The DOI matches its Crossref record; 127 of the 133 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 11 of the 56 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments
Open accessAbstract
Abstract Governments around the world are now beginning to seriously consider the use of measures of subjective wellbeing (SWB) – ratings of thoughts and feelings about life – for monitoring progress and for informing and appraising public policy. The mental state account of wellbeing upon which SWB measures are based can provide useful additional information about who is doing well and badly in life when compared to that provided by the objective list and preference satisfaction accounts. It may be particularly useful when deciding how best to allocate scarce resources, where it is desirable to express the benefits of intervention in a single metric that can be compared to the costs of intervention. There are three main concepts of SWB in the literature – evaluation (life satisfaction), experience (momentary mood) and eudemonia (purpose) – and policy-makers should seek to measure all three, at least for the purposes of monitoring progress. There are some major challenges to the use of SWB measures. Two related and well-rehearsed issues are the effects of expectations and adaptation on ratings. The degree to which we should allow wellbeing to vary according to expectations and adaptation are vexing moral problems but information on SWB can highlight what difference allowing for these considerations would have in practice (e.g. in informing prioiritisation decisions), which can then be fed into the normative debate. There are also questions about precisely what attention shoul…
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Claims the paper makes
17 No full text of the sources · 12 Own interpretation · 8 Sources not found · 5 Partly supported · 4 Supported · 4 Not checked yet · 2 Own method · 1 Supported so far · 1 No basis given · accuracy not yet measured
Every source the paper cites for this claim was checked and supports it.
In the paper
“The evidence from the literature assessing the link between income and SWB is that this relationship is positive and modest (Stevenson and Wolfers, 2008), although there are some differences depending on what measure of SWB is used (Kahneman and Deaton, 2010), and whether other people's income is included in the assessment (Luttmer, 2005;Layard et al., 2010).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Accounts of wellbeing
What the sources say
- Supportedcites Stevenson and Wolfers, 2008 source
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports positive well-being–income gradients centered around 0.4 across multiple datasets, consistent with the claim’s characterization of a positive, modest association. The paper describes these as correlations, not established causal effects. (LLM, conf=0.84)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Supported
Every source the paper cites for this claim was checked and supports it.
In the paper
“It is possible to estimate monetary values for non-market goods from SWB data by estimating the amount of income that has exactly the same effect on SWB as the non-market good (Dolan et al., 2011).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
What the sources say
- Supportedcites Dolan et al., 2011
Section 2, “SWB, Cardinal Utility, and Income Compensations,” says monetary values can be estimated from the marginal rate of substitution between income and a good, and defines the value as the income required to hold utility constant without that good. The Conclusion likewise describes income compensation that holds well-being constant when the good changes. This supports the citing sentence’s description of the method. (LLM, conf=0.94)
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Supported
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“Frick et al. (2006) show that respondents in the German Socio-Economic Panel have a tendency to move away from the endpoints of response scales over time.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Some challenges
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites Frick et al. (2006) sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Results (pp. 25, 30) say that SOEP respondents were more likely to choose the highest life-satisfaction categories in early waves, and the authors report a narrowing difference over time. That supports movement away from the high end of one satisfaction scale, but not a general tendency to move away from both endpoints of response scales. (LLM, conf=0.87)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Partly supported
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“DRM data on affect have generally found weak associations between SWB and these events (Kahneman et al., 2004;Knabe et al., 2010).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Kahneman et al., 2004 source
- Partly supportedcites Knabe et al., 2010 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Discussion (p. 27) reports that this DRM study found no significant difference in day-to-day experienced well-being between employed and unemployed people, despite a difference in life satisfaction. That supports a weak association for unemployment, but the paper does not establish that DRM studies have generally found weak associations with the unspecified events in the claim. (LLM, conf=0.83)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Every source the paper cites for this claim was checked and supports it.
