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Viewpoint: How happiness changes with age 幸福感随年龄而变？ When it comes to happiness, it seems that the young and the old have the secret. And it turns out what's true for humans is also true for our primate cousins, explains neuroscientist Tali Sharot. 说起幸福，年轻人和老人似乎有他们快乐的秘诀。人类是这样，我们的灵长类近亲也是如此。让我们与神经学家Tali Sharot一起去了解其中奥秘。 How does happiness change with age? 幸福感是如何随年龄变化的？ Most people assume that as children we live a carefree existence, then we go through the miserable confusion of teenage years ("Who am I?") but regain happiness once we figure it all out and settle down, only to then grow grumpy and lonely with every additional wrinkle and grey hair. 人们认为，孩童时，我们的生活无忧无虑，然后便进入迷茫困惑充满烦恼的青春期（迷失于“我是谁？”的人生思考）；当困惑有了解答，人生找到定位之后，又回到了幸福的状态；然后步入老年，人们便会为慢慢爬上眼角的皱纹和两鬓微霜的华发而变得惆怅与孤独。 Well, this is utterly wrong. 有这样的想法，你就大错特错。 It turns out that happiness is indeed high in youth, but declines steadily hitting rock bottom in our mid-40s - midlife crisis, anyone? Then, miraculously, our sense of happiness takes a turn for the better, increasing as we grow older. 年轻人的确更容易感到幸福，而后随年龄增长而慢慢降低，在40多岁中年危机之际跌到谷底，之后，我们的幸福感便会奇迹般的随着年龄的增长而上升。 This U-shape pattern of happiness over the life span (high during youth and old age, low during midlife) has been observed across the globe, from Switzerland to Ecuador, Romania to China. All in all, it has been documented in more than 70 countries, in surveys of more than 500,000 people in both developing and developed countries. 人生幸福感U型变化模式（年轻和年老时高，中年时低）是在全球范围内观察得出的结论，不论是瑞士还是厄瓜多尔，不论是罗马尼亚还是中国，人们的幸福感变化都呈U型模式。这项调查共涵盖70个国家超过500,000人口，调查对象既有发展中国家也有发达国家。 How can we explain these counter-intuitive findings? 为什么会出现这种与我们的想象完全不同的结果呢？ Does it have something to do with juggling kids and careers in our 30s and 40s? Apparently not. Even after accounting for the presence of kids in the household the U-shape pattern of happiness remains. 是不是由于三四十岁的时候面对工作和孩子双方面的压力？显然不是。家里有没有孩子都不会影响幸福感U型变化模式。 Perhaps the pattern is due to generational differences? But the studies did not follow the same individuals throughout life, but rather different individuals of different ages. 是不是由于每一代人各有差异？研究中对不同年代的人都有观察，而不是只关注某一代人。 Could it be that teenagers and the elderly are happier than the middle-aged because they were born during better times? No, again - this does not seem to affect the U-shape pattern. It also persists when other demographic factors are accounted for, including marital status, education, employment status, and income. 难道年轻人和老人更幸福是因为他们生在了好时代？也非如此，生于什么年代对U型模式没有影响。物质条件、教育状况、就业情况还有收入等人口学因素对幸福感变化的U型模式都没有影响。 Then, just last month, a group led by Prof Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick, reported that happiness of our evolutionary cousins - the great apes - also follows a U-shape pattern throughout life. 英国华威大学安德鲁·奥斯瓦德教授带领的研究团队上个月公开的报道中称，人类的近亲大猩猩在他们的一生中也会出现U型的幸福感变化模式。 Of course we cannot ask apes to rate their life satisfaction on a scale from one to 10. But the well-being of 508 apes was estimated by asking their human care-givers to assess it. Apes, like humans, were less happy during midlife than when younger or older. 我们不能让猩猩像人一样给自己的幸福感从一到十的去评分，因此，这项研究中大猩猩幸福感的数据是对它们的饲养员进行调查而得出的。与人类相似，大猩猩到了中年的时候也会变得郁郁寡欢，没有幼年和老年时活得开心。 The existence of a midlife crisis in the great ape strengthens the notion that the pattern of happiness throughout life is not due to socioeconomic factors. This leaves two likely explanations. 大猩猩也有中年危机的这一发现进一步证明，人的一生中幸福感变化的U型模式与社会经济因素无关。这里还有两种相似的解释。 Firstly, "the survival of the happiest" - happiness is known to be related to longevity. Put simply, the happier live longer, while the pessimistic die prematurely, possibly because the latter experience more stress, which impacts on health negatively. 首先，“乐者生存”——快乐与长寿是分不开的。简而言之，快乐幸福的人长寿、悲愁满腹的人短命，这是因为消极的人承受了更多的压力，不利于人的健康。 Happy now? 通过大脑成像技术我们发现，这种趋利避害的信息处理方式与大脑前额叶活动紧密相关。 Now, you may think that discounting bad news can get people into trouble - for example, causing us to smoke more and save less. There is some truth to this, but it is also good for our mental health. Our research shows that the successful incorporation of bad news is related to depression. Discounting bad news, as most of us do, presumably allows us to keep a rosy view of the future, and while this view is not necessarily realistic it does keep us happy. But the tendency to discount bad news also follows a U-shape pattern over our lifespan. Kids, teenagers and the elderly discount unwanted information more than middle age individuals. The developmental change in the frontal lobes appears to be mirrored by our ability to learn from bad news, which in turn could drive age-related differences in happiness. So happiness may come at a price - a reduced ability to take into account unwanted information. In essence, this means that we may need to re-frame health and safety campaigns, especially those targeted at the young and the elderly. Instead of, or in addition to, labelling a packet of cigarettes with the words "SMOKING KILLS", we may want to print "80% of people who try to quit smoking succeed". And instead of highlighting the risks of skin cancer on a bottle of sun lotion, how about highlighting the sun cream's benefits (fewer wrinkles, healthier-looking skin)? Will fewer people reach for another cigarette when we focus on social norms? Will more people protect their skin from UV rays when we emphasise the positive? Each case needs to be tested. But given that we now know that people tend to respond to warnings with "It's unlikely to happen to me" and to the possibility of a glorious future with "Why not me?" there is reason to believe this may be so. Happiness around the world
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