Is Subjective Wellbeing Too Subjective? The (large) Impact of Randomized Placement of Happiness and Worry Questions in a National Survey of Crisis-Affected Myanmar

Salauddin Tauseef (), Derek D. Headey () and Isabel B. Lambrecht ()
Additional contact information
Salauddin Tauseef: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Derek D. Headey: IFPRI
Isabel B. Lambrecht: IFPRI

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2025, vol. 180, issue 1, No 22, 493-522

Abstract: Abstract Though initially pioneered in high income countries, subjective wellbeing (SWB) measures are now collected throughout low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and widely used in development research. Despite their popularity, research from high income countries has often found that SWB measurement can be confounded by modest differences in context, including survey design. However, evidence on SWB measurement problems in LMICs is scarce, despite potentially more room for artefactual confounding, especially in stressful LMICs environments, such as those undergoing civil war. In this study, we use a large, nationally representative and gender-stratified panel phone survey from conflict-affected Myanmar to explore whether the randomized placement of a SWB module either at the start or at the end of the questionnaire affects respondents’ evaluations of their own happiness or worry. Treatment effects are large but also systematically heterogeneous. Compared to those asked at the beginning, respondents who were asked the SWB module at the end of the questionnaire were 7 percentage points more likely to declare themselves happy but are significantly smaller, or even completely disappear, among respondents who experienced physical insecurity or food insecurity. We offer several possible explanations, including social desirability bias, frame-of-reference effects and catharsis.

Keywords: Subjective wellbeing; Happiness; Phone surveys; Survey methods; Myanmar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-025-03681-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:soinre:v:180:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-025-03681-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11205-025-03681-z

Access Statistics for this article

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement is currently edited by Filomena Maggino

More articles in Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().