In the paper
“There are some differences between life satisfaction and the ladder of life, notably in relation to income (Helliwell, 2008).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Measuring SWB
What the sources say
- Supportedcites Helliwell, 2008 source
Section 5, “Comparison of National-Level World Values and Gallup Results” (page not supplied), compares WVS life satisfaction with the Gallup ladder measure and says income is more important to the Gallup measure. It also notes that the reason for the difference remains uncertain. (LLM, conf=0.93)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Supported
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Our choice of account of wellbeing could clearly have important implications for who we think of as doing well or badly in life.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Accounts of wellbeing
boostedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“Life satisfaction has also been shown to differ across countries in ways that can also be explained by differences in freedoms, social capital and trust (Halpern, 2010).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Measuring SWB
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Halpern, 2010
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“Indeed, the health economics literature is now showing that different quality of life weights would be derived from SWB data than from using more standard preference-based methods (Dolan and Kahneman, 2008;Dolan et al., forthcoming).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Dolan and Kahneman, 2008
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Dolan et al., forthcoming
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Not matched
In the paper
“Of course, none of these issues would matter much in practical terms if the different accounts produced similar results -but they often do not.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Accounts of wellbeing
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Peasgood, 2008 source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These are domains of policy that largely have a non-market consequence, and where SWB can potentially have a real impact on policy, especially as compared to preference satisfaction that focusses principally on changes in income.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Probably not a substantial claim. 14
- It may state two separate claims as one. 15
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“More specifically, SWB could be used to make a strong case for unemployment programmes given the significant reduction in SWB associated with any periods of unemployment (Clark et al., 2004;Clark, 2010).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites Clark et al., 2004 sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Results (page unavailable) report that life satisfaction fell by more than half a point, on average, during the reaction phase of unemployment. But the Method (page unavailable) limits the study to people who experienced one unemployment episode and then remained employed; it does not establish a significant reduction in all measures of SWB for any period of unemployment. The case for unemployment programmes is the citing authors’ policy inference, not a finding attributed to this source. (LLM, conf=0.83)
- Not matchedcites Clark, 2010
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Partly supported
The sources with a verdict support this claim; the rest weren’t checked yet, have no full text we could read, or their verdicts aren’t rated yet.
In the paper
“although there are some differences depending on what measure of SWB is used (Kahneman and Deaton, 2010), and whether other people's income is included in the assessment (Luttmer, 2005;Layard et al., 2010).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Accounts of wellbeing
What the sources say
- Supportedcites Kahneman and Deaton, 2010 source
The Discussion states that income relates differently to the two measures of subjective well-being: emotional well-being levels off at high income, while life evaluation does not. The clause about other people's income is attributed to different citations, not to Kahneman and Deaton. (LLM, conf=0.94)
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Luttmer, 2005 source
- Supportedcites Layard et al., 2010 source
The Abstract says comparator income has a negative effect on happiness in the US and on life satisfaction in West Germany. The ‘Individual data 1972–now’ section likewise reports that adding comparator income changes the estimated income relationship. The separate point about differences between SWB measures is attributed to Kahneman and Deaton, not to this source. (LLM, conf=0.93)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Supported
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“Expected gains in SWB could be computed for different policy areas and this information could be used to decide which forms of spending will lead to the largest increases in SWB relative to their costs (Dolan and Metcalfe, 2008).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites Dolan and Metcalfe, 2008Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Conclusion (section 6; page unavailable) says SWB could generate monetary values for public policy and help inform the allocation of scarce resources. It does not describe computing expected SWB gains across different policy areas or ranking spending by SWB gain relative to cost; it also says the valuation method needs more research. (LLM, conf=0.82)
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Partly supported
Every source the paper cites for this claim was checked and supports it.
