The Three Types of Happiness 三种快乐

奥尔加·卡赞

Stuff has gotten a bad rap1 of late—mostly for its incompatibility with other lifestyle trends. It wont fit in your tiny house. Marie Kondo2 thinks it should be eschewed entirely unless it sparks joy. And there wont be any need for all your whisks and woks once you switch over to Soylent3 for sustenance.

Minimalism is hot， culturally， and for years， science has assured us that it was also the path to maximal bliss. The prevailing wisdom is that people who want the most happiness for their buck should buy experiences， not things. The idea is that the joy of an experience begins before it even starts， and continues when you look back on the fancy dinner/vacation/afternoon of LARPing4 fondly. Experiences provide， in other words， both more anticipatory happiness and afterglow happiness.

But a recent study complicates that picture， suggesting that sweaters and iPhones might make you just as happy， in a way， as cruises and concerts do. There is a third type of happiness—momentary happiness—and it tends to last longer with material goods because people use them for more time than they typically experience their experiences for.

For the study， published in Social Psychology and Personality Science， researchers Aaron Weidman and Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia gave 67 participants $20 to spend on either an experiential or material purchase of their choice， and then to report one experiential or material gift they had recently received. Then they quizzed them about their happiness levels through text messages and questionnaires.

They found that the study subjects derived more frequent momentary happiness from material goods， but more intense momentary happiness from the experiences. In other words， they enjoyed their material goods on a greater number of occasions than they did their experiences， even though the happiness felt from the experiences was slightly more intense.

“Material purchases have an unsung advantage， in that they provide more frequent bouts of momentary happiness in the weeks after they are acquired，” Weidman and Dunn wrote.

This isnt the only evidence suggesting that material possessions arent as bleak as theyre made out to be. This study somewhat echoes earlier work by Dunn and others finding that lots of small purchases make people happier than one big one. Because we psychologically adapt to the things we have， new things provide a positive jolt—which matters in the short run， if not in the long run. Five trips to H&M serve as tepid5， but nevertheless welcome， distractions from the daily grind.

And another study found that things that help us do activities， like tennis rackets and musical instruments， can also generate happiness. But the difference between tennis rackets and jewelry is slight： Part of the fun of shopping， after all， is imagining the places youll go with the stuff you get.

So should you splurge on6 the latest iThing or on Hamilton tickets？ It depends on whether you are “seeking an intense but fleeting form of happiness that is accompanied by a rosy afterglow，” Weidman and Dunn write， “or a more subtle， frequent form of happiness that will endure for weeks or months.”

As someone who had a flip phone for far longer than was hip7， I can only add that my feelings toward my smart phone every day for the first year I owned it were nothing short of the praise-hands emoji.

物質的东西近来遭遇苛评，主要是因为与其他生活潮流不相容。那不适合你的小房子。近藤麻理惠认为，除非它能带来欢乐，否则就该彻底敬而远之。而一旦选择用索利特代餐产品来续命，那打蛋器、炒菜锅什么的就都没用了。

从文化角度看，极简主义现在很流行，多年来，科学研究也让我们相信它还能引领我们达至极乐。普遍的观点是，人们若想从金钱中获得最大快乐，应该花钱买体验而不是花钱买东西。该观点认为，体验带来的快乐在体验尚未开始就已产生，并会持续到你热情回首之时，比如那顿豪华晚餐、那个美妙假期、那一下午网游。换言之，体验带来的既有预期快乐也有回味快乐。

但最近一项研究使情况复杂了，该研究表明，从某种意义上说，针织衫及苹果手机等物件也许跟游轮旅行和听音乐会带来的快乐一样多。这便是第三种快乐——瞬间快乐。这种快乐往往能随物品延续更长时间，因为人们使用物品的时间通常要多于各种体验的时间。

该研究报告发表在《社会心理学与人格科学》上。研究中，不列颠哥伦比亚大学的研究人员亚伦·魏德曼和伊丽莎白·邓恩给67名参与实验者每人20美元，让参与者自己选择花在体验或物品上，然后描述他们最近收到的一份体验性或物质性的礼物。最后，研究人员通过短信和问卷测试了他们的快乐等级。

研究人员发现，参与者从物品中得到的瞬间快乐次数更频繁，从体验中得到的瞬间快乐感觉更强烈。……