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Feeling Good or Feeling Better?

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  • Prati, Alberto

    (University College of London)

  • Senik, Claudia

    (Paris School of Economics)

Abstract

Can people remember correctly their past well-being? We study three national surveys of the British, German and French population, where more than 50,000 European citizens were asked questions about their current and past life satisfaction. We uncover systematic biases in recalled subjective well- being: on average, people tend to overstate the improvement in their well-being over time and to understate their past happiness. But this aggregate figure hides a deep asymmetry: while happy people recall the evolution of their life to be better than it was, unhappy ones tend to exaggerate its worsening. It thus seems that feeling happy today implies feeling better than yesterday. These results offer an explanation of why happy people are more optimistic, perceive risks to be lower and are more open to new experiences.

Suggested Citation

  • Prati, Alberto & Senik, Claudia, 2020. "Feeling Good or Feeling Better?," IZA Discussion Papers 13166, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13166
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    Cited by:

    1. Mark Fabian, 2022. "Scale Norming Undermines the Use of Life Satisfaction Scale Data for Welfare Analysis," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1509-1541, April.
    2. Kaiser, Caspar, 2022. "Using memories to assess the intrapersonal comparability of wellbeing reports," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 410-442.
    3. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil, 2022. "Past and Present Subjective Well-being: the Role of Contrast and Memory," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1203-1226, June.
    4. Marcus Klemm, 2022. "Well-being Changes from Year to Year: A Comparison of Current, Remembered and Predicted Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1669-1681, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    memory biases; remembered utility; life satisfaction; intra-personal comparisons;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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