life evaluations
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PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0259331
Author(s):  
Pär Bjälkebring ◽  
Ellen Peters

Objective numeracy, the ability to understand and use mathematical concepts, has been related to superior decisions and life outcomes. Unknown is whether it relates to greater satisfaction in life. We investigated numeracy’s relations with income satisfaction and overall life satisfaction in a diverse sample of 5,525 American adults. First, more numerate individuals had higher incomes; for every one point higher on the eight-item numeracy test, individuals reported $4,062 more in annual income, controlling for education and verbal intelligence. Combined, numeracy, education, and verbal intelligence explained 25% of the variance in income while Big-5 personality traits explained less than 4%. Further, the higher incomes associated with greater numeracy were related to more positive life evaluations (income and life satisfaction). Second, extant research also has indicated that the highly numerate compare numbers more than the less numerate. Consistent with numeracy-related income comparisons, numeracy moderated the relation between income and life evaluations, meaning that the same income was valued differently by those better and worse at math. Specifically, among those with lower incomes, the highly numerate were less satisfied than the less numerate; this effect reversed among those with higher incomes as if the highly numerate were aware of and made comparisons to others’ incomes. Further, no clear income satiation point was seen among those highest in numeracy, and satiation among the least numerate appeared to occur at a point below $50,000. Third, both education and verbal intelligence related to income evaluations in similar ways, and numeracy’s relations held when controlling for these other relations. Although causal claims cannot be made from cross-sectional data, these novel results indicate that numeracy may be an important factor underlying life evaluations and especially for evaluations concerning numbers such as incomes. Finally, this study adds to our understanding of education and intelligence effects in life satisfaction and happiness.


Author(s):  
Andrew E. Clark ◽  
Conchita D’Ambrosio

In this chapter the authors use repeated cross-section data from the Afrobarometer, Asianbarometer, Latinobarometer, and Eurobarometer to analyse the variables that are correlated with current and future evaluations of standards of living. They consider resource comparisons and the normative evaluation of distribution (conditional on these gaps), given by the Gini coefficient. The ‘typical’ pattern of a negative effect of gaps on the better-off but a positive effect of gaps on the worse-off is found only in Europe: gaps for the better-off in Africa and America have no correlation with current life evaluations and are associated with more positive expectations of the future. There is no positive estimated coefficient for gaps to the worse-off in Asia. The Gini coefficient is negatively correlated with current life evaluation only in Asia. On the contrary, future life evaluations are more positive in more unequal countries in Africa and America.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTINE DURAND

AbstractShould subjective wellbeing, as measured by life evaluation, be the sole criterion for policies? This article answers this question negatively based on three arguments. First, it is important to distinguish between people's life evaluations, their emotional experiences and their sense of purpose; each has different drivers and consequences, implying that no single measure can adequately subsume the others. Second, while subjective wellbeing provides information missed by more conventional measures, the reverse is also true. This implies that information on the intrinsic importance of other key wellbeing dimensions cannot be derived from just looking at their instrumental value in raising subjective wellbeing. Third, the ‘utilitarian calculus’ implicit in subjective wellbeing regressions shines little light on normative decisions such as the attention we should focus on the worst off or on future generations. In contrast to the ‘automatic pilot’ approach to policies advocated by Frijters et al., this article favours an approach based on dashboards of indicators used to inform all of the stages of the policy cycles, as recently implemented by several OECD countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Barrington-Leigh ◽  
Eric Galbraith
Keyword(s):  

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (03) ◽  
pp. 1640015 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL SGROI ◽  
EUGENIO PROTO ◽  
ANDREW J. OSWALD ◽  
ALEXANDER DOBSON

Professor EJ Mishan was a world expert on the idea of externalities. In this paper, we provide evidence for the intuitive idea of “emotional externalities”. These might be viewed as psychological spillovers from the well-being of one person upon the well-being of another. A new form of laboratory experiment is implemented. “Happiness” answers are elicited in the first few seconds of the experiment. Tragic life events — like family illness and bereavement — are then studied. The paper documents evidence consistent with a powerful caring-about-others effect. The paper’s results also suggest an approximate equivalence between life-satisfaction data and happiness data. Statistical offices should incorporate questions to capture people’s life evaluations, hedonic experiences and priorities … All these aspects of subjective well-being (cognitive evaluations, positive affects and negative affects) should be measured separately to get a satisfactory appreciation of people’s lives. Which of these aspects matters more, and for what purpose, is still an open question. Stiglitz et al., Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, 2009


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