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.

不快乐的人看电视的时间要比快乐的人长30%。

该项公布于周四的发现，来于一个1975年到2006年之间对美国近3万个成人进行的调查，该项调查是该期间整体社会调查中的一部分。

调查显示，快乐的人平均每周看19个小时的电视，而不快乐的人要看25个小时，该结论同时也将教育背景，收入，年龄和婚姻情况考虑了进去。

此外，与同龄的不快乐的单身者相比，快乐的单身一族更善于社交，参加的宗教服务活动和选举活动较多， 以及较多的报纸阅读量。

虽然研究者不确定是不快乐导致了长时间的观看电视还是长时间的观看电视导致了不快乐。

事实上，人们常说他们喜欢看电视；过去的研究表明当人们看电视的时候是乐在其中的。在这些研究中，研究人员公布了一个有关喜好的范围从0 （不喜欢）到10（非常喜欢），而看电视的喜好程度位于第8。

但是或许看电视较高的喜好程度只是暂时的。

马里兰大学帕克分校的社会学家约翰·罗宾逊说：“一些反面的数据表明或许电视给观看者带来了短时间的快乐的同时观看者要付出长时间萎靡不振的代价。”

在这个过程中，即使是最快乐的人也会因长时间对着电视而变成心情沮丧的人。研究人员还建议说，长时间看电视会占据掉其他一些长期有益的活动。运动和性，聚会以及其他形式的社会活动都有益于心理健康。

或者，对于已经不快乐的人来说，看电视可能仅仅是一种逃避的做法。

“电视既不是主观性的也不难操作，所以社会技能不多或者没有其他活动可参加的人会很容易融入进去，”罗宾逊和他马里兰大学的同事史蒂芬·马丁在《社会指标研究》12月期刊中写道。

他们还认为，“除此之外，长期的不快可能逐渐使人在社会和健康上疲惫不堪，并影响工作和大部分的社交和个体活动，但是即使是最不开心的人也会按下遥控器，被动地接受到电视

研究人员说还要对找出电视与快乐之间的关系进行进一步研究。