我们知道什么能让我们快乐，为什么还看电视呢？
本文来自英国心理学学会研究文摘（BPS Research Digest）
美味的食物，温暖的房间，不错的工作，一切看起来都这么美好。可是这些并没有让你感觉很快乐。一些心理学家认为，这是因为我们中的很多人生活富足之后，就会花很多时间在“被动的”事情上，比如沉迷在Netflix和推特上，而不是把时间花在“主动的”事情上。“主动的”事情就是：在心理上需要付出努力的活动，比如做饭，运动会或者玩音乐。“主动的”事情会让我们体验到Flow：一种能力和挑战相结合的魔法。一份来自Journal of Positive Psychology的报告认为这是件两难的事情，因为我们其实已经意识到了，追求具有挑战性的“主动”活动会让我们拥有长时间的快乐。但是，如果事实是这样的话，为什么我们还是会经常及时行乐？我们明知道这些事情根本不会带来持久的成就感。
L. Parker Schiffer和Tomi-Ann Roberts分别调差了接近300人（基本是美国人，平均年龄在33-34岁之间）的不同活动：有一部分是被动活动比如听音乐，还有一部分是主动活动比如艺术创作或冥想。受试者被要求评价自己的活动，比如活动的享受程度，难易程度等。另外，还要求受试者报告每周活动的频率。最后，受试者还必须要识别哪个活动最能产生持久的快乐。
调查的结果是：1.越是要付出努力的活动越能给他们带来持久的快乐。但是受试者表示，他们一周会花更多的时间在被动活动上，比如看电视。2.越是需要付出努力的活动人们越难忍受。（但是，让研究者吃惊的是，虽然主动活动需要人们付出更多的努力，但却不是一个威慑。）
Schiffer和Roberts认为这是幸福的悖论：虽然我们都知道主动活动能给我们带来长久的快乐，但是主动活动需要付出更多的努力，所以我们会花更多的时间在被动的活动上（及时行乐）。Schiffer和Roberts的建议是，在做需要付出很大努力的事情之前，做好充足的准备，这样会让我们感觉不会那么棘手。比如说，当你准备去健身的时候，前一天就把健身需要的东西准备好，最好找一家离你家近的健身房。
他们建议的另一件事是使用正念，正念或一些其他“受控意识”技术，这样可以降低我们的“过渡成本”，例如提前感知需要付出的痛苦，并把它转化成快乐，或者想着这件事可以给我带来长期奖励。
We know what will make us happy, why do we watch TV instead?
By Christian Jarrett
本文来自英国心理学学会研究文摘（BPS Research Digest）。
The luxury microwave meal was delicious, the house is warm, work’s going OK, but you’re just not feeling very happy. Some positive psychologists believe this is because many of us in rich, Western countries spend too much of our free time on passive activities, like bingeing on Netflix and browsing Twitter, rather than on active, psychologically demanding activities, like cooking, sports or playing music, that allow the opportunity to experience “flow” – that magic juncture where your abilities only just meet the demands of the challenge. A new paper in the Journal of Positive Psychology examines this dilemma. Do we realise that pursuing more active, challenging activities will make us happier in the long-run? If so, why then do we opt to spend so much more time lazing around engaged in activities that are pleasant in the moment, but unlikely to bring any lasting fulfilment?
Across two studies, L. Parker Schiffer and Tomi-Ann Roberts at the Claremont Graduate University and Colorado College, surveyed nearly 300 people (presumably US citizens, average age 33/34 years) via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website about what they thought of dozens of different activities: some passive like listening to music or watching movies, others more active and potentially flow-inducing, such as making art or meditating. Specifically, the participants rated how enjoyable, effortful, and daunting they considered the activities to be, as well as how often they engaged in each of them in a typical week. The participants also identified which activities they considered the most and least conducive to lasting happiness.
There was a clear pattern in the participants’ answers: they identified more effortful activities as being more associated with lasting happiness, yet they said they spent much more time on passive, relaxation-based activities, like watching TV. Looking at their other judgments, the key factor that seemed to deter participants from engaging in more active, flow-inducing activities is that they tended to be seen as particularly daunting and less enjoyable, even while being associated with lasting happiness. The more daunting an activity was deemed to be, the less frequently it was undertaken (by contrast, and to the researchers’ surprise, the perceived effort involved in the activity did not seem to be a deterrent).
Schiffer and Roberts consider this to be a paradox of happiness: we know which kind of activities will bring us lasting happiness, but because we see them as daunting and less enjoyable in the moment, we choose to spend much more of our time doing passive, more immediately pleasant things with our free time. Their advice is to plan ahead “to try to ease the physical transition into flow activities” to make them feel less daunting. For example, they suggest getting your gym clothes and bag ready the night before, and choosing a gym that’s close and convenient; or getting your journal and pen, or easel and paintbrushes, ready in advance.
The other thing they suggest is using mindfulness, meditation or some other “controlled consciousness” technique to help yourself to disregard the initial “transition costs” of a flow activity, such as the early pain of a run, and to focus instead on its pleasurable aspects and the long-term rewards.
“Future research is needed in order to empirically back our proposal that preplanning, prearranging, and, and controlled consciousness may aid overcoming the activation energy and transition costs that stand in the way of our true happiness,” the researchers said.
