Priming and the reliability of subjective well-being measures

Sgroi, Daniel, Proto, Eugenio, Oswald, Andrew J. and Dobson, Alexander (2010) Priming and the reliability of subjective well-being measures. Working Paper. University of Warwick. Dept. of Economics, Coventry.

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Abstract

Economists and behavioural scientists are beginning to make extensive use of measures of subjective well-being, and such data are potentially of value to policy-makers. A particularly famous difficulty is that of “priming”: if the order or nature of survey questions changes people’s likely replies then we have grounds to be concerned about the reliability of well- being data and inferences from them. This study tests for priming effects from important life events. It presents evidence from a laboratory experiment which indicates that subjective well-being measures are in general robust to such concerns.

Item Type:Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HA Statistics
Divisions:Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):Well-being -- Testing, Priming (Psychology), Surveys -- Methodology
Series Name:Warwick economics research paper series (TWERPS)
Publisher:University of Warwick. Dept. of Economics
Place of Publication:Coventry
Date:2010
Volume:Vol.2010
Number:No.935
Status:Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:Open Access
Funder:Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), Leverhulme Trust (LT)
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