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

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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Status:	Not Peer Reviewed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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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/3524

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