Which emotional experiences should people pursue to optimize happiness? According to traditional subjective well-being research, the more pleasant emotions we experience, the happier we are. According to Aristotle, the more we experience the emotions we want to experience, the happier we are. We tested both predictions in a cross-cultural sample of 2,324 participants from 8 countries around the world. We assessed experienced emotions, desired emotions, and indices of well-being and depressive symptoms. Across cultures, happier people were those who more often experienced emotions they wanted to experience, whether these were pleasant (e.g., love) or unpleasant (e.g., hatred). This pattern applied even to people who wanted to feel less pleasant or more unpleasant emotions than they actually felt. Controlling for differences in experienced and desired emotions left the pattern unchanged. These findings suggest that happiness involves experiencing emotions that feel right, whether they feel good or not. (PsycINFO Database Record

中文翻译：

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幸福的秘诀：感觉良好还是感觉正确？

人们应该追求哪种情感体验来使幸福最大化？根据传统的主观幸福感研究，我们体验到越愉悦的情感，我们就会越快乐。根据亚里斯多德的说法，我们越想体验自己想要的情感，我们就会越快乐。我们在来自8个国家/地区的2,324名参与者的跨文化样本中测试了这两种预测。我们评估了经验丰富的情绪，期望的情绪以及幸福感和抑郁症状的指数。在各种文化中，幸福的人是那些更经常经历他们想体验的情感的人，无论这些情感是令人愉快的（例如，爱）还是令人不愉快的（例如，仇恨）。这种模式甚至适用于那些想要比实际感觉更不愉快或更不愉快的人。控制经历的和期望的情绪上的差异使模式保持不变。这些发现表明，幸福涉及体验正确的情绪，无论感觉良好与否。（PsycINFO数据库记录