Also this week, the Office for National Statistics published its geographical league table of personal wellbeing in the UK, compiled by quizzing 165,000 people on how satisfied they are with life. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland is the jolly table-topper; London is steeped in melancholy. Since the ultimate goal in life for most people is to be happy, the logic goes, governments should find ways of increasing civic contentment.

同样在最近，英国国家统计局(Office for National Statistics)发布了英国各地个人福祉排行榜。该排行榜的依据是对16.5万人的生活满意度调查。结果是北爱尔兰的弗马纳郡喜获第一，而伦敦弥漫着抑郁情绪。由于大多数人的终极目标就是幸福，合乎逻辑的结论是，政府应该想办法提高公民的满足感。

But the science of wellbeing has turned out, over the past 15 years, to be a keenly disputed field of psychology whose practitioners have struggled to elucidate the nature of nirvana, let alone put numbers to it. Meanwhile, happiness has become a central issue in public health. A 2017 study of 3,000 older people, led by Professor Andrew Steptoe at University College London, found that participants who said they enjoyed life saw a slower rate of physical decline than their curmudgeonly peers , even taking into account other factors such as income, smoking and drinking.

不过，有关福祉的科学在过去15年里成了心理学一个极具争议的领域。其从业者甚至难以阐明涅槃状态的特征，更别说对它加以量化研究了。与此同时，幸福已成为公共健康的核心问题。2017年伦敦大学学院(University College London)安德鲁斯特普托(Andrew Steptoe)教授领导开展的一项研究发现，即使把收入、吸烟和饮酒等其他方面的因素考虑在内，那些表示自己享受人生的参与调查者，生理上的衰退速度也慢于脾气不好的同龄人。

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