I had somebody count the number of books

最近 幸福について話す人が多いですね

with "happiness" in the title published in the last five years

過去5年に出版され タイトルに“幸福”が

and they gave up after about 40, and there were many more.

入っている本を ある人に数えてもらったところ

There is a huge wave of interest in happiness,

あまりの量で 40冊ほどで諦めてしまいました

among researchers.

研究者たちの幸福に対する興味の高まりは

There is a lot of happiness coaching.

かなりのものです

Everybody would like to make people happier.

幸福のコーチングもたくさん行われ

But in spite of all this flood of work,

皆に幸福になってもらいたいことがわかります

there are several cognitive traps

しかし そのような努力があるにも関わらず

that sort of make it almost impossible to think straight

幸福について 明瞭に考えることを

about happiness.

ほぼ不可能にしてしまう認知の罠が

And my talk today will be mostly about these cognitive traps.

幾つかあります

This applies to laypeople thinking about their own happiness,

今日は この認知の罠を取り上げます

and it applies to scholars thinking about happiness,

これは自らの幸福を願う一般の人にも

because it turns out we're just as messed up as anybody else is.

幸福を追究する学者にも当てはまります

The first of these traps

なぜなら 誰もが混乱した状態にいるからです

is a reluctance to admit complexity.

罠の一つは

It turns out that the word "happiness"

複雑さを認めることへの抵抗感にあります

is just not a useful word anymore,

幸福という言葉は もはや役立つ言葉ではない―

because we apply it to too many different things.

という事が明らかになりました

I think there is one particular meaning to which we might restrict it,

この言葉を様々な事に あてはめすぎるからです

but by and large,

この言葉には 特定の意味合いがありますが

this is something that we'll have to give up

概して 狭い意味に

and we'll have to adopt the more complicated view

限定することは諦めて

of what well-being is.

幸福な状態とは何か もっと複雑な見方を

The second trap is a confusion between experience and memory;

しなくてはいけないのです

basically, it's between being happy in your life,

二つめの罠は 体験と記憶を混同してしまうことです

and being happy about your life

生活の中で見いだす幸福と

or happy with your life.

自分の人生の幸福度合い

And those are two very different concepts,

この違いです

and they're both lumped in the notion of happiness.

この二つは非常に異なる概念ですが

And the third is the focusing illusion,

どちらも幸福という一つの観念にまとめられがちです

and it's the unfortunate fact that we can't think about any circumstance

三つめは錯覚に焦点を置くこと

that affects well-being

幸福の状態を左右する状況を

without distorting its importance.

ゆがめて考えてしまうのは

I mean, this is a real cognitive trap.

残念なことです

There's just no way of getting it right.

これは まさに認知の罠です

Now, I'd like to start with an example

正確に理解する方法が無いのです

of somebody who had a question-and-answer session

例を出してみましょう

after one of my lectures reported a story,

私の講義の後におこなった質疑応答で

and that was a story --

ある方がこんな話をしました

He said he'd been listening to a symphony,

彼は交響曲を聴いていて

and it was absolutely glorious music

その音楽に聞き惚れていたところ

and at the very end of the recording,

その曲の終わりに

there was a dreadful screeching sound.

耳をつんざく音が入っていました

And then he added, really quite emotionally,

彼はかなり感情的に

it ruined the whole experience.

曲が台無しになった と言いました

But it hadn't.

でも 台無しになったのは

What it had ruined were the memories of the experience.

曲ではなく その経験の記憶です

He had had the experience.

彼は素晴らしい曲を

He had had 20 minutes of glorious music.

20分聴いていたのに

They counted for nothing

その価値がなくなったのは

because he was left with a memory;

台無しになった記憶が

the memory was ruined,

残ったからです

and the memory was all that he had gotten to keep.

彼に残ったのは記憶しかありません

What this is telling us, really,

この話から 我々が

is that we might be thinking of ourselves and of other people

自らを二つの自己として

in terms of two selves.

