Put down the remote and back slowly away from the television.

    Despite the sharp rise in our standard of living in recent decades, Americans today are little or no happier than earlier generations. Why not?

    A new study suggests one possibility: Maybe we need to be smarter about how we spend our time. And, no, that doesn't mean watching more TV.

    -- Feeling unpleasant. You can think of your happiness as having three components. First, there's your basic disposition -- whether you are, by nature, a happy person or not. Clearly, there isn't a whole lot you can do about this.

    Second, there are your life's circumstances, such as your age, health, marital status and income. Often, this stuff isn't nearly as important as folks imagine. If your income doubled, you would initially be delighted. But research suggests you would quickly get used to all that extra money.

    That brings us to the third factor, which is how you spend your time -- something you have a fair amount of control over. This is the subject of a major new study by academics Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwarz and Arthur Stone.

    For the study, the five professors surveyed some 4,000 Americans, asking what they did the previous day and then quizzing them in detail about three randomly selected events from the day. Those surveyed were asked to rate the three episodes based on feelings such as pain, happiness, stress and sadness. All this was used to calculate what percentage of time people spent in an unpleasant state.

    -- Getting involved. Result? Women, folks under age 65, those divorced or separated, lower-income earners and the less educated were likely to spend a bigger chunk of their day in an unpleasant state.

    But what I found most intriguing was the study's data on which activities we enjoy. The five professors grouped activities into six clusters, based on the emotions associated with each.

    The standout cluster was what the authors label 'engaging leisure and spiritual activities,' things like visiting friends, exercising, attending church, listening to music, fishing, reading a book, sitting in a cafe or going to a party. When we spend time on our favorite of these activities, we're typically happy, engrossed and not especially stressed.

    'These are things you choose to do, rather than have to do,' notes one of the study's co-authors, Prof. Schkade of the University of California, San Diego.

    The obvious implication: If we devote more time to these activities, maybe we would be more satisfied with our lives. Yet the evidence suggests we've missed a huge chance to do just that -- which may help explain why Americans are little or no happier than they were four decades ago.

    -- Zoning out. Over that stretch, men reduced the amount of time they spent working. Meanwhile, women -- as a group -- spent more time earning income, reflecting their increased work-force participation. But this increased time at the office was more than offset by a drop in time devoted to mundane chores.

    In other words, both men and women had the chance to lavish more time on 'engaging leisure and spiritual activities.' But in fact, time spent on these activities has actually declined over the past four decades.

    Instead, there's been a significant increase in the hours devoted to what the authors call 'neutral downtime,' which is mostly watching television. Women now spend 15% of their waking hours staring at the tube, while men devote 17%.

    Watching TV may be low-stress and moderately enjoyable. But people aren't mentally engaged the way they are when they're, say, exercising or socializing.

    'I wonder whether there are self-control problems when it comes to watching television,' muses Prof. Krueger, an economist at Princeton University and another of the study's co-authors. 'I wonder whether people would feel better about their lives if they spent their leisure time doing something that was more interactive and more engaging.'

    放下遙控器，從電視前慢慢地退開。

    盡管近幾十年來美國人的生活水平有了大幅提高，但我們今天并不比祖輩們幸福多少。為什么會這樣呢？

    一項新研究指出了一種可能性：在如何度過空閑時間的問題上，我們或許應該變得更加明智。當然，這并不是說我們要在電視上花更多的時間。

    感覺悶悶不樂。你可以把幸福想成有三個要素組成。首先，是你的基本性格傾向──你是否天生就是樂天派。很明顯，你在這方面所能做的寥寥無幾。

    其次，是你的生活環境，比如你的年齡、健康狀況、婚姻狀況以及收入。這些東西常常不像人們所想的那么重要。如果你的收入增加了一倍，開始的時候你會感到很快樂。不過研究顯示，你很快就會對那部分增加的收入習以為常。

    這樣我們就需要談到第三個要素了，也就是你如何度過你的閑暇時光──在這方面你有較大的控制權。學術界人士丹尼爾•卡尼曼(Daniel Kahneman)、艾倫•克魯格(Alan Krueger)、大衛•施卡德(David Schkade)、諾伯特•施瓦茨(Norbert Schwarz)和亞瑟•斯通(Arthur Stone)進行的一項重要新研究正是以此為主題。

    這五位教授在研究中調查了約4,000名美國人，詢問他們前一天做了什么，然后就其中隨機選取的三件事詢問詳情。調查人員要求受訪者將三件事按照痛苦、快樂、壓力和悲傷等類別進行分類。所有這些都被用來計算人們處于不快樂狀態的時間比例是多少。

    應該從事的活動。結果如何呢？女性、65歲以下的人、離婚或分居人士、低收入者和受教育程度較低的人，他們在一天中處于不快樂狀態的時間比例可能會更大。

    廣告不過這項研究中最吸引我的地方還是對人們所喜歡從事活動的調查。五位教授按照各類活動可能引起的不同情緒將其分為六類。

    多數受訪者最喜歡的一類活動是被作者稱為“吸引人的休閑及精神活動”，比如拜訪朋友、鍛煉身體、參加教會活動、聽音樂、釣魚、看書、坐在咖啡館里或是參加聚會。當我們參加這些自己喜歡的活動時，我們常常是快樂而專注的，不會感到太大壓力。

    該研究報告的作者之一、加州大學圣地亞哥分校(University of California, San Diego)的施卡德教授指出，這些事情都是你選擇去做的，而不是被迫去做的。

    顯而易見，這說明如果我們花更多時間參加這類活動，可能會對自己的生活更加滿意。不過也有證據顯示，我們已經錯失了很多做這些事情的機會，這或許有助于理解為什么美國人并不比40年前更快樂。

    應該避免的活動。過去幾十年中，男性的工作時間減少了，同時女性群體的工作時間增多，這反映出她們越來越多地進入職業領域。不過，女性用于處理家務活的時間也大為減少，幅度甚至超過了她們增加工作的時間。

    這也就是說，男性和女性都有更多的時間從事“吸引人的休閑及精神活動”。可事實上，花在這類活動上的時間在過去40年中卻減少了。

    相反，人們花在被作者稱為“中性停歇”上的時間卻顯著增加了，這主要是指看電視的時間。除睡覺外，女性目前有15%的時間都花在了看電視上，男性則為17%。

    看電視可能沒什么壓力，人也會覺得比較自在。只是與參加鍛煉或是社交活動相比，人們在看電視時精神上不會那么愉悅。

    該研究報告的另一作者、普林斯頓大學(Princeton University)經濟學家克魯格說，他在想人們看電視時是否存在自我控制的問題，他想知道如果人們將閑暇時間花在互動性更高、參與性更強的活動上是否會對生活抱有更好的感覺。