In the paper
“In a comparison of 'eudemonic' measures and evaluations of life satisfaction and happiness, Ryff and Keyes (1995) found that self-acceptance and environmental mastery were associated with evaluations but that positive relations with others, purpose in life, personal growth and autonomy were less well correlated.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Supportedcites Ryff and Keyes, 1995 source
The Correlations With Other Measures section (p. 5) reports the strongest associations with happiness and life satisfaction for Self-Acceptance and Environmental Mastery, with weaker associations for the other four dimensions. The Discussion (p. 6) likewise describes the remaining four dimensions as having mixed or weak relationships with those measures. (LLM, conf=0.94)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Supported
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“Work on the Gallup Poll by Diener et al. (2010) and Kahneman and Deaton (2010) shows that income is more highly correlated with ladder of life responses than with feelings, which are themselves more highly correlated with health than the ladder.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Diener et al., 2010
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Supportedcites Kahneman and Deaton, 2010 source
The Discussion says income is more strongly related to life satisfaction than to happiness, and the Results show that life evaluation continues to rise with income after emotional well-being levels off. The Results also state that physical illness and headaches have relatively larger adverse associations with emotional well-being than with life evaluation. (LLM, conf=0.92)
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“There are three accounts of wellbeing (Parfit, 1984;Sumner, 1996) that meet the three conditions (i) objective lists; (ii) preference satisfaction; and (iii) mental states (or SWB).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Accounts of wellbeing
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Parfit, 1984
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Sumner, 1996
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“Following Parfit (1984), there are three main accounts of wellbeing -objective lists, preference satisfaction and mental states (or subjective wellbeing) -and all three are important for public policy.”
- Also stated in: § Accounts of wellbeing · plain
“There are three accounts of wellbeing (Parfit, 1984;Sumner, 1996) that meet the three conditions (i) objective lists; (ii) preference satisfaction; and (iii) mental states (or SWB).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Introduction
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Parfit, 1984
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Sumner, 1996
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Also stated in: § Accounts of wellbeing · plain
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“SWB can also be used for assessing the consequences of cigarette taxation (Gruber and Mullainatha, 2005), air pollution (Luechinger, 2009), flooding (Luechinger and Rasacky, 2009) and the risk of terrorism (Metcalfe et al., 2011).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
What the sources say
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Importantly, some measures might be more or less amenable to change by individuals and policy-makers, thus impacting upon debates about agency in and over SWB (see Cooper and Lousada, 2005;Ryan and Sapp, 2007;Taylor, 2011).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Introduction
What the sources say
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“There are three main concepts of SWB in the literature -evaluation (life satisfaction), experience (momentary mood) and eudemonia (purpose) -and policy-makers should seek to measure all three, at least for the purposes of monitoring progress.”
- Also stated in: § Measuring SWB · plain
“Here we distinguish between three broad categories of measure: (i) evaluation; (ii) experience; and (iii) 'eudemonic'.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Kahneman and Riis, 2005
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Dolan et al., 2006
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Waldron, 2010
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
- Also stated in: § Measuring SWB · plain
In the paper
“Life satisfaction has been shown to be correlated with income (both absolute and relative), employment status, marital status, health, personal characteristics (age, gender, and personality) and major life events (see Dolan et al. (2008) for a recent review).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Measuring SWB
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Dolan et al., 2008
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
In the paper
“Peasgood (2008) used the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) to examine objective wellbeing, preference satisfaction and SWB scores for the same individuals.She shows that there is a dramatic difference between the accounts for those with children, people who commute long distances, those with a degree and between men and women.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Accounts of wellbeing
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Peasgood, 2008 source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It may be particularly useful when deciding how best to allocate scarce resources, where it is desirable to express the benefits of intervention in a single metric that can be compared to the costs of intervention.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Abstract
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Different approaches to measurement could have significant consequences for inferences drawn from SWB data.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Introduction
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Monitoring SWB could be important in ensuring that other changes that affect society do not reduce overall wellbeing.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Uses of the accounts
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The mental state account of wellbeing upon which SWB measures are based can provide useful additional information about who is doing well and badly in life when compared to that provided by the objective list and preference satisfaction accounts.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Abstract
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“There has not been a thorough comparison of the three measures of SWB due to no large-scale longitudinal or repeated cross-sectional survey containing all the measures.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: fails — The paper may give no reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“Some conditions, like unemployment it seems, continue to draw attention to them and continue to affect SWB long after the event (Lucas et al., 2003;Lucas, 2005).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Some challenges
What the sources say
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Some of these surveys use a scale running from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied, and they do not make clear where on the scale dissatisfied stops and satisfied starts.This makes it difficult to interpret the scores.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Recommendations and conclusion
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
- Rests on an assumption: Some surveys use a scale running from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied and do not make clear where on the scale dissatisfied stops and satisfied starts.
