Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.

The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 as part of the General Social Survey.

While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital¹ status.

In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.

The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness.

In fact, people say they like watching television: Past research has shown that when people watch television they enjoy it. In these studies, participants reported that on a scale from 0 (dislike) to 10 (greatly enjoy), TV-watching was nearly an 8.

But perhaps the high from watching television doesn't last.

"These conflicting data suggest that TV may provide viewers with short-run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise," said researcher John Robinson, a sociologist² at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In this scenario³, even the happiest campers could turn into Debbie-downers if they continue to stare at the boob-tube. The researchers suggest that over time, television-viewing could push out other activities that do have more lasting⁴ benefits. Exercise and sex come to mind, as do parties and other forms of socialization known to have psychological benefits.

Or, maybe television is simply a refuge for people who are already unhappy.

"TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it," Robinson and UM colleague Steven Martin write in the December issue of the journal Social Indicators⁵ Research.

They add, "Furthermore, chronic⁶ unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating⁷ and can interfere⁸ with work and most social and personal activities, but even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV."

The researchers say follow-up studies are needed to tease out the relationship between television and happiness.

上周四公布的一项研究结果显示，不快乐的人看电视的时间比快乐的人多30%。

该研究结果根据1975年至2006年间的一项针对美国近3万名成年人的调查得出，该调查为“社会综合调查”的其中一部分。

调查结果显示，快乐的人平均每周看电视的时间为19个小时，而不快乐的人平均每周看电视长达25个小时。该研究同时考虑了调查对象的受教育程度、收入、年龄和婚姻状况。

此外，与不快乐的人相比，快乐的人在社交方面更为活跃，他们更爱参加宗教活动和投票选举等社会活动，并且更爱阅读。

但目前研究人员还不确定究竟是不快乐导致人们更爱看电视，还是看电视过多导致人们不快乐。

事实上，人们还是很喜欢看电视的。此前的研究表明，人们在看电视时觉得很享受。在这些研究中，测试者要求研究对象对自己看电视时的感受进行打分，最低0分（代表厌恶），最高10分（特别享受）。结果显示，爱看电视的人打分接近8分。

也许是看电视所带来的快乐感并不能持久。

马里兰大学帕克分校的社会学家约翰•鲁宾逊说：“这些互相矛盾的数据表明，看电视可能会给人带来短暂的愉悦感，但代价就是长期的精神萎靡。”

由此说来，即使很快乐人的人整天盯着电视看也会变得情绪低落。研究人员称看电视时间过长会挤掉从事其它能带来持久快乐感的活动的时间，比如体育锻炼、性生活以及派对等有利于身心的社交活动。

或许，对于那些已经感到不快乐的人来说，电视只是个“庇护所”。

鲁宾逊和他的同事史蒂文•马丁在研究报告中写道：“看电视不需要判断，也没什么难度，所以适合不擅长社交或者缺乏社交资源的人。” 研究报告将在12月出版的《社会指数研究》上发表。

“此外，长期郁闷会导致个人和社会能力下降，影响工作及其他社会和个人活动。但即使很不快乐的人一拿出遥控器，也能被电视中的节目所感染。”

研究人员称他们将开展进一步研究以理清看电视与快乐之间的关系。