钱买不到快乐你只是没有用得其所

The implication isn’t you should buy this product instead of that product,

关键不是你应买这不是那

and that’s the way to make yourself happier.

而这会令你更快乐

It’s that you should stop thinking about which product to buy for yourself,

事实上你应停止想着买哪一件东西给自己

and try giving some of it to other people instead.

而是尝试买东西给别人

And we luckily have an opportunity for you.

这里你们有一个机会

DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit for mainly public school teachers

DonorsChoose.org是一个非牟利机构

in low-income schools.

主要是为低收入学校中公共学校老师所设。

They post projects like,

他们会公布一些项目，

I want to teach Huckleberry Finn and we don’t have the books,

例如：我想教哈克贝利费恩给我的学生但我们没有书本

or, "I want a microscope to teach my students science

或我需要一个显微镜来教我的学生科学

and we don’t have a microscope."

但我们没有显微镜

You and I can go on and buy it for them.

你或我可以去买一个给他们

The teacher and the kids write you thank-you notes,

那些老师会写你一个感谢卡。而孩子也会写你一个感谢卡

sometimes they send pictures of them using the microscope.

他们有时会寄你一些拍有他们用显微镜的照片

It’s an extraordinary thing.

这是不可思议的东西

Go to the website and start yourself on the process of thinking

去他们的网页然后开始

less about "How can I spend money on myself?"

少想一些你如何把钱花在自己身上

and more about "If I’ve got five dollars or 15 dollars,

而想多一些若我有五美元或十五元美元

what can I do to benefit other people?"

我可为其他人做什么

Ultimately, when you do that, you’ll find you benefit yourself much more.

因为当你这样做最终你会得到更多益处

Thank you.

谢谢。

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