How to buy happiness | Michael Norton

Translator: Jenny Zurawell

譯者: Kenny James 審譯者: Maria Zhang

我今天想講的是有關金錢與快樂

So I want to talk today about money and happiness,

這是兩樣我們

which are two things a lot of us spend a lot of our time thinking about,

經常花很多時間去想的事情

一是要如何賺取它們或是讓它們變更多

either trying to earn them or trying to increase them.

And a lot of us resonate with this phrase,

而很多人對這句話很有共嗚

我們可以在宗教或自助手冊中看到

we see it in religions and self-help books:

"金錢是買不到快樂的"

money can't buy happiness.

而我今天想告訴大家，事實上，這是錯的

And I want to suggest today that, in fact, that's wrong.

(笑)

(Laughter)

我是在商學院工作，而研究這些是我們的工作

I'm at a business school, so that's what we do.

以上那句是錯的。若你想清楚其實

So that's wrong,

and in fact, if you think that, you're just not spending it right.

你只是沒有把金錢花得對

So instead of spending it the way you usually spend it,

所以，與其花在你經常花的地方裡

你可能要花在不同的地方

maybe if you spent it differently, that might work a little bit better.

這可能會有一點點的幫助

在我告訴你們要如何花錢才能令你更快樂之前

Before I tell you the ways you can spend it that will make you happier,

試想想你平常是怎樣花錢

let's think about the ways we usually spend it

而沒有讓你更快樂

that don't, in fact, make us happier.

我們做了一個小小的自然實驗

We had a little natural experiment.

CNN，前陣子，有一篇很有趣的文章

So CNN, a little while ago, wrote this interesting article

是人們在贏得樂透後會變成怎樣

on what happens to people when they win the lottery.

It turns out people think when they win the lottery

結果是其他人都認為那些人的生活定必變成更美好

their lives will be amazing.

而那篇文章是有關他們的生活如何變得糟糕

This article's about how their lives get ruined.

那些中了樂透的人究竟發生什麼事情呢

What happens when people win the lottery

第一，他們把所有的錢花光還欠了一身債

is, one, they spend all the money and go into debt;

第二，所有曾經認識他們的朋友

and two, all of their friends and everyone they've ever met

都來問他們要錢

find them and bug them for money.

而這影響他們的社交關係

It ruins their social relationships, in fact.

因此相比他們在中獎之前

So they have more debt and worse friendships

他們有更多的債和更差的友誼

than they had before they won the lottery.

這篇文章有趣的地方是

What was interesting about the article was,

其他人開始回應這篇文章

people started commenting on the article, readers of the thing.

他們不是談論這篇文章如何

And instead of talking about how it made them realize

讓他們明白金錢沒有帶給他們快樂

that money doesn't lead to happiness,

每一個人卻是馬上地開始說

everyone started saying, "You know what I'd do if I won the lottery ...?"

若然我中了樂透，我會如何如何....

並開始幻想他們會做的事情

and fantasizing about what they'd do.

而這是其中兩個值得我們想一想的回應

Here's just two of the ones we saw that are interesting to think about.

一人寫著"若然我中了樂透，我會買下一座小山

One person wrote, "When I win, I'm going to buy my own little mountain

然後在山上建一個小房子。"

and have a little house on top."

(笑)

(Laughter)

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

和啜飲一杯香檳。"

and sipping a glass of champagne."

This is even worse: "... then I'd have a picture taken

而這個更差：我會拍一張照片

然後印出幾打。

and dozens of glossies made.

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

將只會得到這張相片而不會有其他。

would receive a copy of the picture and nothing else."

(笑)

(Laughter)

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

大部份的評語都是這一類的

人們得到金錢

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

事實上，令他們變得反社會。

So I told you it ruins people's lives and 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

Also, money often makes us feel very selfish

金錢往往令我們變得更自私

而我們只會顧著自己

and we do things only for ourselves.

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

金錢不會令我們更快樂可能是因為

我們時常把金錢用在錯誤的地方

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

尤其是我們經常把金錢用在自己身上

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

我很想知道

And we wondered what would happen

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

若我們把更多的金錢用在其他人的身上會怎樣

與其有了錢而變得反社會

So instead of being antisocial with your money,

what if you were more pro-social with it?

不如有了錢後變得更親社會

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。

我們讓一些人做他們平常做的

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

把錢花在自己身上

spend money on themselves,

然後令一些人把錢分掉

and let's make some people give money away,

然後量度他們的快樂，看看他們實際上是否變得更快樂

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

我們首先是這樣做的

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

在溫哥華的一個早上，我們走到

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

英屬哥倫比亞大學的校園

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

他們都說："好的。”

They said, "Yes."

我們問他們現在有多快樂，然後給他們一個信封

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

而其中一個信封內有紙條寫著

One of the envelopes had things in it that said,

在今天下午五時前把金錢花在自己的身上

"By 5pm today, spend this money on yourself."

