Work

What Do You Think Would Make You Happier? What Do You Think You Would Choose?

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Would people choose what they think would maximize their subjective well-being (SWB)? We present survey respondents with hypothetical scenarios and elicit both choice and predicted SWB rankings of two alternatives. While choice and predicted SWB rankings usually coincide in our data, we find systematic reversals. We identify factors-such as predicted sense of purpose, control over one's life, family happiness, and social status-that help explain hypothetical choice controlling for predicted SWB. We explore how our findings vary by SWB measure and by scenario. Our results have implications regarding the use of SWB survey questions as a proxy for utility.

Source: American Economic Review

DOI: 10.1257/aer.102.5.2083

Authors: Daniel J Benjamin, Ori Heffetz, Miles S Kimball, Alex Rees-Jones

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, Cornell University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Michigan

Language: English

Topic: Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute on Aging, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Behaviors on Surveys and in the Economy: HRS and Beyond, Population Research Infrastructure Support, Using the Dynamics of Subjective Well-Being to Measure the Import of Events