Does watching TV make us happy?

Bruno Frey, Christine Benesch () and Alois Stutzer

No 241, IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: The paper studies a major human activity – that of watching TV - where many individuals have incomplete control over, and foresight into, their own behavior. As a consequence, they watch more TV than they consider optimal for themselves and their well-being is lower than what could be achieved. Mainly people with significant opportunity costs of time regret the amount of time spent watching TV. They report lower subjective well-being when watching TV for many hours. For others, there is no negative effect on life satisfaction from watching TV. Long hours spent in front of a TV are linked to higher material aspirations and anxiety and therewith lower life satisfaction.

Keywords: Life satisfaction; mispredicting utility; revealed behavior; self-control problem; TV consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (98)

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https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/52133/1/iewwp241.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does watching TV make us happy? (2007)
Working Paper: Does Watching TV Make Us Happy? (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:iewwpx:241

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