Charles Dickens’ classic "A Christmas Carol" paints a picture of stark contrasts. The impoverished Cratchit family share love and joy, while Ebenezer Scrooge is wealthy, cold and "solitary as an oyster."

　　查尔斯·狄更斯的经典小说《圣诞颂歌》描绘了这样一个鲜明的对比。贫穷的克拉奇蒂家族分享着爱和欢乐，而埃比尼泽·斯克鲁奇则富有、寒冷，“像牡蛎一样孤独”。

　　People at the lower end of the income scale take more pleasure in their relationships and enjoy caring for and connecting with others, according to a study published Monday in the journal?Emotion.

　　周一发表在《情感》报刊上的一个研究发现，收入较低的人们更喜欢处理好他们的人际关系，喜欢关心他人并与他人联系。

　　By contrast, the positive emotions experienced by people with higher incomes are mainly focused on themselves, the research suggests.

　　研究表明，相比之下，高收入人群的正面情绪则主要集中在自己身上。

　　People who are poorer are more reliant on others to get by, said Paul Piff, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine.

　　该研究的主要作者、加州大学欧文分校的心理学和社会行为助理教授保罗·皮夫说:“贫穷的人更依赖他人。”

　　"They really prioritize relationships because of their reduced resources, and so they are more likely to really focus on emotions that bind them to one another and find satisfaction and delight in relationships through compassion and love."

　　“因为他们缺少资源，所以他们真的把关系摆在首位，所以他们更有可能把注意力集中到彼此相连的情感上，通过同情和爱找到满足和快乐。”

　　For the study, Piff and his co-author, Jake P. Moskowitz, a graduate student at UC Irvine, surveyed more than 1,500 Americans ranging from 24 to 93 years old.

　　对于这项研究，皮夫和他的合著者，加州大学欧文分校研究生杰克·P·莫斯科维茨调查了1500多名美国人，年龄从24岁到93岁不等。

　　The questions were designed to measure the magnitude of seven emotions experienced each day: amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, enthusiasm, love and pride. Previous research suggests these seven separate feelings are the underlying individual components of general positive emotion.

　　他们的问题旨在衡量每天经历的七种情绪的大小：娱乐，敬畏，同情，满足，热情，爱和骄傲。以前的研究表明，这七种不同的感受是一般积极情绪的基本组成部分。

　　Participants rated their agreement with statements such as: "My life is full of wonder," "Nurturing others gives me a warm feeling inside," and "I get great pleasure from pursuing my goals."

　　参与者对如“我的人生充满了奇迹”，“培养他人给我一种温暖的感觉”，“我为实现自己的目标而感到高兴”等表述表示赞同。

　　As Piff explained, other studies tend to ask the very broad question, "How happy are you?"

　　就像皮夫解释的那样，其他的研究往往会提出一个非常宽泛的问题：“你有多开心?

　　For the new study, "We break happiness down into all of its emotional components: all the different kinds of positive emotions we want to experience on a daily basis," he said.

　　但对于这项新的研究，他说：“我们把幸福分解成所有的情绪成分：我们每天都要经历的所有不同种类的积极情绪。”

　　Next, Piff and Moskowitz created statistical models and then analyzed the relationship between income and each of the seven different emotions underpinning happiness.

　　接下来，皮夫和莫斯科维茨创建了统计模型，然后分析了收入与支撑幸福的七种不同情绪中的每一种之间的关系。

　　"As income increases, as you rise in the rankings of household income, your tendencies -- or daily experiences -- of pride, amusement, contentment go up, and your experience of compassion and love and awe go down," Piff said. Enthusiasm was the one emotion unaffected by wealth, with both rich and poor experiencing the same level.

　　“随着收入的增加，你的家庭收入排名上升，你的骄傲，快乐，满足的倾向 -或者说你的日常经历会上升，你的同情，爱心和敬畏感会下降。”皮夫说。热情则是一种不受财富影响的情感，无论贫富都处于同一水平。

　　There are reasons for expecting wealth and income to shape certain emotions, noted Piff.

　　皮夫指出，人们有理由期待财富和收入能影响某些情绪。

　　"Wealth makes you less reliant on other people," he said. "Because of that, you’re more likely to kind of focus on emotions that make you feel independent and different from other people -- things that make you stand out.

　　他说：“财富使你不那么依赖别人。因此，你更有可能把注意力放在让你感觉独立和不同于其他人的情绪上，那些让你脱颖而出的事情。

　　"But of course these aren’t absolute differences; it’s not the case that wealthy people don’t feel any compassion or any love," Piff said. "It’s just that wealth sort of buffers you from experiencing as much of it as perhaps you should or as other people do."

　　当然，这些并不是绝对的差异，富人并不是感受不到任何的同情或爱心，”皮夫说，“只是财富会让你在经历和别人一样的历程时得到缓冲。”

　　David G. Blanchflower, a professor of economics at Dartmouth, said he was "unimpressed" with the study. Blanchflower, who did not participate in the research, questioned the focus of the study and said it was "unclear what it actually finds."

　　达特茅斯大学经济学教授戴维·G·布兰奇弗劳尔说，他对这项研究“没有印象”。布兰奇福劳没有参与这项研究，他对这项研究的重点提出了质疑，并表示“目前还不清楚它究竟发现了什么。”

　　"There is a very large literature showing happiness and life satisfaction is related to income," he said. One example is this study that found higher income increases access to social support, self-esteem and opportunities and so enhances happiness.

　　他说：“非常多的文献表明幸福感和生活满意度与收入有关。例如，一项研究发现，较高的收入增加了获得社会支持，自尊和机会，从而增强了幸福感。

　　However, Piff questions whether wealth is "unequivocally" linked to increased happiness.

　　然而，皮夫质疑财富是否“明确地”与增加的快乐联系在一起。

　　The emotions that contribute most to a sense of well-being and actual health are the emotions that bind you to other people: compassion, love and gratitude, he said. These are the connective glue between people.

　　他说，最能让人感到幸福和健康的情感是将你与他人联系在一起的情感:同情、爱和感激。这是人与人之间的纽带。

　　"It’s our ability to be social that is so important to our well-being and our vitality as individuals and as a species," Piff said.

　　皮夫说:“作为个体和物种，我们的社会能力对我们的幸福和活力非常重要。”

　　The holiday season gets "people to think about the larger communities that they’re a part of and the important people in their lives," he noted. But sometimes we think, "If only we could have more money!" Then, we believe, we could get all the things we want and achieve all those things we think are meaningful or important, he explained.

　　他指出，假日季让“人们去思考那些更大的群体，他们也是这个群体中的一部分，也是群体中的重要人物。”但有时我们会想，“要是我们能有更多的钱就好了!”他解释说:“然后，我们相信，我们可以得到所有我们想要的东西，并实现那些我们认为有意义或重要的事情。”

　　"Even in the absence of wealth, you can still extract all kinds of meaning and all kinds of happiness and all kinds of joy by reminding yourself and surrounding yourself with all the people you love," Piff said.

　　皮夫说:“即使在没有财富的情况下，你仍然可以通过提醒自己和周围的人，从所有你爱的人身上提取出各种各样的意义，各种各样的快乐。”

　　"The ability to experience a kind of rich tapestry of these different positive emotions is vital to well-being."

　　“体验一种丰富多彩且不尽相同的正面情绪的能力对幸福至关重要。”