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So I want to talk today about money and happiness,
我今天想講的是有關金錢與快樂
which are two things
這是兩樣我們
that a lot of us spend a lot of our time thinking about,
經常花很多時間去想的事情
either trying to earn them or trying to increase them.
一是要如何賺取它們或是讓它們變更多
And a lot of us resonate with this phrase.
而很多人對這句話很有共嗚
So we see it in religions and self-help books,
我們可以在宗教或自助手冊中看到
that money can't buy happiness.
"金錢是買不到快樂的"
And I want to suggest today that, in fact, that's wrong.
而我今天想告訴大家,事實上,這是錯的
(Laughter)
(笑)
I'm at a business school, so that's what we do.
我是在商學院工作,而研究這些是我們的工作
So that's wrong, and, in fact, if you think that,
以上那句是錯的。若你想清楚其實
you're actually just not spending it right.
你只是沒有把金錢花得對
So that instead of spending it the way you usually spend it,
所以,與其花在你經常花的地方裡
maybe if you spent it differently,
你可能要花在不同的地方
that might work a little bit better.
這可能會有一點點的幫助
And before I tell you the ways that you can spend it that will make you happier,
在我告訴你們要如何花錢才能令你更快樂之前
let's think about the ways we usually spend it
試想想你平常是怎樣花錢
that don't, in fact, make us happier.
而沒有讓你更快樂
We had a little natural experiment.
我們做了一個小小的自然實驗
So CNN, a little while ago, wrote this interesting article
CNN,前陣子,有一篇很有趣的文章
on what happens to people when they win the lottery.
是人們在贏得樂透後會變成怎樣
It turns out people think when they win the lottery their lives are going to be amazing.
結果是其他人都認為那些人的生活定必變成更美好
This article's about how their lives get ruined.
而那篇文章是有關他們的生活如何變得糟糕
So what happens when people win the lottery
那些中了樂透的人究竟發生什麼事情呢
is, number one, they spend all the money and go into debt,
第一,他們把所有的錢花光還欠了一身債
and number two, all of their friends and everyone they've ever met
第二,所有曾經認識他們的朋友
find them and bug them for money.
都來問他們要錢
And it ruins their social relationships, in fact.
而這影響他們的社交關係
So they have more debt and worse friendships
因此相比他們在中獎之前
than they had before they won the lottery.
他們有更多的債和更差的友誼
What was interesting about the article
這篇文章有趣的地方是
was people started commenting on the article, readers of the thing.
其他人開始回應這篇文章
And instead of talking about
他們不是談論這篇文章如何
how it had made them realize that money doesn't lead to happiness,
讓他們明白金錢沒有帶給他們快樂
everyone instantly started saying,
每一個人卻是馬上地開始說
"You know what I would do if I won the lottery ... ?"
若然我中了樂透,我會如何如何....
and fantasizing about what they'd do.
並開始幻想他們會做的事情
And here's just two of the ones we saw that are just really interesting to think about.
而這是其中兩個值得我們想一想的回應
One person wrote in, "When I win, I'm going to buy my own little mountain
一人寫著"若然我中了樂透,我會買下一座小山
and have a little house on top."
然後在山上建一個小房子。"
(Laughter)
(笑)
And another person wrote, "I would fill a big bathtub with money
而另一人寫著"我會把錢填滿一個大浴缸,
and get in the tub while smoking a big fat cigar
然後走進浴缸抽一支大雪茄
and sipping a glass of champagne."
和啜飲一杯香檳。"
This is even worse now: "Then I'd have a picture taken
而這個更差:我會拍一張照片
and dozens of glossies made.
然後印出幾打。
Anyone begging for money or trying to extort from me
那些向我索錢或嘗試向我敲詐的人
would receive a copy of the picture and nothing else."
將只會得到這張相片而不會有其他。
(Laughter)
(笑)
And so many of the comments were exactly of this type,
大部份的評語都是這一類的
where people got money
人們得到金錢
and, in fact, it made them antisocial.
事實上,令他們變得反社會。
So I told you that it ruins people's lives and that their friends bug them.
所以我告訴你中獎會令人的生活更差而他們的朋友也開始煩擾他們
It also, money often makes us feel very selfish
金錢往往令我們變得更自私
and we do things only for ourselves.