In the paper
“For life satisfaction, it appears that unemployment is very bad, marriage is pretty good at least to start with, children have no effect, retirement is pretty good at least to start, but there is considerable heterogeneity (Calvo et al., 2007).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Calvo et al., 2007
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The relationship between earlier and later responses can be seen as an issue of scaling and salience: if later responses are influenced by earlier ones, then the earlier ones are salient at the time of the later assessment (as shown in the study by Dolan and Metcalfe, 2010).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Some challenges
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Dolan and Metcalfe, 2010 source
boostedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Evaluations and experience-based measures may sometimes produce similar results (Blanchflower, 2009), but often they do not.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Blanchflower, 2009 source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“There is some evidence, however, that positive and negative affect are somewhat independent of one another and should therefore be measured separately (Diener and Emmons, 1984).”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Diener and Emmons, 1984
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
In the paper
“For example, time spent with children is relatively more rewarding than pleasurable, and time spent watching televisions is relatively more pleasurable than rewarding.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Experience measures
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites White and Dolan, 2009 source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But information on all three accounts of wellbeing can illuminate what difference expectations and adaptation make in practice and such information can be fed into the normative debate.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Some challenges
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In practice, what counts as a good life is going to be dynamic too.”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Some challenges
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
The paper relies on this without support.
There is an urgent need to consider how best to measure SWB in large samples.
“This paper and its motivation derives directly from the urgent need to consider how best to measure SWB in large samples.”
The paper relies on this without support.
There is a need for a fuller consideration of, and conceptual clarity about, how SWB should be measured for policy purposes.
“but there is a need for a fuller consideration of, and conceptual clarity about, how SWB should be measured for policy purposes.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Using happiness or life satisfaction yields very similar results, in terms of the impact of key variables.
“Using happiness or life satisfaction yields very similar results, in terms of the impact of key variables.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Some surveys use a scale running from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied and do not make clear where on the scale dissatisfied stops and satisfied starts.
“Some of these surveys use a scale running from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied, and they do not make clear where on the scale dissatisfied stops and satisfied starts.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The experience measures generally calibrate the scales from 'not at all'.
“the experience measures generally calibrate the scales from 'not at all'.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The BHPS does not ask about satisfaction with mental wellbeing and with the wellbeing of your children.
“The BHPS does not ask about satisfaction with mental wellbeing and with the wellbeing of your children, which are obvious omissions from the BHPS domains.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Both mental wellbeing and the wellbeing of your children are potentially important determinants of wellbeing.
“Both of these domains are potentially important determinants of wellbeing (as distinct, in the case of children, from simply knowing whether someone has children or not).”
The paper relies on this without support.
Mental health measures are most likely to only pick up the negative side of the domain.
“It is important to ask about general mental wellbeing and not mental health, since the latter is most likely to only pick up the negative side of the domain.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Expectations and adaptation feed directly into scaling effects.
“Expectations and adaptation feed directly into scaling effects.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The GSOEP, WVS and Defra surveys use a 0-10 scale.
“The GSOEP, WVS and Defra surveys use a 0-10 scale.”
The paper relies on this without support.
There are no general questions about purpose and meaning in life.
“There are no general questions about purpose and meaning in life and so we have based our recommendations on a suggestion by Felicia Huppert.”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated major: it would touch a result — a value a result rests on, reported and recomputed p-values on opposite sides of the significance level, two passages that conflict with no sign which is right, or a cited work retracted before this paper was published.
In the paper
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Recommendations and conclusion
“(iii) Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Recommendations and conclusion
“3. Overall, how worried did you feel yesterday?”
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > Some challenges
“According to Kahneman and Thaler (2005), a main reason for adaptation is attention”
§ Measuring Subjective Wellbeing: Recommendations on Measures for use by National Governments > References
“66. Kahneman, D. and Thaler, R. H. (2006), 'Anomalies: utility maximization and experienced utility'”
Citations
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–300 of 401
Estimation of the Impact of Foodborne Salmonellosis on Consumer Well-Being in Hungary
Vajda, Á., Ózsvári, L., Szakos, D., & Kasza, G. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph181910131 · Cited by 9
“When estimating the well-being effects of nonmarket goods, economists often rely on information about individuals’ WTP [20].”
