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Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.
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Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.
The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 as part of the General Social Survey.
While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.
In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.
The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness.
In fact, people say they like watching television: Past research has shown that when people watch television they enjoy it. In these studies, participants reported that on a scale from 0 (dislike) to 10 (greatly enjoy), TV-watching was nearly an 8.
But perhaps the high from watching television doesn't last.
"These conflicting data suggest that TV may provide viewers with short-run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise," said researcher John Robinson, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In this scenario, even the happiest campers could turn into Debbie-downers if they continue to stare at the boob-tube. The researchers suggest that over time, television-viewing could push out other activities that do have more lasting benefits. Exercise and sex come to mind, as do parties and other forms of socialization known to have psychological benefits.
Or, maybe television is simply a refuge for people who are already unhappy.
"TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it," Robinson and UM colleague Steven Martin write in the December issue of the journal Social Indicators Research.
They add, "Furthermore, chronic unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating and can interfere with work and most social and personal activities, but even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV."
The researchers say follow-up studies are needed to tease out the relationship between television and happiness.
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(Agencies)
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上周四公布的一項研究結果顯示，不快樂的人看電視的時間比快樂的人多30%。
該研究結果根據1975年至2006年間的一項針對美國近3萬名成年人的調查得出，該調查為“社會綜合調查”的其中一部分。
調查結果顯示，快樂的人平均每周看電視的時間為19個小時，而不快樂的人平均每周看電視長達25個小時。該研究同時考慮了調查對象的受教育程度、收入、年齡和婚姻狀況。
此外，與不快樂的人相比，快樂的人在社交方面更為活躍，他們更愛參加宗教活動和投票選舉等社會活動，并且更愛閱讀。
但目前研究人員還不確定究竟是不快樂導致人們更愛看電視，還是看電視過多導致人們不快樂。
事實上，人們還是很喜歡看電視的。此前的研究表明，人們在看電視時覺得很享受。在這些研究中，測試者要求研究對象對自己看電視時的感受進行打分，最低0分（代表厭惡），最高10分（特別享受）。結果顯示，愛看電視的人打分接近8分。
也許是看電視所帶來的快樂感并不能持久。
馬里蘭大學帕克分校的社會學家約翰?魯賓遜說：“這些互相矛盾的數據表明，看電視可能會給人帶來短暫的愉悅感，但代價就是長期的精神萎靡。”
由此說來，即使很快樂人的人整天盯著電視看也會變得情緒低落。研究人員稱看電視時間過長會擠掉從事其它能帶來持久快樂感的活動的時間，比如體育鍛煉、性生活以及派對等有利于身心的社交活動。
或許，對于那些已經感到不快樂的人來說，電視只是個“庇護所”。
魯賓遜和他的同事史蒂文?馬丁在研究報告中寫道：“看電視不需要判斷，也沒什么難度，所以適合不擅長社交或者缺乏社交資源的人。” 研究報告將在12月出版的《社會指數研究》上發表。
“此外，長期郁悶會導致個人和社會能力下降，影響工作及其他社會和個人活動。但即使很不快樂的人一拿出遙控器，也能被電視中的節目所感染。”
研究人員稱他們將開展進一步研究以理清看電視與快樂之間的關系。
（實習生許雅寧 英語點津 姍姍 編輯）
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