让自己快乐并感染周围的人

People who spend time with happy people are more likely to become happy themselves. That’s according to a July 2010 study that examined how emotions spread contagiously.

与快乐的人相处，自己也可能变得快乐。今年7月，一项有关情绪如何在人与人之间传播的科学研究得出了上述结论。

David Rand: The more friends you have that are content with their lives, the more likely you are to become content. And the more friends you have that are discontent, the more likely you are to become discontent.

大卫·兰德：你身边对生活满意的朋友越多，你越有可能变得像他们一样，反之亦然。

David Rand of Harvard is one of the study’s authors. He said this study was designed to understand how changes in long-term emotional states – meaning, whether you consider yourself a happy or sad person overall – are affected by the people you know.

来自哈佛大学的大卫·兰德是研究报告的撰写者之一。他表示，该研究的目的是为了了解人们的心境如何受到周围人的影响。这里的心境是指一个人大体上的情绪状态，是开心愉悦还是闷闷不乐。

David Rand: We found that sadness is twice as infectious as happiness.

大卫·兰德：我们发现悲伤更容易在人群中扩散，它的传播几率比快乐高出一倍左右。

Rand and his co-authors compared emotional states of groups of friends, families, and coworkers to models of how infectious diseases – like the flu – spread. Then they looked at the probability that a person would become happy or become sad, based on the number of happy or sad people around them.

兰德和同事通过流感等传染病的传播模型对一些人群的情绪状态进行了研究。这些人群由亲友或同事组成。通过统计一个人周围有多少乐天派，多少苦瓜脸，研究人员将对此人的情绪走向作出预测。

David Rand: One aspect that’s new is that we showed in a formal sense that these long-term emotional states really are contagious. Which is interesting, and it’s important for trying to understand why people feel the way they do about their life.

大卫·兰德：这项研究取得的一个新突破在于，我们以科学的方式论证了长期、稳定的情绪状态可以在人群中互相传染。这是个有趣的成果，它的重要意义在于有助于人们了解自己对生活的看法是怎么形成的。

I'm Lindsay Patterson.

我是主播琳赛·帕特森。