我們給了他們一些例子

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

而那天早上另外的人卻得到一張紙條寫著

Other people got a slip of paper that said,

在今天下午五時前把金錢花在其他人身上

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

信封裡面同樣放了金錢

Also inside the envelope was money.

我們巧妙地操控我們給予的金額

And we manipulated how much money we gave them;

有些人得到字條和五加元

some people got this slip of paper and five dollars,

而有些人得到字條和二十加元

some got this slip of paper and 20 dollars.

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

我們發現他們依照我們要他們所做的去做

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

我們晚上致電給他們問他們：

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

“你們把錢花在哪裡，現在你有多快樂？”

How happy do you feel now?"

他們究竟把錢花在哪裡呢?

What did they spend it on?

These are college undergrads;

他們都是大學的本科生，所以那些花在自己身上的

a lot of what they spent it on for themselves

都是買一些耳環、化妝品之類的東西上

were things like earrings and makeup.

有一個女人說她花錢買了一個布娃娃給她姪女

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

有些人把錢給了無家可歸者

People gave money to homeless people.

這裡也有星巴克式的巨大效應

Huge effect here of Starbucks.

(Laughter)

(笑)

So if you give undergraduates five dollars,

如果你給這些大學生五元就好像給他們一杯咖啡

it looks like coffee to them,

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

但有些人會把咖啡買給自己，這是普遍的做法

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

而有些人說他們會買咖啡給別人

but others bought coffee for somebody else.

所以同樣的消費

So the very same purchase,

目的可以是為了自己

just targeted toward yourself or targeted toward somebody else.

或者為了別人

What did we find when we called 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?

那些把錢花在其他人身上的人更快樂

People who spent money on others got happier;

那些把錢花在自己身上的人沒有分別

people who spent it on themselves, nothing happened.

那樣沒有讓他們不快樂，只是沒有對他們產生影響

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

第二個發現是金錢的數額影響不大

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

有些人會認為二十元會比五元好很多

People thought 20 dollars would be way better than five.

但事實上，你能花多少是沒有影響的

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

有影響的是你花在其他人身上

What really matters is that you spent it on somebody else

而不是自己身上

rather than on yourself.

當我們給錢要他們把金錢花在其他人而不在自己身上

We see this again and again

when we give people money to spend on others 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

並不是世界上很有代表性的一群人

not the world's most representative population.

他們也蠻有錢和富裕等等

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

我們想知道這個理論是否在世界各地都成立

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

或是只在富裕的國家

or just among wealthy countries.

So we went 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

試想想，並不只是在加拿大的人

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

我們問：“你們上一次花費是在自己身上還是他人身上

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

說一說。它帶給你多少快樂?”

Describe it. How happy did it make you?"

而在烏干達，我們問：“說一說你們上一次花費

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

是花在自己身上還是他人身上。”

and describe that."

跟著我們再次問他們有多快樂

Then we asked them how happy they are, again.

我們所看到的是有些驚人的

And what we see is sort of amazing,

因為我們人類如何花錢是有共通的地方的

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

另外又有文化差異影響我們怎樣花錢

and real cultural differences on what you do as well.

舉一個例子

So for example, one guy from Uganda says this:

有一個來自烏干達的男子說

"我打給一個我喜歡的女孩"

"I called a girl I wished to love."

他們经常出去約會

They basically went out on a date,

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

而這個來自加拿大的男子

(Laughter)

Here's a guy from Canada.

說了類似的事情

Very similar thing.

我帶我的女朋友出去吃飯，

"I took my girlfriend out for dinner.

我們去看電影，我們很早離場，

We went to a movie, we left early,

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

(Laughter)

人類的共通點就是我們花錢在其他人身上

Human universal:

我們對他們好

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

可能我們心裡有一些目的，又可能沒有

Maybe you have something in mind, maybe not.

但我們見到非常大的區別

But then we see extraordinary differences.

我們看看這兩個例子

So look at these two.

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, 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。”

一件非常值得做的事情

Perfectly nice thing to do.

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

給一個你認識的人一份禮物是很好的

相比這個來自烏干達的女人

Compare that to this woman from Uganda:

“我在街上碰到一個老朋友

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

她的兒子患了瘧疾

他們沒有錢，他們去了診所然後我給了他們這些錢

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

那不是一萬加元，而是當地的貨幣

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

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

這是真正的醫療需要

This is a real medical need, literally a lifesaving 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

但我們再次見到的是

What we see again, though,

用哪一種的方式把錢用在別人身上

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

並不是最重要

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

而是把錢用在別人身上

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

所以你不用花錢做很偉大的事情才會快樂

to make yourself happy.

你只要做一些細微的瑣事也能得到同樣的效果

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

這只是兩個國家

These are only two countries.

我們希望去得更廣，可以的話看看每一個國家裡

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

金錢和快樂的關係

to see what the relationship is between money and happiness.

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 happening lately.

那是讓我們知道最近發生的政治數據的機構

They asked 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?“

亦問：”你對現在的生活總體感覺有多快樂呢?“

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

而我們從中見到兩者的關係

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

它們是否成正比? 即捐錢會令你快樂

Are they positively correlated, giving money makes you happy?