考えているらしいとわかります

There is an experiencing self,

経験の自己―

who lives in the present

これは 現在を生き

and knows the present,

現在を経験し

is capable of re-living the past,

過去にも戻れる自己です

but basically it has only the present.

でも基本的には現在しかありません

It's the experiencing self that the doctor approaches --

例えば 医師が “ここを触ったら痛みますか？” と

you know, when the doctor asks,

尋ねる相手は

"Does it hurt now when I touch you here?"

経験の自己です

And then there is a remembering self,

そして 記憶の自己というのがあります

and the remembering self is the one that keeps score,

記憶の自己とは 記録を残し

and maintains the story of our life,

人生の物語を紡ぎます

and it's the one that the doctor approaches

医師が尋ねる質問を

in asking the question,

例に出すと

"How have you been feeling lately?"

“最近の調子はどうですか？”

or "How was your trip to Albania?" or something like that.

“旅行はいかがでしたか？” なんて質問です

Those are two very different entities,

この二つは まったく異なるもので

the experiencing self and the remembering self,

“経験の自己”と“記憶の自己”を

and getting confused between them is part of the mess

混同してしまうのは 幸福の観念に見られる

about the notion of happiness.

混乱なのです

Now, the remembering self

記憶の自己は

is a storyteller.

語り手です

And that really starts with a basic response of our memories --

我々の記憶の基本的な反応で

it starts immediately.

すぐに動き出します

We don't only tell stories when we set out to tell stories.

話をするとき 我々が単純に語っているのではなく

Our memory tells us stories,

記憶が物語るのです

that is, what we get to keep from our experiences

要は経験から 引き継がれたものが

is a story.

話になるのです

And let me begin with one example.

その一例を挙げてみます

This is an old study.

昔行われた研究で

Those are actual patients undergoing a painful procedure.

大腸内視鏡検査を受けた実際の患者から得たデータです

I won't go into detail. It's no longer painful these days,

この検査は今となっては痛みを伴いませんが

but it was painful when this study was run in the 1990s.

研究が行われた90年代には痛みを伴う検査でした

They were asked to report on their pain every 60 seconds.

患者は60秒ごとに 痛みの度合いを報告するように言われ

Here are two patients,

これは二人の患者と

those are their recordings.

彼らの痛みを記録したものです

And you are asked, "Who of them suffered more?"

この二人のうち より苦しんだのは

And it's a very easy question.

どちらかと聞かれたら

Clearly, Patient B suffered more --

明らかに それは患者Bですね

his colonoscopy was longer,

彼の検査時間のほうが長く

and every minute of pain that Patient A had,

患者Aが毎分感じた痛み以上に

Patient B had, and more.

患者Bは痛みを感じました

But now there is another question:

さて 別の質問をします

"How much did these patients think they suffered?"

患者自身に どれだけ苦しんだと思うかと尋ねると

And here is a surprise.

驚くことに

The surprise is that Patient A

患者Bよりも

had a much worse memory of the colonoscopy

患者Aのほうが より嫌な記憶として

than Patient B.

覚えていたのです

The stories of the colonoscopies were different,

二人の検査の話は異なっていました

and because a very critical part of the story is how it ends.

なぜなら その話の一番重要な部分は 検査の終わり方なのです

And neither of these stories is very inspiring or great --

どちらの話も 心を打たれるような内容ではありませんが

but one of them is this distinct ... (Laughter)

一方は もう片方よりも

but one of them is distinctly worse than the other.

明らかに悲惨なものなのです

And the one that is worse

より嫌な記憶として語られた方は

is the one where pain was at its peak at the very end;

まさに終わるときに痛みがピークを迎えていました

it's a bad story.

本当に悲惨なものです

How do we know that?

対象となった患者には

Because we asked these people after their colonoscopy,

検査後と かなり時間が経ってから

and much later, too,

インタビューしました

"How bad was the whole thing, in total?"