而我們只會顧著自己
Well maybe the reason that money doesn't make us happy
金錢不會令我們更快樂可能是因為
is that we're always spending it on the wrong things,
我們時常把金錢用在錯誤的地方
and in particular, that we're always spending it on ourselves.
尤其是我們經常把金錢用在自己身上
And we thought, I wonder what would happen
我很想知道
if we made people spend more of their money on other people.
若我們把更多的金錢用在其他人的身上會怎樣
So instead of being antisocial with your money,
與其有了錢而變得反社會
what if you were a little more prosocial with your money?
不如有了錢後變得更親社會
And we thought, let's make people do it and see what happens.
我們便想:讓我們令他們這樣做,看看會是什麽結果。
So let's have some people do what they usually do
我們讓一些人做他們平常做的
and spend money on themselves,
把錢花在自己身上
and let's make some people give money away,
然後令一些人把錢分掉
and measure their happiness and see if, in fact, they get happier.
然後量度他們的快樂,看看他們實際上是否變得更快樂
So the first way that we did this.
我們首先是這樣做的
On one Vancouver morning, we went out on the campus
在溫哥華的一個早上,我們走到
at University of British Columbia
英屬哥倫比亞大學的校園
and we approached people and said, "Do you want to be in an experiment?"
我們找人問他們是否願意參加一項實驗
They said, "Yes."
他們都說:"好的。”
We asked them how happy they were, and then we gave them an envelope.
我們問他們現在有多快樂,然後給他們一個信封
And one of the envelopes had things in it that said,
而其中一個信封內有紙條寫著
"By 5:00 pm today, spend this money on yourself."
在今天下午五時前把金錢花在自己的身上
So we gave some examples of what you could spend it on.
我們給了他們一些例子
Other people, in the morning, got a slip of paper that said,
而那天早上另外的人卻得到一張紙條寫著
"By 5:00 pm today, spend this money on somebody else."
在今天下午五時前把金錢花在其他人身上
Also inside the envelope was money.
信封裡面同樣放了金錢
And we manipulated how much money we gave them.
我們巧妙地操控我們給予的金額
So some people got this slip of paper and five dollars.
有些人得到字條和五加元
Some people got this slip of paper and 20 dollars.
而有些人得到字條和二十加元
We let them go about their day. They did whatever they wanted to do.
我們讓他們自由地過他們的一天,任由他們做想做的事情
We found out that they did in fact spend it in the way that we asked them to.
我們發現他們依照我們要他們所做的去做
We called them up at night and asked them,
我們晚上致電給他們問他們:
"What'd you spend it on, and how happy do you feel now?"
“你們把錢花在哪裡,現在你有多快樂?”
What did they spend it on?
他們究竟把錢花在哪裡呢?
Well these are college undergrads, so a lot of what they spent it on for themselves
他們都是大學的本科生,所以那些花在自己身上的
were things like earrings and makeup.
都是買一些耳環、化妝品之類的東西上
One woman said she bought a stuffed animal for her niece.
有一個女人說她花錢買了一個布娃娃給她姪女
People gave money to homeless people.
有些人把錢給了無家可歸者
Huge effect here of Starbucks.
這裡也有星巴克式的巨大效應
(Laughter)
(笑)
So if you give undergraduates five dollars, it looks like coffee to them
如果你給這些大學生五元就好像給他們一杯咖啡
and they run over to Starbucks and spend it as fast as they can.
他們會跑到星巴克以最快的速度把它花掉
But some people bought a coffee for themselves, the way they usually would,
但有些人會把咖啡買給自己,這是普遍的做法
but other people said that they bought a coffee for somebody else.
而有些人說他們會買咖啡給別人
So the very same purchase,
所以同樣的消費
just targeted toward yourself
目的可以是為了自己
or targeted toward somebody else.
或者為了別人
What did we find when we called them back at the end of the day?
想知我們當天完結時打給他們發現了什麼嗎?
People who spent money on other people got happier.
那些把錢花在其他人身上的人更快樂
People who spent money on themselves, nothing happened.
那些把錢花在自己身上的人沒有分別
It didn't make them less happy, it just didn't do much for them.
那樣沒有讓他們不快樂,只是沒有對他們產生影響
And the other thing we saw is the amount of money doesn't matter that much.
第二個發現是金錢的數額影響不大
So people thought that 20 dollars would be way better than five dollars.
有些人會認為二十元會比五元好很多
In fact, it doesn't matter how much money you spent.