BackgroundLife satisfaction and diet in transition: evidence from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey
Huffman, S. K., & Rizov, M. (2018) · Agricultural Economics · doi:10.1111/agec.12442 · Cited by 9
“Life satisfaction is closely related to the concepts of happiness and subjective well-being as the three are often used interchangeably in the economics literature while psychologists consider them distinct (Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012; Graham, 2012).”
BackgroundLiu, X., Li, Y., & Gao, W. (2024) · Journal of Psychology in Africa · doi:10.1080/14330237.2024.2398871 · Cited by 14
“Thus, it is imperative for relevant research in China to broaden its perspective on subjective well-being among college students, considering the interplay between objective life circumstances, subjective psychological experiences, and life evaluations (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
Agormedah, E. K., Ankomah, F., Srem‐Sai, M., Nugba, R. M., Quansah, F., Hagan, J. E., Okan, O., Dadaczynski, K., & Schack, T. (2024) · Education Sciences · doi:10.3390/educsci14020178 · Cited by 8
Measuring social value in construction
Watts, G., Dainty, A., & Fernie, S. (2019) · University of Salford Institutional Repository (University of Salford) · Cited by 8
Schaafsma, M., & Gross‐Camp, N. D. (2021) · Case Studies in the Environment · doi:10.1525/cse.2021.1425104 · Cited by 8
Ugyel, L., Givel, M. S., & Chophel, D. (2023) · Review of Policy Research · doi:10.1111/ropr.12559 · Cited by 8
The Anomalous Wellbeing of Disabled People: A Response
Edwards, C. (2013) · Topoi · doi:10.1007/s11245-013-9156-0 · Cited by 10
“(Dolan and Metcalfe 2012) seek to capture one element of human experience, but leave a lot of questions unanswered.”
BackgroundInfluentialWhat happiness science can learn from John Stuart Mill
van der Deijl, W. (2016) · International Journal of Wellbeing · doi:10.5502/ijw.v6i1.464 · Cited by 8
“In fact, explicit references to Bentham’s philosophy are not at all rare in the SWB literature (e.g. Kahneman, Wakker, & Sarin, 1997; Kahneman et al., 2004; Veenhoven, 2010; Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
BackgroundCarlquist, E., Nafstad, H. E., & Blakar, R. M. (2017) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-017-9854-1 · Cited by 9
Sergeeva, I., & Kamalov, E. (2025) · Post-Soviet Affairs · doi:10.1080/1060586x.2025.2477417 · Cited by 11
“Following the guidelines (OECD 2013; Dolan and Metcalfe 2012), to measure the affective dimension, we asked respondents how often they felt emotions such as sadness, depression, and happiness over the last three months.”
Reilly, K. H., Adamowski, J., & John, K. (2019) · Ecology and Society · doi:10.5751/es-10811-240429 · Cited by 8
Wellard, I., & Secker, M. (2017) · Sport Education and Society · doi:10.1080/13573322.2015.1116443 · Cited by 7
“…the concept less problematic and, indeed, approach it in terms of a more measureable ‘object’ which invariably incorporates economic determinants (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Tennant et al., 2007), we see that pursuit of a uniform definition is always going to be fraught with tensions (Ahmed,…”
BackgroundTomlinson, A., Lane, J., Julier, G., Grigsby‐Duffy, L., Payne, A. M., Mansfield, L., Kay, T., John, A., Meads, C., Daykin, N., et al. (2020) · Journal of Applied Arts and Health · doi:10.1386/jaah_00042_1 · Cited by 7
The Life Satisfaction of Immigrants in Canada: Does Time Since Arrival Matter more than Income?
