 Do people exaggerate how happy they are? Using a promise to induce truth-tellingFredrik Carlsson and Mitesh Kataria () Oxford Economic Papers, 2018, vol. 70, issue 3, 784-798 Abstract: We investigate a novel approach to reduce measurement error in subjective well-being (SWB) data. Using a between-subject design, half of the subjects are asked to promise to answer the survey questions truthfully to make them commit to truth-telling. We find a statistically significant difference between mean stated well-being between the two samples (with and without a promise). People are consistently found to exaggerate their happiness and for several different aspects of life, without a promise. We then investigate to what extent the differences in stated well-being also affect the inference from regressions models on the determinants of SWB. The effect on the covariates are only weakly statistically significant and only for a few variables, if we compare the samples with and without the promise. Thus, this means that the policy implications based on an SWB study only marginally depends on whether we include a truth-telling question or not. JEL-codes: C90 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:70:y:2018:i:3:p:784-798. Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Oxford Economic Papers is currently edited by James Forder and Francis J. Teal More articles in Oxford Economic Papers from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
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