赛睿sensei大师驱动:新研究：幸福感高的地方自杀率也高

2011年4月25日

WASHINGTON - Does misery really love company? 

华盛顿——烦恼真得会与幸福感结伴而来吗？

An intriguing new study suggests that may be the case. 

一项饶有兴趣的新研究表明烦恼可能真得会与幸福感结伴而来的。

Researchers who study how people's sense of well-being varies from place to place decided to compare their findings with suicide rates. 

研究不同地区人类幸福指数的科学家决定将研究结果与自杀率相比较。

The surprising result: The happiest places sometimes also have the highest suicide rates. 

惊奇的发现：一些幸福感强的地区自杀率也相当高。

"Discontented people in a happy place may feel particularly harshly treated by life," suggested Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. 

“越是在幸福感高的地区，不满的人们越是觉得自己被生活亏待了”，英国华威大学经济学家安德鲁•奥斯维德(Andrew Oswald)如是说。

Or, put another way by co-author Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., those surrounded by unhappy people may not feel so bad for themselves. 

或用另一位来自纽约克林顿哈密尔顿学院合作者史蒂芬•吴（Stephen Wu）的话来讲，当身边的人越是不开心，自己反而不会觉得很糟糕。

But Wu urged caution in drawing conclusions, saying: "I don't think that means if you are unhappy you should be around others who are unhappy." 

“但他在结论中强调需谨慎从事：‘这并不意味着被一群不开心的人所包围可以来缓解你的不开心。”

Their study ranked Utah as the No. 1 state for residents' sense of well-being, but it also scored a high No. 9 in suicide rate. By contrast New York State ranked a low 45th in well-being, but an even lower 50th in suicides. 

研究结果显示，犹他州是幸福感最高的地区，但同时自杀率也以第9名居于前位。相比之下，纽约州的幸福感排名是第45名，而自杀率更低，位居第50位。

The researchers came up with their rankings from a federal survey of behavioral risk factors and U.S. Census Bureau numbers on suicide rates. 

幸福感排名来自行为风险因素的联邦调查报告，自杀率数据来自美国统计局。

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, who wasn't involved in the research, agreed that living around people who are, on average, pretty satisfied with their lives, when you are not, can make you feel more miserable. 

加利福尼亚大学心理学教授索尼娅•柳博米尔斯基（Sonja yubomirsky）没有参加上述研究，但她同意这个观点，即当身边朋友普遍都对生活满意时，只会让自己本来不如意的生活增添更多烦恼。

In an interview by email, she said the findings remind her of an effect researchers have discussed in cases where a city with a reputation for being a good place to live also has a high suicide rate. 

在一次邮件采访中，她讲道这些研究结果让她不禁想到一个类似的效应。享有“适宜居住”美名的城市也会有很高的自杀率。

The idea is, "If you're unhappy there, you conclude, `something must be really wrong with me,' or `nothing will make me happy,' so you're more likely to get depressed and take your life," said Lyubomirsky, who researches happiness and well-being. 

这个理论是“如果你在幸福感高的城市感到不快乐时，那么你可能会推测‘是自己出了什么问题吗’或‘再没有什么可以让我开心’，长此以往‘你的心情可能更加低落甚至放弃自己的生命。”柳博米尔斯基解释道（她研究方向主要是人类的快乐和幸福）。

However, she added, other things may also be at play. 

但她又补充说起作用的可能还有其他因素。

She suggested there may be other factors that states with high life satisfaction have in common that could be associated with high suicide rates. For example, if they are more likely to be rural, that could mean people also are more isolated. Religious beliefs that vary among states may also have an effect, she said. 

她暗示这些因素与较高的生活满足感相类似，会产生高的自杀率。例如，有的人喜欢清静的田园生活，这意味着他可能会与大家比较疏远。州与州间不同的宗教信仰也会有影响。

John F. Helliwell of the University of British Columbia, who has studied well-being and suicide rates internationally, said suicides tend to peak when days are longer, "not as you might have thought, when days are shortest." Researchers have suggested that when people who are unhappy see others in happy, social situations such as picnics, that may bring their own crisis to a head. 

英国哥伦布大学约翰 F•赫利韦尔（John F.Helliwell）一直在致力于研究国际上幸福感与自杀率间的关系，他认为当白昼时间较长时，自杀率会达到顶峰，”当然白天时间较短时，也不一定相反”。研究表示不开心的人如果看到别人在参加野餐等社交活动中很快乐时，他们的危机感将明显增强。

The new study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, looked at the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

这项发表在《经济行为与组织杂志》上的研究关注了50个州及哥伦比亚地区。

It lists the top 10 states for well-being as Utah, Louisiana, Colorado, Minnesota, Wyoming, Hawaii, Arizona, Delaware, Florida and Nevada. 

它列举了前10位幸福感强的地区，包括犹他，路易斯安纳，科罗拉多，明尼苏达，怀俄明，夏威夷，亚利桑那，特拉华，佛罗里达和内华达。

Four of those states also are in the top 10 for suicide rates, with Nevada ranked 3rd, Wyoming, 5th; Colorado, 6th; and Utah, 9th. Among the others, Arizona was 11th and Florida, 15th. 

这些州中有4个排在自杀率前10位，如内华达排名第3，怀俄明排名第5，科罗拉多排名第6，犹他排名第9。亚利桑那州排名第11，佛罗里达州排名第15。

The 10 states with the lowest well-being ratings are: Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan and Rhode Island. 

幸福感最低的后10位分别为：肯塔基，西弗尼亚，宾西法尼亚，印第安纳，密苏里，俄亥俄，密西根和罗得岛。

Just one of those states, West Virginia, is among the top 10 for suicides, ranking No. 8. The only other state in the top 20 was Kentucky at 16th. 

这些州中仅有西弗吉尼亚州的自杀率排在前十位。

Wu noted that international studies have found that Scandinavian countries also display high satisfaction levels and high suicide rates. 

吴提出国际上已经有研究表明斯堪地纳维亚国家也同时具有高的幸福指数和高自杀率。

But the researchers said that because of variations in culture and suicide-reporting systems, it's hard to make comparisons from one country to another. 

但研究者称由于文化差异和自杀上报途径的差异，很难进行国与国间的比较。

To develop their data, Wu and colleagues used information collected by the federal government in the Behavioral Risk-Factor Surveillance System, a monthly survey designed to gather health data and identify emerging problems. One survey question asks people how satisfied they are with their life and the responses to that from people aged 18 to 85 formed the basis for the well-being assessment. The survey interviews more than 350,000 people each year. The suicide rankings are based on mortality data reported by the Census Bureau in 2008. 

吴和同事采用了联邦政府搜集的数据。数据来源于行为风险因素监测系统，该系统每月采集人们的健康数据，预测可能出现的问题。如调查人们对他们的生活满意度。通过采访18-85岁的人群进行评估。每年采访人数超过350000人。自杀率排行榜是根据2008年人口调查局的死亡数据报告制作的。

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Behavioral Risk-Factor Surveillance System: http://www.cdc.gov/brfss 

行为风险因素监测系统：http://www.cdc.gov/brfss

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov

人口调查局：http://www.census.gov