Monteiro, L. G., & Haan, M. (2021) · Journal of International Migration and Integration / Revue de l integration et de la migration internationale · doi:10.1007/s12134-021-00899-x · Cited by 7
Laffan, K. M., Sunstein, C. R., & Dolan, P. (2021) · Behavioural Public Policy · doi:10.1017/bpp.2021.32 · Cited by 6
Self-citationWhat Drives Happiness? The Interviewer’s Happiness
Stefkovics, Á., & Sík, E. (2022) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-022-00527-0 · Cited by 7
“The monitoring of SWB measures is becoming increasingly important for policy-makers (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
BackgroundAdler, M. D., Dolan, P., Henwood, A., & Kavetsos, G. (2022) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115015 · Cited by 7
Self-citationLou, X., Ng, T. K., & Siu, O. L. (2023) · The Journal of Positive Psychology · doi:10.1080/17439760.2023.2179934 · Cited by 8
“As result, the subjective well-being (SWB) of adolescents, even for healthy populations, has gained increasing public attention (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
BackgroundWeak correlations among 13 episodic memory tasks related to the same public event
Murphy, G., Loftus, E. F., Levine, L. J., Grady, R. H., & Greene, C. M. (2023) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.4103 · Cited by 8
“This is similar to measures used in other studies of life satisfaction, including those related to politics (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Lench et al., 2019; Lucas & Donnellan, 2012).”
ResultThe churches and well-being: perspectives from the Australian National Church Life Survey
Powell, R., & Robbins, M. (2015) · Mental Health Religion & Culture · doi:10.1080/13674676.2015.1011370 · Cited by 7
“Results are also being considered by governments around the world to monitor progress and to inform and appraise public policy (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Vemuri & Costanza, 2006).”
BackgroundBarrington-Leigh, C. P., & Wollenberg, J. T. (2018) · Applied Research in Quality of Life · doi:10.1007/s11482-018-9629-9 · Cited by 6
“Measuring life satisfaction can help policy makers by demonstrating the various benefits in terms of wellbeing that are associated with different allocation decisions (Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012).”
BackgroundMethodJakość życia – konteksty, koncepcje, interpretacje
Rokicka, E. (2013) · Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego eBooks · doi:10.18778/7525-967-4.10 · Cited by 7
Disability and the Well-Being Agenda
Bickenbach, J. (2013) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9781139225632.008 · Cited by 9
A survey on experimental elicitation of creativity in economics
Attanasi, G., Chessa, M., Gil‐Gallen, S., & Llerena, P. (2021) · Revue d économie industrielle · doi:10.4000/rei.10448 · Cited by 24
“At macro level, it is a basic economic input that strongly shapes technological change [Mokyr, 1992]; at household level, fostering creativity may have the side effect of increasing well-being of individuals [Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012].”
BackgroundApplying the PERMA model in employee wellbeing
Wilczyński, A., & Kołoszycz, E. (2023) · e-mentor · doi:10.15219/em99.1605 · Cited by 9
Adamczyk, J., & Adamczyk-Kowalczuk, M. (2022) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su142315551 · Cited by 7
Does using short video apps impacts life satisfaction: a perspective from psycho-social mechanism
Zuo, X., Wang, R., & Hong, Z. (2024) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-024-05896-8 · Cited by 6
“Policymakers and researchers have actively concentrated on the subjective well-being of residents within their jurisdictions, establishing indices and methodologies to measure it (Cummins et al., 2003; Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
Cook, J., Kabubo‐Mariara, J., & Kimuyu, P. K. (2022) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-022-00509-2 · Cited by 6
“…where people are asked about ‘satisfaction with their life as a whole’, eudemonic well-being, which captures overall feelings of meaning and purpose in life, and hedonic well-being in which people rate their momentary feelings of happiness (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Larson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1983).”
BackgroundThe Salutogenic Wellness Promotion Scale for Older Adults
Becker, C. M., Chaney, B. H., Shores, K. A., & Glascoff, M. A. (2015) · American Journal of Health Education · doi:10.1080/19325037.2015.1055019 · Cited by 8
“Findings from independent positive and negative states provide additional and complementary information that health professional’s can use for interventions, policy design and appraisal not possible when only traditional negative health measures are used.(24) Recognition of the need for positive health measures was ex…”
BackgroundA cross-state comparison of measures of subjective wellbeing
Song, Y. (2017) · International Journal of Wellbeing · doi:10.5502/ijw.v7i1.561 · Cited by 5
“Recently, economists and policy makers have increased their interests in measures of subjective well-being (Di Tella and MacCulloch 2006; Dolan and Metcalfe 2012; Frey and Stutzer 2002; Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitoussi 2009).”
