Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Jun;24(6):844-51. doi: 10.1177/0956797612461359. Epub 2013 Apr 4.
People who recall or forecast many pleasant moments should perceive themselves as happier in the past or future than people who generate few such moments; the same principle should apply to generating unpleasant moments and perceiving unhappiness. Five studies suggest that this is not always true. Rather, people's metacognitive experience of ease of thought retrieval ("fluency") can affect perceived well-being over time beyond actual thought content. The easier it is to recall positive past experiences, the happier people think they were at the time; likewise, the easier it is to recall negative past experiences, the unhappier people think they were. But this is not the case for predicting the future. Although people who easily generate positive forecasts predict more future happiness, people who easily generate negative forecasts do not infer future unhappiness. Given pervasive tendencies to underestimate the likelihood of experiencing negative events, people apparently discount hard-to-believe metacognitive feelings (e.g., easily imagined unpleasant futures). Paradoxically, people's well-being may be maximized when they contemplate some bad moments or just a few good moments.
那些能回忆起或预测到很多愉快时刻的人，应该会认为自己过去或未来比那些很少有这种时刻的人更快乐；同样的原则也适用于产生不愉快的时刻和感知不幸福。五项研究表明，事实并非总是如此。相反，人们对思维检索的元认知体验（“流畅性”）的容易程度会影响随着时间的推移对幸福感的感知，而不仅仅是实际的思维内容。回忆积极的过去经历越容易，人们就越认为当时自己越快乐；同样，回忆消极的过去经历越容易，人们就越认为自己当时越不快乐。但对于预测未来，情况并非如此。虽然容易产生积极预测的人预测未来会更快乐，但容易产生消极预测的人并不会推断出未来的不快乐。鉴于人们普遍存在低估经历负面事件可能性的倾向，人们显然会对难以相信的元认知感觉（例如，容易想象到的不愉快的未来）不屑一顾。矛盾的是，当人们思考一些糟糕的时刻或只有少数美好的时刻时，他们的幸福感可能会达到最大化。
