better off 更好
Hell might actually be other people — at least if you're really smart.
如果你真的很聪明，那么其他人就是你的地狱。
That's the implication of fascinating new research published last month in the British Journal of Psychology. Evolutionary psychologists Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Norman Li of Singapore Management University dig into the question of what makes a life well-lived. While traditionally the domain of priests, philosophers and novelists, in recent years survey researchers, economists, biologists and scientists have been tackling that question.
implication n. 意义
fascinating adj. 引人入胜的
journal n. 报刊
evolutionary adj. 发展的，进化的
revolutionary adj. 革命性的
dig into 深入研究
tackle vt. 处理
domain n. 领域， 范畴
priest n. 牧师 祭司
philosopher n. 哲学家
英国心理学杂志上个月发布了一项最新研究，指出了上面的观点。英国经济学校的进化心理学家Satoshi Kanazawa与新加坡管理大学的Norman Li深入研究了一个命题：是什么让生命被有意义地度过？虽然传统意义上这个问题属于牧师、哲学家和小说家的范畴，可是近年来的研究中，经济学家，生物学家和科学家已经在处理这个问题。
Kanazawa and Li theorize that the hunter-gatherer lifestyles of our ancient ancestors form the foundation for what make us happy now. "Situations and circumstances that would have increased our ancestors’ life satisfaction in the ancestral environment may still increase our life satisfaction today," they write.
theorize vt. 构建理论
hunter-gatherer lifestyles 狩猎采集的生活方式
circumstance n. 情况
Kanazawa 和 Li 构建了一套理论：人类远古祖先采用的狩猎采集的生活方式形成了现代人感觉快乐的基础。他们写下这样的话：那些增加了我们祖先生活满意度的情景和状况也会还是会增加现代人的生活满意度。
They use what they call "the savanna theory of happiness" to explain two main findings from an analysis of a large national survey (15,000 respondents) of adults aged 18 to 28.
savanna：热带草原
respondent n. 受访者
他们使用了一种被他们称作“大草原快乐理论”的概念来解释两个主要的发现，这两个主要的发现来自于一次大规模的国家调查，有15000名年龄在18到28岁的成年人参与。
First, they find that people who live in more densely populated areas tend to report less satisfaction with their life overall. "The higher the population density of the immediate environment, the less happy" the survey respondents said they were. Second, they find that the more social interactions with close friends a person has, the greater their self-reported happiness.
densely：稠密地，浓密地
life overall 整体生活
第一，他们发现生活在人口越稠密地区的人们对整体生活的满意度越低。调查的受访者表示：“及时环境的人口密度越高，他们越不开心”。
第二，他们发现一个人与亲密好友的社交互动越频繁，他们就越开心。
But there was one big exception. For more intelligent people, these correlations were diminished or even reversed.
diminish：减少，减小
reverse：逆转，颠倒
correlation n. 相关性
但这里有一个大的反常：对于越是高智商的人群，这个相关性是减弱甚至颠倒的。
"The effect of population density on life satisfaction was therefore more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals," they found. And "more intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently."
他们发现：对于低智商人群而言，人口密度效应对于生活满意度的影响比高智商人群多两倍。更加聪明的人们，如果他们与朋友社交过去频繁，他们是更加不满意的。
Let me repeat that last one: When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.
让我重复一下最后一条：当聪明的人与朋友度过更多的时间，这会让他们不快乐。
Now, the broad contours of both findings are largely uncontroversial. A large body of previous research, for instance, has outlined what some have called an "urban-rural happiness gradient." Kanazawa and Li explain: "Residents of rural areas and small towns are happier than those in suburbs, who in turn are happier than those in small central cities, who in turn are happier than those in large central cities."
broad contours 大的轮廓
largely uncontroversial 很大程度上是没有正义的
urban-rural 城乡
gradient n. 梯度
suburb n. 郊区
resident n. 居民
现在，这两个发现大的轮廓在很大程度上是没有争议的。例如，之前研究的大部分案例已经勾勒出一个被一些人称作“城乡幸福梯度”。Kanazawa 和 Li解释道：生活在乡村和小镇上的居民比生活在郊区的居民幸福，生活在郊区的居民比生活在小的中心城市的居民幸福，生活在小的中心城市的居民比生活在大的中心城市的居民幸福。
Urban rural happiness gradient
城乡幸福梯度
Why would high population density cause a person to be less happy? There's a whole body of sociological research addressing this question. But for the most visceral demonstration of the effect, simply take a 45-minute ride on a crowded rush-hour Red Line train and tell me how you feel afterward.
visceral n. 内脏
demonstration n. 示范
rush-hour 高峰期
为什么高人口密度会造成低幸福感？有一整套社会学研究涉及这个问题。可是对这一效应最直观的示范，仅仅是在拥挤的高峰期搭乘一班45分钟的红线或者，回来告诉我你的感受即可。
Kanazawa and Li's second finding is a little more interesting. It's no surprise that friend and family connections are generally seen as a foundational component of happiness and well-being. But why would this relationship get turned on its head for really smart people?
turned on its head：彻底改变，完全颠覆
Kanazawa 和 Li的第二个发现更加有趣。毫无疑问地，朋友和家庭的连接通常被看做幸福和福祉的基本组成部分。可是为什么这些关系对于聪明的人们会完全颠覆？
Report: Denmark world's happiest country Embed Share Play Video1:07
A United Nation's report ranking the world's happiest countries puts Denmark at the top, and Burundi at the bottom of the 157 country list. (Reuters)
I posed this question to Carol Graham, a Brookings Institution researcher who studies the economics of happiness. "The findings in here suggest (and it is no surprise) that those with more intelligence and the capacity to use it ... are less likely to spend so much time socializing because they are focused on some other longer term objective," she said.
