The scientific value of numerical measures of human feelings

Caspar Kaiser and Andrew J. Oswald
Additional contact information
Andrew J. Oswald: a Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3TD United Kingdom;; c Department of Economics, CAGE Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL United Kingdom;; d Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit (IZA), Bonn, 53113 Germany

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, vol. 119, issue 42, e2210412119

Abstract: Human feelings cannot be expressed on a numerical scale. There are no units of measurement for feelings. However, such data are extensively collected in the modern world—by governments, corporations, and international organizations. Why? Our study finds that a feelings integer (like my happiness is X out of 10 ) has more predictive power than a collection of socioeconomic influences. Moreover, there is a clear link between those feelings numbers and later get-me-out-of-here actions. Finally, the feelings-to-actions relationship appears replicable and not too far from linear. Remarkably, therefore, humans somehow manage to choose their numerical answers in a systematic way as though they sense within themselves—and can communicate—a reliable numerical scale for their feelings. How remains an unsolved puzzle.

Keywords: happiness; pain; satisfaction; survey design; validity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.pnas.org/content/119/42/e2210412119.full (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nas:journl:v:119:y:2022:p:e2210412119

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by PNAS Product Team ().