Using the Dynamics of Subjective Well-Being to Measure the Import of Events

描述(申请人提供)：好消息会让幸福感上升；随着时间的推移，幸福感会回到基线。同样，坏消息会导致幸福感下降，然后逐渐回到基线水平。这两个心理事实意味着，幸福的动态可以用来系统地衡量一个人认为一件事是好消息还是坏消息，以及这件事对这个人有多重要。这个项目将使用幸福感的动态来衡量人们对各种事件的重要性。1.使用幸福的动态来了解哪些重大生活事件对人们最重要(与其他重大生活事件相比)，这可能是公共政策的重要输入。这个项目将关注许多不同类型的事件，包括丧亲、疾病和金融事件。2.用幸福感的动态来理解人们对即使是少量金钱的新闻的重视程度，可以让我们洞察人们面临的财务压力和他们做出的财务选择。例如，那些精打细算、乐于获得小小经济收益的人，可能不太可能比那些有能力对小钱无动于衷的人更不可能提早退休。了解人们的退休决定对公共政策至关重要，因为社会保障体系的偿付能力可能会受到平均退休年龄的强烈影响。B.研究幸福感对风险的反应，可以帮助确定，害怕面对股市每一次波折时的情绪过山车，是否是许多人避免投资股市的一个重要原因。理解为什么许多人避免投资股市是很重要的，因为尽管股市最近表现良好，但多元化程度良好的低费用股指基金历来对那些为了退休做好准备而进行长期投资的人来说表现良好。分析幸福动态以研究人们对事件的重视程度，将使用从一种新的幸福经济学理论发展而来的数学和统计工具--该理论强调这些动态，并仔细区分人们在好消息或坏消息后的兴高采烈和沮丧情绪与人们基线情绪的长期变化。为了进行这项分析，将在实验室和网络调查中收集关于幸福感和其他变量的新数据，以添加到现有数据中。 与公共健康相关：好消息会导致幸福感暂时增加，而坏消息会导致幸福感暂时下降。这些幸福运动的强度和持续时间使得衡量事件的主观重要性成为可能。衡量健康事件的主观重要性可以为设定公共健康优先事项提供一种输入；衡量金融事件的主观重要性可以更好地理解退休时机以及对风险的态度如何影响退休储蓄战略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Good news causes happiness to jump up; over time happiness returns to its baseline. Similarly, bad news causes happiness to jump down, after which it gradually returns to its baseline. These two psychological facts mean that the dynamics of happiness can be used to systematically measure whether an individual considers an event good news or bad news, and how important the event is to that individual. This project will use the dynamics of happiness to measure how important people feel various events are. 1. Using the dynamics of happiness to understand which major life events are most important to people (when compared to other major life events) can be an important input into public policy. This project will look at many different types of events, including bereavement, illnesses, and financial events. 2. Using the dynamics of happiness to understand the importance people place on news about even modest amounts of money can give insight into the financial stresses people face and the financial choices they make. For example, a. People who watch every penny and so rejoice at small financial gains may be less likely to retire early than people who can afford to be blas¿ about small amounts of money. Understanding people's retirement decisions is crucial for public policy, since the solvency of the Social Security system can be strongly affected by the average retirement age. b. Studying how happiness responds to risk can help determine whether fear of facing an emotional roller coaster with every twist and turn of the stock market is an important reason many people avoid investing in the stock market. Understanding why many people avoid investing in the stock market is important because-despite the recent performance of the stock market- well-diversified low-fee stock index funds have historically done well for people who invest for the long run in order to prepare for retirement. The analysis of happiness dynamics to study the importance people place on events will use mathematical and statistical tools developed from a new economic theory of happiness-a theory that emphasizes those dynamics, and carefully distinguishes the elation and dismay people feel after good or bad news from long-run shifts of people's baseline mood. For this analysis new data on happiness and other variables will be collected both in the laboratory and in web surveys to add to existing data. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Good news causes temporary increases in happiness while bad news causes temporary decreases. The intensity and duration of these movements in happiness make it possible to measure the subjective importance of events. Measuring the subjective importance of health events can provide one input into setting public health priorities; measuring the subjective importance of financial events makes possible a better understanding of retirement timing and how attitudes toward risk affect strategies of retirement saving.