Reuters 路透社
报告：丹麦的世界上最幸福国家Embed分享播放视频1：07.
来自路透社的消息：一份来自联合国的报告排列了世界上幸福指数最高的国家，其中，丹麦排到了榜首，布隆迪排在了157个国家的末尾。
我把这个问题发给了Carol Graham, 他在布鲁金斯学会研究幸福经济学。她说：您的发现中好不惊喜地指出那些更聪明或者更有能力的人不喜欢花太多的时间咋社交上因为他们要专注于更加长远的目标。
Think of the really smart people you know. They may include a doctor trying to cure cancer or a writer working on the great American novel or a human rights lawyer working to protect the most vulnerable people in society. To the extent that frequent social interaction detracts from the pursuit of these goals, it may negatively affect their overall satisfaction with life.
vulnerable adj. 弱势的
cure vt. 治愈
To the extent that 到了...的程度
detract from 减损
pursuit n. 追求，追赶
站在你认识的聪明人的角度想一想。他们中可能有一位努力攻克癌症的医生，一位写着题材为伟大美利坚的作家，一位保护社会中最弱势群体的人权律师。频繁的社交活动已经到了会影响他们事业进度的程度，这或许会产生对于整体生活满意度的福满效果。
But Kanazawa and Li's savanna theory of happiness offers a different explanation. The idea starts with the premise that the human brain evolved to meet the demands of our ancestral environment on the African savanna, where the population density was akin to what you'd find today in, say, rural Alaska (less than one person per square kilometer). Take a brain evolved for that environment, plop it into today's Manhattan (population density: 27,685 people per square kilometer), and you can see how you'd get some evolutionary friction.
premise：前提
be akin to 类似于
friction n. 摩擦
然而，Kanazawa 和 Li的大草原幸福理论提供了另外一种解释；这个观点依赖于一个前提：人类大脑演化为满足非洲大草原上远古环境的需求，在那里人口密度类似于今天的阿拉斯加乡村，每平方公里少于1人。拿一个适应于那个环境的大脑，丢在今天每平方公里27,685人的曼哈顿地区，可以想象将会产生多少进化的摩擦。
Similarly with friendship: "Our ancestors lived as hunter–gatherers in small bands of about 150 individuals," Kanazawa and Li explain. "In such settings, having frequent contact with lifelong friends and allies was likely necessary for survival and reproduction for both sexes." We remain social creatures today, a reflection of that early reliance on tight-knit social groups.
ally n. 盟友
creature n. 生物
reliance 依赖
与友谊相似，Kanazawa 和 Li 解释道：我们的祖先生活在采用狩猎采集方式大概150人左右的小部落，以这个配置，拥有终生频繁联系的朋友和盟友对于生存和两性繁衍都是必要的。现在我们依然是社交生物，一个证据就是早期依赖严密的社会团体。
The typical human life has changed rapidly since then — back on the savanna we didn't have cars or iPhones or processed food or "Celebrity Apprentice" — and it's quite possible that our biology hasn't been able to evolve fast enough to keep up. As such, there may be a "mismatch" between what our brains and bodies are designed for, and the world most of us live in now.
typical adj. 典型的
processed food 加工过的食物
Celebrity Apprentice 名人学徒
as such 因此
mismatch 不匹配
从草原生活算起，典型的人类生活已经发生了剧烈的改变，于是很有可能我们的身体还没有足够快地演化来更上生活的变化。草原时代的生活中人们没有汽车，没有iPhone，没有加工过的食物，也没有“名人学徒”。因此，我们的大脑和身体被设计的方式可能与多数人所生活的环境不匹配。
To sum it all up: You've heard of the paleo-diet. But are you ready for paleo-happiness?
To sum it all up 总结一下
paleo-diet 古代饮食
总结一下：你听过说古代的饮食，但你准备好体验一下古代的快乐吗？
There's a twist, though, at least as Kanazawa and Li see it. Smarter people may be better equipped to deal with the new (at least from an evolutionary perspective) challenges present-day life throws at us. "More intelligent individuals, who possess higher levels of general intelligence and thus greater ability to solve evolutionarily novel problems, may face less difficulty in comprehending and dealing with evolutionarily novel entities and situations," they write.
