Hedonic recall bias. Why you should not ask people how much they earn

Prati, Alberto

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.002

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Moreover, same-source bias is avoided. This is of particular importance for investigating associations between income and well-being as it has been shown that people who are more satisfied with their wage tend to overestimate their true wage when being asked to report their income, whereas those who are less satisfied underestimate their income [39]. Despite the advantages of this approach, administrative records have hardly been used for investigating associations between income trajectories and subjective well-being.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Income Trajectories and Subjective Well-Being: Linking Administrative Records and Survey Data

Schöllgen

Kersten

Rose

2019

IJERPH

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An association between income and life satisfaction has been well documented, however, little is known of how income trajectories affect different facets of subjective well-being (SWB). The aim of this study was to examine how several aspects of income dynamics are related to life satisfaction and affect balance. Longitudinal information on income from administrative records covering 13 years (1999–2011) is linked to cross-sectional data on SWB collected in 2011/12 from the nationally representative Study on Mental Health at Work (S-MGA; n = 3364). Parameters from subject-specific regression analyses of income over time were used as indicators of income development in regressions over all participants, conducted separately for men and women. Associations between income and life satisfaction were stronger and more consistent than associations between income and affect balance. Major findings were that longer-term income change was more strongly related to SWB than current deviation from expected income. Higher stability in income development was associated with higher SWB. A higher share of income from benefits predicted lower life satisfaction and a more negative affect balance. Our results show the importance of examining income trajectories and taking into account source of income to gain a more differentiated view on the income-SWB association.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Income Trajectories and Subjective Well-Being: Linking Administrative Records and Survey Data

Schöllgen

Kersten

Rose

2019

IJERPH

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“…the general tendency of positive moods to bias memories to be more positive (and vice versa for negative moods; see e.g. Klaassen et al 2002;Lewis et al 2005;Prati 2017; Urban et al 2018). Because moods and satisfaction are correlated, 'mood-congruency' predicts that people in positive (negative) moods recall their past satisfaction as more positive (negative).…”

Section: Plausibility Of Present Independencementioning

confidence: 99%

Using memories to assess the intrapersonal comparability of wellbeing reports

Kaiser¹

2020

Preprint

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Research on subjective wellbeing typically assumes that responses to survey questions are comparable across respondents and across time. However, if this assumption is violated, standard methods in empirical research may mislead. I address this concern with three contributions. First, I give a theoretical analysis of the extent and direction of bias that may result from violations of this assumption. Second, I propose to use respondents’ stated memories of their past wellbeing to estimate and thereby to correct for differentials in scale use. Third, using the proposed approach, I test whether wellbeing reports are intrapersonally comparable across time. Using BHPS data, I find that the direction in which explanatory variables affect latent satisfaction is typically the same as the direction in which scale use is affected. Unemployment and bereavement appear to have particularly strong effects on scale use. Although discussed in the context of life satisfaction scales, the proposed approach for anchoring response scales is applicable to a wide range of other subjectively reported constructs.

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“…Another limitation to point out is the timing of measurements: income was assessed retrospectively (people had to recall their income of the last year), thereby rendering this measure potentially less reliable (see Prati, 2017). While this socalled simple income method is widely applied in poverty research (Debels & Vandecasteele, 2008), it also creates a mismatch between income (previous year) and the covariates (current year).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Working, but not for a living: a longitudinal study on the psychological consequences of economic vulnerability among German employees

Klug

Selenko

Gerlitz

2020

European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

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Despite the rise of in-work poverty across Europe, the psychological consequences of individual economic vulnerability are still rather unknown. Drawing on both objective and subjective conceptualizations of economic vulnerability, we investigate the effects of individual low labour income and perceived financial strain on mental well-being. We argue that economic vulnerability restricts workers' agency and propose sense of control as a mediator in the relationship between economic vulnerability and mental well-being-irrespective of the household's financial situation. Multilevel analyses across 19 years based on a sample of N = 7,107 employed adults from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP) demonstrated that a) persons reporting low income and higher financial strain showed lower health and life satisfaction, and b) intra-individual changes in income and financial strain were associated with corresponding changes in mental health and life satisfaction, respectively. These relationships were mediated by sense of control, both on the between-and the within-person level. The findings emphasize the importance of individual income and financial strain for mental well-being, and underline sense of control as an important psychological mechanism explaining individual consequences of economic vulnerability.

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Hedonic recall bias. Why you should not ask people how much they earn

Cited by 14 publications

References 38 publications

Income Trajectories and Subjective Well-Being: Linking Administrative Records and Survey Data

Income Trajectories and Subjective Well-Being: Linking Administrative Records and Survey Data

Using memories to assess the intrapersonal comparability of wellbeing reports

Working, but not for a living: a longitudinal study on the psychological consequences of economic vulnerability among German employees

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