但事實上,你能花多少是沒有影響的
What really matters is that you spent it on somebody else
有影響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
當我們給錢要他們把金錢花在其他人而不在自己身上
when we give people money to spend on other people instead of on themselves.
這個結果我們重覆又重覆地見到
Of course, these are undergraduates in Canada --
當然他們是加拿大的大學生
not the world's most representative population.
並不是世界上很有代表性的一群人
They're also fairly wealthy and affluent and all these other sorts of things.
他們也蠻有錢和富裕等等
We wanted to see if this holds true everywhere in the world
我們想知道這個理論是否在世界各地都成立
or just among wealthy countries.
或是只在富裕的國家
So we went, in fact, to Uganda and ran a very similar experiment.
因此我們到了烏干達做了一個類似的實驗
So imagine, instead of just people in Canada,
試想想,並不只是在加拿大的人
we said, "Name the last time you spent money on yourself or other people.
我們問:“你們上一次花費是在自己身上還是他人身上
Describe it. How happy did it make you?"
說一說。它帶給你多少快樂?”
Or in Uganda, "Name the last time you spent money
而在烏干達,我們問:“說一說你們上一次花費
on yourself or other people and describe that."
是花在自己身上還是他人身上。”
And then we asked them how happy they are again.
跟著我們再次問他們有多快樂
And what we see is sort of amazing
我們所看到的是有些驚人的
because there's human universals on what you do with your money
因為我們人類如何花錢是有共通的地方的
and then real cultural differences on what you do as well.
另外又有文化差異影響我們怎樣花錢
So for example,
舉一個例子
one guy from Uganda says this.
有一個來自烏干達的男子說
He said, "I called a girl I wished to love."
"我打給一個我喜歡的女孩"
They basically went out on a date,
他們经常出去約會
and he says at the end that he didn't "achieve" her up till now.
但他說到目前為止他仍未"得到"她的歡心
Here's a guy from Canada.
而這個來自加拿大的男子
Very similar thing.
說了類似的事情
"I took my girlfriend out for dinner.
我帶我的女朋友出去吃飯,
We went to a movie, we left early,
我們去看電影,我們很早離場,
and then went back to her room for ... " only cake -- just a piece of cake.
然後回到她的房間...吃蛋糕...只是一片蛋糕(沒有進一步發展)
Human universal -- so you spend money on other people,
人類的共通點就是我們花錢在其他人身上
you're being nice to them.
我們對他們好
Maybe you have something in mind, maybe not.
可能我們心裡有一些目的,又可能沒有
But then we see extraordinary differences.
但我們見到非常大的區別
So look at these two.
我們看看這兩個例子
This is a woman from Canada.
她是一個來自加拿大的女人
We say, "Name a time you spent money on somebody else."
我們問:“試說出你把錢花在別人身上的例子。”
She says, "I bought a present for my mom.
她說:“我買了一件禮物給我的媽媽
I drove to the mall in my car, bought a present, gave it to my mom."
我駕車到一個商場,買了一件禮物送給我的媽媽。”
Perfectly nice thing to do.
一件非常值得做的事情
It's good to get gifts for people that you know.
給一個你認識的人一份禮物是很好的
Compare that to this woman from Uganda.
相比這個來自烏干達的女人
"I was walking and met a long-time friend
“我在街上碰到一個老朋友
whose son was sick with malaria.
她的兒子患了瘧疾
They had no money, they went to a clinic and I gave her this money."
他們沒有錢,他們去了診所然後我給了他們這些錢
This isn't $10,000, it's the local currency.
那不是一萬加元,而是當地的貨幣
So it's a very small amount of money, in fact.
所以事實上是很少的金錢
But enormously different motivations here.
但有很大不同的動機
This is a real medical need,
這是真正的醫療需要
literally a life-saving donation.
簡直是救命錢
Above, it's just kind of, I bought a gift for my mother.
上一個只是買了一份禮物給媽媽
What we see again though
但我們再次見到的是
is that the specific way that you spend on other people
用哪一種的方式把錢用在別人身上
isn't nearly as important
並不是最重要
as the fact that you spend on other people
而是把錢用在別人身上
in order to make yourself happy,
能令你快樂
which is really quite important.
才是最重要的
So you don't have to do amazing things with your money to make yourself happy.
所以你不用花錢做很偉大的事情才會快樂
You can do small, trivial things and yet still get these benefits from doing this.
你只要做一些細微的瑣事也能得到同樣的效果
These are only two countries.
