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

描述（由申请人提供）：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。这两个心理学事实意味着幸福的动态可以用来系统地衡量一个人认为某个事件是好消息还是坏消息，以及该事件对该人有多重要。这个项目将使用幸福的动力来衡量人们对各种事件的重要性。1.利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），可以成为公共政策的重要投入。这个项目将着眼于许多不同类型的事件，包括丧亲之痛，疾病和金融事件。2.利用幸福的动力学来理解人们对即使是少量金钱的新闻的重要性，可以深入了解人们面临的财务压力和他们所做的财务选择。例如，a.那些精打细算、因此对小额财务收益感到高兴的人，可能比那些能为小额资金而烦恼的人更不可能提前退休。 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会受到平均退休年龄的强烈影响。B.研究幸福感如何对风险做出反应，可以帮助我们确定，害怕在股市的每一次波折中面临情绪过山车，是否是许多人避免投资股市的重要原因。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，但多样化的低费用股票指数基金在历史上对那些为了退休做准备而进行长期投资的人来说表现良好。对幸福动力学的分析研究人们对事件的重视程度，将使用数学和统计工具，这些工具是从一种新的幸福经济理论发展而来的，这种理论强调这些动力学，并仔细区分人们在听到好消息或坏消息后的沮丧和沮丧，以及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和其他变量的新数据，以补充现有数据。

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.