検査全体の印象を評価してもらうと

And it was much worse for A than for B, in memory.

患者Bよりも 患者Aが より大変だったと答えました

Now this is a direct conflict

これは経験の自己と

between the experiencing self and the remembering self.

記憶の自己の間で起こる はっきりとした矛盾です

From the point of view of the experiencing self,

経験の自己の視点で見ると

clearly, B had a worse time.

患者Bのほうが大変だったのは明らかです

Now, what you could do with Patient A,

患者Aにどうすべきだったか

and we actually ran clinical experiments,

実際に行った臨床実験で

and it has been done, and it does work --

効果が確かめられているのですが

you could actually extend the colonoscopy of Patient A

患者Aのチューブをそれほど動かさず

by just keeping the tube in without jiggling it too much.

大腸内視鏡検査を長引かせます

That will cause the patient

そうすることで患者は痛みを感じますが

to suffer, but just a little

その痛みは ほんの少しで

and much less than before.

それまでに比べて 痛みは激減します

And if you do that for a couple of minutes,

これを数分やれば

you have made the experiencing self

患者Aの経験の自己には

of Patient A worse off,

つらい思いをさせますが

and you have the remembering self of Patient A

記憶の自己には

a lot better off,

ずっとましな処置です

because now you have endowed Patient A

なぜなら 患者Aに与えた

with a better story

経験の物語は

about his experience.

ましなものになっているからです

What defines a story?

物語を形作るのは何でしょう

And that is true of the stories

これは記憶を通して

that memory delivers for us,

我々が思い出す話や

and it's also true of the stories that we make up.

我々が作り上げる話にも共通したことです

What defines a story are changes,

話を明確にするものは 変化であり

significant moments and endings.

決定的な瞬間であり 結末なのです

Endings are very, very important

結末は非常に重要な役割を果たしていて

and, in this case, the ending dominated.

この患者のケースでは検査の締めくくりが左右したのです

Now, the experiencing self

さて 経験の自己の

lives its life continuously.

人生には切れ目もなく

It has moments of experience, one after the other.

どんな瞬間でも 次から次へと経験をしています

And you can ask: What happens to these moments?

“この瞬間”の行方を問うと

And the answer is really straightforward:

答えは非常に簡単で

They are lost forever.

永久に失われます

I mean, most of the moments of our life --

人生における時間の大半です

and I calculated, you know, the psychological present

心理的現在は 約3秒だと

is said to be about three seconds long;

言われており

that means that, you know,

その3秒は

in a life there are about 600 million of them;

人生で約6億回

in a month, there are about 600,000 --

月に約60万回もある計算になりますが

most of them don't leave a trace.

ほとんどが形跡を残しません

Most of them are completely ignored

ほとんどが記憶の自己に

by the remembering self.

無視されてしまいます

And yet, somehow you get the sense

それでもどういうわけか

that they should count,

今この瞬間には価値があり

that what happens during these moments of experience

そこで起きている事こそが

is our life.

人生であると感じるのです

It's the finite resource that we're spending

我々が生きる間に体験できる―

while we're on this earth.

限られたものであり

And how to spend it

人生をいかに過ごすかということが

would seem to be relevant,

価値を持つように感じますが

but that is not the story

これは記憶の自己が

that the remembering self keeps for us.

残す話とは違うのです

So we have the remembering self

記憶の自己と

and the experiencing self,

経験の自己とは

and they're really quite distinct.

まったく別物なのです

The biggest difference between them

一番の違いは

is in the handling of time.

時間の扱い方です

From the point of view of the experiencing self,

経験の自己の視点で見てみましょう

if you have a vacation,

休暇に出かけるとします

and the second week is just as good as the first,

1週目も2週目も 同じくらい楽しければ

then the two-week vacation

2週間の休暇の充足感は

is twice as good as the one-week vacation.

1週間の休暇の2倍です

That's not the way it works at all for the remembering self.