這只是兩個國家
We also wanted to go even broader and look at every country in the world if we could
我們希望去得更廣,可以的話看看每一個國家裡
to see what the relationship is between money and happiness.
金錢和快樂的關係
We got data from the Gallup Organization,
我們從蓋洛普組織得到數據
which you know from all the political polls that have been happening lately.
那是讓我們知道最近發生的政治數據的機構
They ask people, "Did you donate money to charity recently?"
他們問:”最近你有沒有捐錢給慈善團體呢?“
and they ask them, "How happy are you with your life in general?"
亦問:”你對現在的生活總體感覺有多快樂呢?“
And we can see what the relationship is between those two things.
而我們從中見到兩者的關係
Are they positively correlated? Giving money makes you happy.
它們是否成正比? 即捐錢會令你快樂
Or are they negatively correlated?
還是成反比呢?
On this map, green will mean they're positively correlated
在這地圖中,綠色代表正比
and red means they're negatively correlated.
而紅色代表反比
And you can see, the world is crazily green.
如你所見,地圖非常綠
So in almost every country in the world
差不多在所有的國家
where we have this data,
從我們得到的數據中
people who give money to charity are happier people
那些捐錢的人比沒有捐錢的
that people who don't give money to charity.
更為快樂
I know you're all looking at that red country in the middle.
我知道你們會注意地圖中心那個紅色的國家
I would be a jerk and not tell you what it is,
若我不告訴你們那是哪一個國家,我會是很賴皮的人
but in fact, it's Central African Republic.
事實上那是中非共和國
You can make up stories. Maybe it's different there for some reason or another.
你可以編出很多故事。或者那裡與眾不同
Just below that to the right is Rwanda though,
但在它的右下方是盧旺達
which is amazingly green.
它是非常綠的
So almost everywhere we look
所以差不多所有的地方
we see that giving money away makes you happier
我們都見到捐錢會比留給自己
than keeping it for yourself.
令人更快樂
What about your work life, which is where we spend all the rest of our time
哪麼你的工作又如何?它佔據你生命的一大部分
when we're not with the people we know.
當我們不是與我們認識的人在一起
We decided to infiltrate some companies and do a very similar thing.
我們想滲入幾間公司進行類似的實驗
So these are sales teams in Belgium.
這是比利時的一支銷售隊伍
They work in teams; they go out and sell to doctors
他們以團隊方式工作,出去尋找業務,并賣給醫生
and try to get them to buy drugs.
試圖說服醫生買藥
So we can look and see how well they sell things
我們去看看他們的銷售業績
as a function of being a member of a team.
以團隊的一員下賣得如何
Some teams, we give people on the team some money for themselves
有一些隊伍,我們給他們個人一些錢
and say, "Spend it however you want on yourself,"
並說:”把這些錢隨意地花在你們身上,”
just like we did with the undergrads in Canada.
就好像我們叫加拿大的大學生那樣做
But other teams we say, "Here's 15 euro.
但另一些團隊,我們說:“這是十五元歐元
Spend it on one of your teammates this week.
在這個星期把錢花在其中一位隊員身上。”
Buy them something as a gift or a present and give it to them.
給他們買一份禮物,并送給他們
And then we can see, well now we've got teams that spend on themselves
你可以見到,一些隊伍把錢花在自己身上
and we've got these prosocial teams
而支持社交的隊伍
who we give money to make the team a little bit better.
用錢使團隊更加好
The reason I have a ridiculous pinata there
我之所以有一個可笑的皮納塔
is one of the teams pooled their money and bought a pinata,
是因為有一支隊伍把錢集合一起買了一個皮納塔
and they all got around and smashed the pinata and all the candy fell out and things like that.
然後圍在一起把皮納塔打破,所有的糖果散落
A very silly, trivial thing to do,
這是一件很幼稚的瑣事
but think of the difference on a team that didn't do that at all,
但想想另外一支沒有這樣做的團隊的分別
that got 15 euro, put it in their pocket,
他們有15元歐元在他們的口袋裡
maybe bought themselves a coffee,
他們可能給他們自己買一杯咖啡
or teams that had this prosocial experience
或那個有支持社交經驗的團隊
where they all bonded together to buy something and do a group activity.
把錢合起來買東西來做團體活動
What we see is that, in fact, the teams that are prosocial sell more stuff
我們見到的是支持社交的團隊
than the teams that only got money for themselves.
