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

描述（由申请人提供）：好消息让人开心雀跃；随着时间的推移，幸福感会回到它的基线。同样，坏消息会导致幸福感下降，之后会逐渐回到基线。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的动态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输入。这个项目将研究许多不同类型的事件，包括丧亲之痛、疾病和财务事件。2. 利用幸福的动态来理解人们对哪怕是少量金钱的新闻的重视程度，可以洞察人们面临的财务压力和他们做出的财务选择。那些精打细算、为小的经济收益而高兴的人可能比那些对小钱不闻不闻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可能受到平均退休年龄的强烈影响。研究幸福对风险的反应可以帮助确定，害怕面对股市的每一次起伏起伏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。理解为什么许多人不愿投资股市是很重要的，因为尽管股市最近表现不佳，但从历史上看，分散化程度高、费用低的股票指数基金对那些为退休做准备而进行长期投资的人来说表现不错。为了研究人们对事件的重视程度，对幸福动态的分析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——一种强调这些动态的理论，并仔细区分人们在听到好消息或坏消息后的兴奋和沮丧，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有关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. 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.