還是成反比呢?

Or are they negatively correlated?

在這地圖中，綠色代表正比

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

而紅色代表反比

red means they're negatively correlated.

如你所見，地圖非常綠

And you can see, the world is crazily green.

差不多在所有的國家

So in almost every country in the world 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

更為快樂

than people who don't give money to charity.

我知道你們會注意地圖中心那個紅色的國家

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

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

事實上那是中非共和國

but it's Central African Republic.

You can make up stories.

你可以編出很多故事。或者那裡與眾不同

Maybe it's different there for some reason.

但在它的右下方是盧旺達

Just below that to the right is Rwanda, though,

它是非常綠的

which is amazingly green.

所以差不多所有的地方

So almost everywhere we look,

we see that giving money away makes you happier

我們都見到捐錢會比留給自己

令人更快樂

than keeping it for yourself.

What about work, which is where we spend 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

這是比利時的一支銷售隊伍

These are sales teams in Belgium.

They work in teams, 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

試圖說服醫生買藥

and try to get them to buy drugs.

我們去看看他們的銷售業績

We can look and see how well they sell things

as a function of being a member of a team.

以團隊的一員下賣得如何

有一些隊伍，我們給他們個人一些錢

We give people on some teams some money

並說：”把這些錢隨意地花在你們身上，”

"Spend it however you want on yourself,"

就好像我們叫加拿大的大學生那樣做

just like we did with the undergrads in Canada.

但另一些團隊，我們說：“這是十五元歐元

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

在這個星期把錢花在其中一位隊員身上。”

給他們買一份禮物，并送給他們

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

你可以見到，一些隊伍把錢花在自己身上

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

而支持社交的隊伍

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

然後圍在一起把皮納塔打破，所有的糖果散落

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

這是一件很幼稚的瑣事

A silly, trivial thing to do,

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

他們有15元歐元在他們的口袋裡

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

他們可能給他們自己買一杯咖啡

or teams that had this pro-social experience

或那個有支持社交經驗的團隊

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

把錢合起來買東西來做團體活動

我們見到的是支持社交的團隊

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

比那只把錢留著的團隊賣出更多東西

than the teams that only got money for themselves.

用一個方向去想想

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

我們給團隊的每個人15歐元

那些把錢放在自己口袋的人，所做的事情跟以前一樣

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

你不會得到任何金錢

You don't get money from that;

你事實上失去金錢因為它不能鼓勵他們做得更好

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

但當你把十五元歐羅用在團員身上

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

他們會在團隊中發揮得更好

they do so much better on their teams

他們把錢這樣的投放會得到更大的成功

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

我想你們或許這樣想

You're probably thinking to yourselves, 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

但我不認為會可行

and I can't imagine it would work there.

如果他不展示給我看會在那裡可行

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

我是不會相信他所說的

I don't believe anything he said.

我知道你們想著躲避球隊。

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

(笑)

(Laughter)

This was a huge criticism that we got,

我們得到一個巨大的批評

that 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

所以我們出去找一支躲避球隊

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

然後滲入其中

我們做同樣的事情

and did the exact same thing as before.

所以有一些隊伍我們給錢要他們花在自己身上

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

另外一些團隊我們給他們錢

Other teams, we give them money 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

have the same winning percentages as before.

他們的獲勝比例跟以前一樣

那些把錢花在其他人身上的隊伍

The teams we give the money to spend on each other

他們變成不同的隊伍

become different teams;

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。

因此有不同的背景下

Across all of these different contexts --

你的私生活，你的工作

your personal life, you work life, even 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

比花在自己身上得到更大的回報

than spending on yourself.

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

因此我想若你認為金錢買不到快樂

你只是沒有用得其所

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

關鍵不是你應買這不是那

而這會令你更快樂

and that's the way to make yourself happier.

事實上你應停止想著

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

買哪一件東西給自己

而是嘗試買東西給別人

and try giving some of it to other people instead.

And we luckily have an opportunity for you.

這裡你們有一個機會

DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit for mainly public school teachers

DonorsChoose.org是一個非牟利機構

主要是為低收入學校中公共學校老師所設。

in low-income schools.

They post projects like,

他們會公佈一些項目，

"I want to teach Huckleberry Finn 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

或我需要一個顯微鏡來教我的學生科學

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

但我們沒有顯微鏡

and we don't have a microscope."

你或我可以去買一個給他們

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

那些老師會寫你一個感謝卡。而孩子也會寫你一個感謝卡

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

sometimes they send 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

這是不可思議的東西

It's an extraordinary thing.

去他們的網頁然後開始

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

少想一些你如何把錢花在自己身上

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

而想多一些若我有五美元或十五元美元

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

我可為其他人做什麼

what can I do to benefit other people?"

因為當你這樣做最終你會得到更多益處

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

謝謝

Thank you.

(拍手)

(Applause)