Science finds money can buy happiness, if you spend it right.
科学发现如果花对了，钱确实可以买到快乐。
Despite decades of people telling us that money can't buy happiness ("it's all about the experiences!"), researchers have found new evidence that spending actually can make our lives a whole lot better - as long as you buy the right things.
尽管很多人告诉我们说钱可以买到快乐（全部是经验之谈），研究人员发现新证据表明消费确实可以让我们的生活变得更好，只要你买了对的东西。
So what should you purchase in order to bring yourself some much-needed joy? The scientists looked at nearly 77,000 bank transactions in the UK, and found that people who spend money on purchases that suited their personality traits were more satisfied with life.
那么为了给自己创造必要的快乐，你究竟应该买什么呢？科学家调查了英国将近77000张银行交易单，发现那些把钱花在适合自己个性特点东西上的人对生活更满意。
That sounds pretty obvious, but this is one of the first studies to show that spending money on ourselves - and not just giving it away - can actually make us happier, if we do it right.
听起来是十分显而易见的，但是这仅仅是其中一个研究显示在自己身上花钱（不只把钱花出去）可以使我们更开心，如果做得恰当的话。
"Historically, studies had found a weak relationship between money and overall wellbeing," said lead researcher Joe Gladstone from the University of Cambridge. "Our study breaks new ground by mining actual bank-transaction data and demonstrating that spending can increase our happiness when it is spent on goods and services that fit our personalities and so meet our psychological needs."
“历史上的研究发现了钱和幸福之间比较微弱的关系，”剑桥大学的首席研究员乔·格莱斯顿说。我们的研究开辟了新天地，通过挖掘实际的银行交易数据，证明当我们花钱购买那些契合我们个性和满足我们心理需求的商品和服务的时候，支出会增加我们的幸福感。
But in order to unlock the benefits of spending money, you first need to understand yourself.
但是，为了解锁消费的益处，你必须首先要了解你自己。
In the study, the researchers worked with a major bank and convinced 625 anonymous participants to take a test that measured how strong they were in the 'Big Five' personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
在研究当中，研究学者们与一大银行进行合作，确定了625名匿名参与者，让他们参加一个测试，看他们在五大个性特点中的占比问题，这五大个性特点是：开放、尽责、外向、亲和、神经质。
They also asked them to take a life satisfaction questionnaire, and looked at their bank transaction data over a six-month period to see what they were spending on. Almost 77,000 transactions were broken down into categories associated with personality traits.
他们也要求参与者做一份生活满意度调查表，调查了他们近六个月的银行交易水单中的消费明细。将近77000份银行交易单根据他们的个性特点被分类。
You can see an example of those categories below, and where they fall in each personality trait (either low or high). And believe it or not, some personality types out there don't mind spending their money on traffic fines:
下面是分类的例子，以及他们具体在那一类别里（或高或低）。不管你信与不信，具有某些个性的人确实不在乎把钱花到交通罚单上面。
The researchers found that not only did people spend more money on things linked to their strong personality traits - for example, extraverts spent on average US$73 more per year on pub nights than introverts.
研究人员发现人们不仅仅将钱花在和其个性特点相关的事情上面，比如，外向性格比内向性格的人每年平均多花费73美金在夜店里。
Not only that, but life satisfaction was more closely tied to those 'personality appropriate' purchases, rather than total income or total spending - so it wasn't just that these people were enjoying more money, it was what they were spending it on making all the difference.
不止这些，生活满意度也与那些“性格合适”的花费紧密联系，而不是总收入或者是总支出。因此，让人幸福的并不仅仅是有很多金钱，而是花钱让生活发生改变。
The team backed this up with a second experiment that involved giving people one of two vouchers: either to spend at a bar, or to spend at a bookshop. The extroverts who were forced to spend their vouchers at a bar were happier than introverts, while the introverts were more satisfied than the extroverts when they spent the book voucher.
研究团队为了加以佐证而进行了第二个试验，试验有两类人参与，分别给予一类人酒吧的抵用券，另外一类人书店的抵用券。那些被迫在酒吧消费抵用券的外向型人比内向型人要快乐很多，而那些在书店消费抵用券的内向型人比外向型的人也感觉到更满意。
Although the research hands down some pretty great advice for all of us - think about how what you're about to buy fits your personality traits before you spend - the scientists also hope it could one day help online retailers make better suggestions.
尽管此项研究为我们总结出了一些非常好的建议，即在消费之前你如何思考购买适合你的个性特征的东西，科学家也希望此项研究在某天可以帮在线零售商提出更好的建议。
"By developing a more nuanced understanding of the links between spending and happiness, we hope to be able to provide more personalised advice on how to find happiness through the little consumption choices we make every day,"
通过更深入地了解消费和幸福感之间的关系，我们希望能够提供关于怎么通过每天的小小消费选择来寻找快乐的更为个性化的建议。
After all, money does make the world go round.
归根结底，有钱能使鬼推磨呀~~
（来源;沪江英语）
