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Happiness is contagious, researchers reported on Thursday.
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Happiness is contagious, researchers reported on Thursday.
The same team that demonstrated obesity and smoking spread in networks has shown that the more happy people you know, the more likely you are yourself to be happy.
And getting connected to happy people improves a person's own happiness, they reported in the British Medical Journal.
"What we are dealing with is an emotional stampede," Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a telephone interview.
Christakis and James Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, have been using data from 4,700 children of volunteers in the Framingham Heart Study, a giant health study begun in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1948.
They have been analyzing a trove of facts from tracking sheets dating back to 1971, following births, marriages, death, and divorces. Volunteers also listed contact information for their closest friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
They assessed happiness using a simple, four-question test.
"People are asked how often during the past week, one, I enjoyed life, two, I was happy, three, I felt hopeful about the future, and four, I felt that I was just as good as other people," Fowler said.
The 60 percent of people who scored highly on all four questions were rated as happy, while the rest were designated unhappy.
People with the most social connections -- friends, spouses, neighbors, relatives -- were also the happiest, the data showed. "Each additional happy person makes you happier," Christakis said.
And happiness is more contagious than unhappiness, they discovered.
"If a social contact is happy, it increases the likelihood that you are happy by 15 percent," Fowler said. "A friend of a spouse or a sibling, if they are happy, increases your chances by 10 percent," he added.
A happy third-degree friend -- a friend of a friend -- increases a person's chances of being happy by 6 percent.
"But every extra unhappy friend increases the likelihood that you'll be unhappy by 7 percent," Fowler said.
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(Agencies)
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研究人員于上周四發布研究報告稱，快樂也會傳染。
該研究小組發現，你周圍的人越快樂，你也會越快樂。此前該研究小組發現肥胖和吸煙會傳染。
研究人員在《英國醫學期刊》上發表的研究報告中稱，與快樂的人在一起，你自己也會更快樂。
位于波士頓的哈佛醫學院的醫藥社會學教授尼古拉斯?克里斯塔克斯在接受一個電話采訪時說：“這是一個情緒感染的問題。”
克里斯塔克斯教授和加州大學圣地亞哥分校的政治科學家詹姆斯?福勒對參與“弗明漢心臟研究”的4700名兒童志愿者的數據進行了分析。“弗明翰心臟研究”規模宏大，創始于1948年馬薩諸塞州的弗明翰市。
研究人員對1971年至今的跟蹤調查資料進行了分析，其中包括研究對象的出生、婚姻、死亡和離異等信息。研究對象還列出了他們最親密的朋友、同事及鄰居的聯系信息。
研究人員通過一個簡單的“四問測試”來評估研究對象的快樂程度。
福勒說：“我們的問題是，在過去一周內，以下四種情緒出現的頻率？1享受生活 2 我很快樂；3 對未來充滿希望 4 感覺和別人一樣好。”
其中有60%的研究對象對所有四個問題的打分都很高，這些人被評定為“快樂”，其他人則被評定為不快樂。
調查數據顯示，社會關系最廣泛的人同時也最快樂，這些人與朋友、配偶、鄰居和親戚的聯系都較為密切。克里斯塔克斯說：“你身邊多一個快樂的人，你就多一份快樂。”
研究人員還發現，快樂比不快樂更易“傳染”。
福勒說：“如果你的直接社交對象很快樂，你快樂的幾率會增加15%。如果你配偶或兄弟姐妹的朋友很快樂，你快樂的幾率會增加10%。”
如果你的第三層社交圈，如朋友的朋友很快樂，那么你快樂的幾率會增加6%。
福勒說：“但每多一個不快樂的朋友，你不快樂的幾率會增加7%。”
（實習生許雅寧 英語點津 姍姍 編輯）
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