Scientists who study happiness have evidence to show that being kind to others can result in happiness. Acts as simple as buying a cup of coffee for someone can lift a person’s mood for example. Everyday life is full of chances for such actions, yet people do not always make the most of them.
研究幸福的科学家有证据表明，善待他人会带来幸福。例如，为某人买一杯咖啡这样简单的行为可以提升一个人的情绪。日常生活中充满了这样做的机会，但人们并不总是充分利用这些机会。
In studies, behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley and I examined a possible explanation: people who do kind acts underestimate how much the ones receiving kindness value their behavior.
在研究中，行为科学家Nicholas Epley和我研究了一种可能的解释：执行善意行为的人低估了接受善意的人对他们行为的重视程度。
In the experiments, about 1, 000 people were asked to do some actions to make someone else feel good. We asked both the person performing the kind act and the one receiving it to answer some questions. The performers were asked to report their own experience and to guess how the receivers might feel. We wanted to understand how valuable people considered these acts to be, so both the performer and receiver had to rate how “big” the act seemed. In all cases, we compared the performer’s expectations of the receiver’s mood with the receiver’s actual experience.
在实验中，约1000人被要求做一些动作来让别人感觉良好。我们请执行这种善意行为的人和接受这种行为的人回答一些问题。要求执行者报告他们自己的经历，并猜测接受者的感受。我们想了解人们认为这些行为有多大价值，所以执行者和接受者都必须给行为看起来的“大”价值评分。在所有情况下，我们都将执行者对接受者情绪的期望与接受者的实际体验进行了比较。
For one, both performers and receivers experienced more positive moods. For another, the receivers felt much better than the kind performers expected. The receivers also rated these acts as “bigger” than the people performing them did.
首先，执行者和接受者都体验到了更积极的情绪。另一方面，接受者的感觉比善良的执行者预期的要好得多。而且，接受者评价这些行为要比执行者评价这些行为“更大”。
At first, we studied acts of the kindness done for familiar people, such as friends, classmates or family. But we found that performers underestimated their positive influences on strangers as well. In one experiment, performers in a public park gave away hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day to people that just happened to be nearby. Again, the kind act brought more happiness than the performers expected.
起初，我们研究的是为熟悉的人，如朋友、同学或家人所做的善举。但我们发现，执行者也低估了他们对陌生人的积极影响。在一个实验中，执行者寒冷的冬日里在公园向碰巧在附近的人赠送热巧克力。同样，善意的行为带来的快乐超出执行者的预期。
These findings suggest that what might seem small could matter a great deal to the person we do it for. Considering these warm actions can improve our own mood and brighten the day of another person, why not choose kindness when we can?
这些发现表明，看似微小的事情对我们做这件事的人来说可能意义重大。考虑到这些温暖的举动可以改善我们自己的情绪，让他人的一天变得明亮，为什么不在可能的时候选择善意呢？