There is a twist 有一个转折点
an evolutionary perspective 演化的角度
possess vt. 具备
present day 今天，如今
novel adj. 新奇的
comprehend vt. 理解
尽管，至少在Kanazawa 和 Li 看来，存在一个转折点。聪明的人更善于处理今天的生活抛给我们的新的挑战，至少站在进化的角度。他们还写到：越是高智商的人群在理解和解决演化带来的新奇概念和情景时会面临更少的困难，毕竟他们拥有更高的智力水平因此也具备更强的能力来解决演化的新奇问题。
If you're smarter and more able to adapt to things, you may have an easier time reconciling your evolutionary predispositions with the modern world. So living in a high-population area may have a smaller effect on your overall well-being — that's what Kanazawa and Li found in their survey analysis. Similarly, smarter people may be better-equipped to jettison that whole hunter-gatherer social network — especially if they're pursuing some loftier ambition.
reconcile vt. 调和
predisposition n. 倾向
reconcile：调和，使和解
lofty adj. 崇高的
ambition n. 志向 野心
similarly 同样
familiar adj. 熟悉的
jettison vt. 拒绝接受
如果你更加聪明并且更善于适应环境，你可能就可以轻易地调和进化倾向于现代世界的关系。所以，生活在高人口密度地区对于高智商人群的整体福祉只有很小的影响，尤其是这些人还在追求很崇高的志向。这些就是Kanazawa和Li在他们的调查分析中发现的。同样的，更聪明的人们也会更加擅长拒绝接受来自狩猎采集时代的整个社交网络。
It's important to remember that this is an argument Kanazawa and Li are proposing and that it's not settled science. "Paleo-" theories — the idea that our bodies are best adapted to the environment of our earliest ancestors — have come under fire in recent years, especially as food companies and some researchers over-hyped the alleged benefits of the paleo-diet fad.
argument n. 论据
propose vi. 建议
be settled science 有科学定论
under fire 收到攻击
over-hyped 过度炒作
alleged adj. 所谓的
fad n. 时尚
以上观点只是作为一个论据，还没有科学定论。我们的身体最适应远古祖先的环境这套观点近几年受到了攻击，尤其是一些食品公司和一些研究人员过度炒作远古饮食风尚的所谓好处。
Kanazawa and Li's main findings about population density, social interaction and happiness are relatively uncontroversial. But Brookings's Carol Graham says one potential flaw in their research is that it defines happiness in terms of self-reported life satisfaction ("How satisfied are you with your life as a whole?"), and doesn't consider experienced well-being ("How many times did you laugh yesterday? How many times were you angry?" etc.). Survey researchers know that these two types of questions can lead to very different assessments of well-being.
flaw n. 缺陷
assessment n. 评估
Kanazawa 和 Li 关于人口密度、社交与快乐关系的主要发现是相对没有争议的。可来自布鲁金斯学会的Carol Graham说他们的研究有一个潜在的缺陷：研究中把幸福定义为自我生活满意度，而没有考虑到幸福的经历。研究者明白两种问题可以导致非常不同的幸福评估结果。
For their part, Kanazawa and Li maintain that that distinction doesn't matter too much for their savanna theory. "Even though our empirical analyses ... used a measure of global life satisfaction, the savanna theory of happiness is not committed to any particular definition and is compatible with any reasonable conception of happiness, subjective well-being, and life satisfaction," they write.
maintain vt. 维护，坚持
distinction n. 分别
empirical adj. 经验的
compatible adj. 兼容的
subjective well-being 主观幸福感
对于他们来说，Kanazawa和Li维护到：那个分别并不会对他们的理论影响多少。景观我们经验性的分析以全球的生活满意度为测量标准。可是大草原幸福理论并没有限制在任何一个特定的概念上，而且它与其他任何合理的幸福观念、主观幸福感以及生活都是兼容的。
Kanazawa himself is no stranger to controversy. In 2011, he wrote a blog post for Psychology Today entitled "Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?" The post ignited a firestorm of criticism and was swiftly taken down.
controversy n. 争议
ignite vt. 点燃
criticism n. 批判
Kanazawa对于争议并不陌生。早在2011年，他就写下一篇明为“为什么黑人女性更没有吸引力？”的博客到今日心理学上。那片博客点燃了一场批判的风暴又迅速封尘。
His current research on well-being is not likely to generate as much criticism as that blog post. But the evolutionary perspective on happiness and intelligence is likely to prompt some heated discussion in the field.
这一次他关于幸福的研究并没有像前面那篇文章一样招致很多批判。可是关于幸福和智慧的演化论的观点可能会导致这个领域更加热烈的讨论。
In an email, Kanazawa said that his approach to understanding happiness is fundamentally different than the arguments about, say, the benefits of a paleo-diet. "Blindly introducing our ancestors’ diet when we do not have other aspects of the ancestral life seems like a dangerous and nonsensical prescription to me," he said.
fundamentally adv. 从根本上
approach n. 途径，方法
aspect n. 方面
nonsensical adj. 无厘头
prescription n. 药剂，处方
在一封电子邮件中，Kanazawa说他对于快乐的理解方式从根本上就与古代饮食的好处不同。他说：在不了解生活其他方面就盲目地推崇祖先的饮食习惯对我来说是一剂危险和荒诞的处方。
"I only explain nature; I do not tell people what to do or not to do," he added.
我只是试图解释自然，我没有告诉人们做什么和不做什么。
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