Year: 2025
Type: report
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Philosophical perspectives on human desires and values vary; economic theory-driven measurement techniques can provide relevant empirical evidence.We elicited over half a million stated preference choices over 126 dimensions or "aspects" of well-being from a sample of 896 online respondents.We also elicited, via self-reported well-being (SWB) questions, respondents' current levels of the aspects.From the stated preference data, we estimate for each aspect its relative marginal utility per point on our 0-100 response scale.We validate these estimates by comparing them to alternative methods for estimating preferences, and we offer a range of estimates between those that take self-reports at face value and those that (over-)correct for potential socialdesirability reporting bias.Our findings suggest that our respondents value, first and foremost, three basic things: family, money, and health (not necessarily in this order).While commonly studied concepts-such as happiness, life satisfaction, life's ranking on a ladder, and meaning-are all important, respondents place the highest marginal utilities on aspects related to family well-being and health, and financial freedom and security.We document substantial heterogeneity in preferences across respondents within-but not between-demographic groups, with aspects' current levels predicting preferences for the aspects.
DOI: 10.3386/w33846
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4411016758