Maybe money can't buy happiness. But it can buy status, and status can indeed make us a bit happier.

金钱或许买不到幸福，但能买到地位，而身份地位的确能让我们感到更幸福。

An article in Time describes new research from Chris Boyce, a psychologist at the University of Warwick, and Simon Moore, a psychologist at Cardiff University. The pair sought to understand why societies that became wealthier didn't become collectively happier. After all, rising incomes and wealth made individuals happier, up to a certain point of course.

《时代》杂志的一篇文章描述了华威大学(University of Warwick)的博伊斯(Chris Boyce)和卡迪夫大学(Cardiff University)的摩尔(Simon Moore)这两位心理学家的最新研究。二人试图了解为什么更加富裕的社会却没有实现集体幸福感的增强。毕竟，收入和财富的增加会在一定程度上让一个人更幸福。

So the researchers decided to dig deeper into what is called the “reference-income hypothesis,” a fancy way of saying that wealth is relative. If an entire country gets richer at the same time, individuals wouldn't necessarily feel wealthier, since their relative positions in society hadn't changed.

因此研究人员决定深入研究所谓的“相对收入假定”。这是说明财富相对论的一种假想方式。如果整个国家同时变得更富裕，个人并不一定会感到更富有，因为他们在社会中的相对地位并未发生改变。

Most people don't compare themselves with an abstract national average. Messrs. Boyce and Moore decided to try to figure out how people compare themselves with their neighbors, colleagues at work or friends from college. The higher their rank, the greater their sense of happiness and self-worth would likely be.

大多数人不会拿自己和抽象的全国平均水平进行比较。博伊斯和摩尔决定设法弄清人们如何拿自己与左邻右舍、工作中的同事或大学时的朋友相比较。他们的排名越高，幸福感和自我价值意识也可能越强。

They found that the person's rank within the comparison set was a stronger predictor of happiness than absolute wealth. “If absolute income matters, as we increased our income, everybody should get happier at a national level, but we don't seem to,” Mr. Boyce said. “So what we are showing is that in terms of life satisfaction, rank is a better predictor than absolute wealth.”

他们发现，人们在比较中的排名比其绝对财富更能预示他的幸福程度。博伊斯说，如果绝对收入与幸福有关，当收入增加时，全国每一个人都应该更幸福，但看来并非如此。因此我们认为，排名比绝对财富更能预示一个人的生活满意度。

The research may help explain why there is much consternation about wealth inequality over the past two decades even though standards of living have improved for many in the lower strata

这一研究可能有助于解释为什么在过去20年间，纵然许多社会低层人员的生活标准也得到改善，人们还是对贫富不均感到如此的恐慌。