記憶の自己はこのようには働きません

For the remembering self, a two-week vacation

2週間の休暇は

is barely better than the one-week vacation

1週間の休暇と さほど変わらないのです

because there are no new memories added.

なぜなら新しく加わる記憶はなく

You have not changed the story.

話自体を変化させる事がないからです

And in this way,

このように

time is actually the critical variable

時間は記憶の自己と

that distinguishes a remembering self

経験の自己を区別する―

from an experiencing self;

重要なポイントです

time has very little impact on the story.

この休暇の例に 時間はあまり影響力はありません

Now, the remembering self does more

記憶の自己は 話を記憶し 語ること以上の

than remember and tell stories.

働きがあります

It is actually the one that makes decisions

実際に 決断をするのは記憶の自己です

because, if you have a patient who has had, say,

例えば 大腸内視鏡検査を２回

two colonoscopies with two different surgeons

二人の医師から受けた患者に

and is deciding which of them to choose,

どちらかの医師を選んでもらうとすると

then the one that chooses

その患者は

is the one that has the memory that is less bad,

記憶の中で ましだった方の

and that's the surgeon that will be chosen.

医師を選びます

The experiencing self

この選択をする際

has no voice in this choice.

経験の自己は関わっていません

We actually don't choose between experiences,

通常 我々は経験から選ぶ事はせず

we choose between memories of experiences.

記憶から選び出します

And even when we think about the future,

未来のことを考える時でさえ

we don't think of our future normally as experiences.

経験として考える事は 普通ありません

We think of our future

先を見越した記憶として

as anticipated memories.

未来を見ています

And basically you can look at this,

これは記憶の自己による

you know, as a tyranny of the remembering self,

専制政治と考えてください

and you can think of the remembering self

記憶の自己が決めて

sort of dragging the experiencing self

経験の自己に対して

through experiences that

望んでいたわけでもない事も

the experiencing self doesn't need.

経験させるのです

I have that sense that

私が感じるのは

when we go on vacations

我々が休暇に出かけるのは

this is very frequently the case;

―大半のケースに言えますが―

that is, we go on vacations,

休暇とは

to a very large extent,

記憶の自己のために

in the service of our remembering self.

行くものだという気がします

And this is a bit hard to justify I think.

これを正当化するのは少し難しいのですが

I mean, how much do we consume our memories?

我々は記憶をどれだけ思い返すでしょうか？

That is one of the explanations

これは 記憶の自己が

that is given for the dominance

支配している―

of the remembering self.

説明の一つです

And when I think about that, I think about a vacation

この事を考える時

we had in Antarctica a few years ago,

数年前の南極旅行を思い出します

which was clearly the best vacation I've ever had,

それは今までで最高と言える旅行で

and I think of it relatively often,

その他の旅行に比べて

relative to how much I think of other vacations.

思い出す回数も多いのです

And I probably have consumed

その3週間の旅行を

my memories of that three-week trip, I would say,

過去4年のうちに思い出したのは

for about 25 minutes in the last four years.

25分程度でしょう

Now, if I had ever opened the folder

もしも 600枚の写真を

with the 600 pictures in it,

見返したとしたら

I would have spent another hour.

1時間追加されるくらいです

Now, that is three weeks,

3週間の旅行に対し

and that is at most an hour and a half.

せいぜい1時間半の記憶なので

There seems to be a discrepancy.

何となく不釣り合いです

Now, I may be a bit extreme, you know,

私は平均的な人ほど

in how little appetite I have for consuming memories,

記憶を思い返すことをしないのかもしれませんが

but even if you do more of this,

もっと頻繁に記憶にアクセスしたとしても

there is a genuine question:

真の疑問が残ります

Why do we put so much weight on memory

なぜ経験と比べて

relative to the weight that we put on experiences?

記憶に重きを置くのでしょうか？

So I want you to think

ここで

about a thought experiment.

ある思考実験をしてみましょう