Measuring Self-Reported Well-Being
What should researchers consider when designing experiments that (also) collect self-reported well-being (SWB) data? Focusing on experiments in economics, we examine the motivation behind SWB-data collection, survey leading past examples, and highlight potential pitfalls and their proposed countermeasures.
We offer three main messages and a call to action. First, SWB measures should be handled with caution, especially in experiments. Second, despite their limitations, SWB measures can be used cleverly in the lab to provide evidence on questions that choice data alone cannot answer. Third, when collected, analyzed, and interpreted with appropriate caution, SWB measures can be important policy-evaluation outcomes, complementing the inherently incomplete picture provided by more traditional outcomes.
We call on researchers to carefully and thoughtfully collect (a variety of) SWB measures in their online, lab, and field experiments. Such a joint, decentralized effort would also mean that over time, SWB data get explored, accumulated, and, hopefully, better understood.
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