比那只把錢留著的團隊賣出更多東西
And one way to think about it
用一個方向去想想
is for every 15 euro you give people for themselves,
我們給團隊的每個人15歐元
they put it in their pocket, they don't do anything different than they did before.
那些把錢放在自己口袋的人,所做的事情跟以前一樣
You don't get any money from that.
你不會得到任何金錢
You actually lose money because it doesn't motivate them to perform any better.
你事實上失去金錢因為它不能鼓勵他們做得更好
But when you give them 15 euro to spend on their teammates,
但當你把十五元歐羅用在團員身上
they do so much better on their teams
他們會在團隊中發揮得更好
that you actually get a huge win on investing this kind of money.
他們把錢這樣的投放會得到更大的成功
And I realize that you're probably thinking to yourselves,
我想你們或許這樣想
this is all fine,
它們都很好
but there's a context that's incredibly important for public policy
這是對公共政策非常重要的
and I can't imagine it would work there.
但我不認為會可行
And basically that if he doesn't show me that it works here,
如果他不展示給我看會在那裡可行
I don't believe anything he said.
我是不會相信他所說的
And I know what you're all thinking about are dodgeball teams.
我知道你們想著躲避球隊。
(Laughter)
(笑)
This was a huge criticism that we got
我們得到一個巨大的批評
to say, if you can't show it with dodgeball teams, this is all stupid.
如果不能顯示在躲避球隊中,這只是空談
So we went out and found these dodgeball teams
所以我們出去找一支躲避球隊
and infiltrated them.
然後滲入其中
And we did the exact same thing as before.
我們做同樣的事情
So some teams, we give people on the team money, they spend it on themselves.
所以有一些隊伍我們給錢要他們花在自己身上
Other teams, we give them money
另外一些團隊我們給他們錢
to spend on their dodgeball teammates.
要他們花在隊友身上
The teams that spend money on themselves
那些花錢在自己身上的隊伍
are just the same winning percentages as they were before.
他們的獲勝比例跟以前一樣
The teams that we give the money to spend on each other,
那些把錢花在其他人身上的隊伍
they become different teams
他們變成不同的隊伍
and, in fact, they dominate the league by the time they're done.
事實上这样做之后他們在联赛上称霸。
Across all of these different contexts --
因此有不同的背景下
your personal life, you work life,
你的私生活,你的工作
even silly things like intramural sports --
甚至乎一些小事情例如校內體育活動
we see spending on other people has a bigger return for you
都可見到把錢花在其他人身上很
than spending on yourself.
比花在自己身上得到更大的回報
And so I'll just say, I think if you think money can't buy happiness
因此我想若你認為金錢買不到快樂
you're not spending it right.
你只是沒有用得其所
The implication is not you should buy this product instead of that product
關鍵不是你應買這不是那
and that's the way to make yourself happier.
而這會令你更快樂
It's in fact, that you should stop thinking
事實上你應停止想著
about which product to buy for yourself
買哪一件東西給自己
and try giving some of it to other people instead.
而是嘗試買東西給別人
And we luckily have an opportunity for you.
這裡你們有一個機會
DonorsChoose.org is a non-profit
DonorsChoose.org是一個非牟利機構
for mainly public school teachers in low-income schools.
主要是為低收入學校中公共學校老師所設。
They post projects,
他們會公佈一些項目,
so they say, "I want to teach Huckleberry Finn to my class and we don't have the books,"
例如:我想教哈克貝利費恩給我的學生但我們沒有書本
or "I want a microscope to teach my students science
或我需要一個顯微鏡來教我的學生科學
and we don't have a microscope."
但我們沒有顯微鏡
You and I can go on and buy it for them.
你或我可以去買一個給他們
The teacher writes you a thank you note. The kids write you a thank you note.
那些老師會寫你一個感謝卡。而孩子也會寫你一個感謝卡
Sometimes they send you pictures of them using the microscope.
他們有時會寄你一些拍有他們用顯微鏡的照片
It's an extraordinary thing.
這是不可思議的東西
Go to the website and start yourself on the process
去他們的網頁然後開始
of thinking, again, less about "How can I spend money on myself?"
少想一些你如何把錢花在自己身上
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?"
我可為其他人做什麼
Because ultimately when you do that, you'll find that you'll benefit yourself much more.
因為當你這樣做最終你會得到更多益處
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
(拍手)