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 marital 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 sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In this scenario, 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 lasting 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 Indicators Research.

They add, "Furthermore, chronic unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating and can interfere 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.

不快樂的人看電視的時間要比快樂的人長30%。

該項公布于周四的發現，來于一個1975年到2006年之間對美國近3萬個成人進行的調查，該項調查是該期間整體社會調查中的一部分。

調查顯示，快樂的人平均每周看19個小時的電視，而不快樂的人要看25個小時，該結論同時也將教育背景，收入，年齡和婚姻情況考慮了進去。

此外，與同齡的不快樂的單身者相比，快樂的單身一族更善于社交，參加的宗教服務活動和選舉活動較多， 以及較多的報紙閱讀量。

雖然研究者不確定是不快樂導致了長時間的觀看電視還是長時間的觀看電視導致了不快樂。

 事實上，人們常說他們喜歡看電視；過去的研究表明當人們看電視的時候是樂在其中的。在這些研究中，研究人員公布了一個有關喜好的范圍從0 （不喜歡）到10（非常喜歡），而看電視的喜好程度位于第8。

但是或許看電視較高的喜好程度只是暫時的。

馬里蘭大學帕克分校的社會學家約翰·羅賓遜說：“一些反面的數據表明或許電視給觀看者帶來了短時間的快樂的同時觀看者要付出長時間萎靡不振的代價。”

在這個過程中，即使是最快樂的人也會因長時間對著電視而變成心情沮喪的人。研究人員還建議說，長時間看電視會占據掉其他一些長期有益的活動。運動和性，聚會以及其他形式的社會活動都有益于心理健康。

或者，對于已經不快樂的人來說，看電視可能僅僅是一種逃避的做法。

“電視既不是主觀性的也不難操作，所以社會技能不多或者沒有其他活動可參加的人會很容易融入進去，”羅賓遜和他馬里蘭大學的同事史蒂芬·馬丁在《社會指標研究》12月期刊中寫道。

他們還認為，“除此之外，長期的不快可能逐漸使人在社會和健康上疲憊不堪，并影響工作和大部分的社交和個體活動，但是即使是最不開心的人也會按下遙控器，被動地接受到電視

研究人員說還要對找出電視與快樂之間的關系進行進一步研究。