What makes you happy? You may want to answer that spending time with your family, taking a vacation or driving a new sports car makes you happy but the key to happiness may be altruism. Helping others may actually improve your happiness.
According to Time Magazine, the greatest thinkers in the world have suggested that true happiness is found in helping others and now there is scientific research from a team of psychologists at the University of Missouri-Columbia to prove it.
While Americans are guaranteed (保证) the pursuit (追求) of happiness in their Declaration of Independence, it is usually referring to individual rights and is self-serving (自私的). The researchers led by Liudmila Titova and Kenno n Sheldon looked at whether pursuing happiness for others will actually make people happier. They found that it does.
Two experiments were conducted by the team, according to Psychology Today. The first experiment asked participants to recall (回忆) a time that they tried to make themselves or another person happy. They were asked to write about the event and rate how happy it made them feel. In the second experiment, they were asked to remember a time that they tried to make someone else happy and also write about how it made them feel. This experiment produced a higher rate of happiness than the first.
“The results of these studies include findings from previous research showing that people get improved personal happiness from attempts to make other people happy—an approach that might seem unbelievable for a lot of people at first,” researchers wrote in the study.
But how does the research translate into real life? Find your passion and share your values. Whatever you do, the key is to find an approach that works for you and let it come naturally. Remember that improving happiness is a benefit of helping others and not the goal.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “altruism” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Earning money. | B．Finding happiness. | C．Loving family. | D．Helping others. |
| A．By doing two experiments. | B．By comparing with other researches. |
| C．By showing previous research. | D．By presenting some facts. |
| A．Set a goal for the future. | B．Do something for others. |
| C．Find your passion for work. | D．Sha re your happiness naturally. |
| A．Improving Others’ Happiness Matters | B．Sharing Your Goals Makes You Happy |
| C．Helping Others Could Improve Happiness | D．Improving Happiness Benefits People A Lot |