BackgroundThe Changing Nature of Happiness
McHugh, S., & Carson, J. F. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-65651-9 · Cited by 7
Quack Policy: Abusing Science in the Cause of PaternalismPreprint
Whyte, J. (2013) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2318507 · Cited by 7
Nature’s contribution to poverty alleviation, human wellbeing and the SDGs
Poudyal, M., Kraft, F., Wells, G. J., Das, A., Attiwilli, S., Schreckenberg, K., Lélé, S. M., Daw, T. M., Torres-Vitolas, C. A., Setty, S. R., et al. (2024) · Scientific Data · doi:10.1038/s41597-024-02967-0 · Cited by 6
Hancock, K. E., Sherar, L. B., & Downward, P. M. (2025) · Leisure Studies · doi:10.1080/02614367.2025.2451281 · Cited by 6
“Hedonic wellbeing can be measured via ratings of life satisfaction or happiness; eudaimonic well-being through ratings of how worthwhile one feels the things one does in life are (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Dolan et al., 2011).”
Linking Subjective Wellbeing and Pro-environmental Behaviour: A Multidimensional Approach
Krekel, C., & Prati, A. (2021) · Community quality-of-life and well-being · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-89559-4_11 · Cited by 5
“Four different dimensions of subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction, happiness, anxiety, and feelings of worthwhileness of things in life from the UK Office for National Statistics, the so-called ONS-4, cf. Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012) were then regressed on these indicators alongside controls.”
Banga, C., Kılıç, H., & Musarapasi, S. (2021) · Journal of Regional Economic and Social Development · doi:10.17770/jresd2021vol1.13.6707 · Cited by 5
Reframing well‐being: Lessons from Aotearoa New Zealand's first wave COVID ‐19 response
Stronge, D. C., Greenaway, A. J., Kannemeyer, R. L., et al. (2023) · Asia Pacific Viewpoint · doi:10.1111/apv.12369 · Cited by 5
The impact of public smoking bans on well‐being externalities: Evidence from a policy experiment
Yang, M., & Zucchelli, E. (2017) · Scottish Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1111/sjpe.12150 · Cited by 5
“SWB and its measurement are now central to public policy as a number of governments worldwide are increasingly concerned with the use of well-being measures to inform and appraise policy interventions (Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012).”
Health or Happiness? A Note on Trading Off Health and Happiness in Rationing Decisions
van de Wetering, E. J., van Exel, J. N. A., & Brouwer, W. B. F. (2016) · Value in Health · doi:10.1016/j.jval.2016.02.003 · Cited by 5
Thompson, J. (2018) · The Heythrop Journal · doi:10.1111/heyj.13019 · Cited by 5
Armstrong, L. L., Watt, E., John, E. S., & Desson, S. (2020) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-020-00801-5 · Cited by 10
Social Capital as a Resource of Subjective Well-Being: Mediating Role of Health Status
Danish, M., & Khan, H. U. R. (2020) · Forman Journal of Economic Studies · doi:10.32368/fjes.20201608 · Cited by 5
Sahnoun, M., & Abdennadher, C. (2021) · Ekonomický časopis · doi:10.31577/ekoncas.2021.05.01 · Cited by 5
“…have been attributed to the measure of well-being as a latent multidimensional concept (Dolan, Peasgood and White, 2008; Diener and Ryan, 2009; Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012; Alatartseva and Barysheva, 2015) and have thus identified key factors that influence well-being such as income, employment,…”
BackgroundThe duration of daily activities has no impact on measures of overall wellbeing
Henwood, A., Guerreiro, J., Matic, A., & Dolan, P. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-021-04606-9 · Cited by 5
Self-citationRicher and Healthier? Social Pensions and Unhealthy Consumption Behavior in China
Wang, X., Lei, X., Ren, Y., & Yu, J. (2023) · Economic Development and Cultural Change · doi:10.1086/727535 · Cited by 5
Appraising Unhappiness in the Wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake
Ohtake, F., Yamada, K., & Yamane, S. (2016) · Japanese Economic Review · doi:10.1111/jere.12099 · Cited by 5
Eudaimonia and ‘Species Being’: A Marxist Perspective
Dean, H. (2016) · International handbooks of quality-of-life · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-42445-3_34 · Cited by 5
Folgueras, M. D., & Lesnard, L. (2018) · L Année sociologique · doi:10.3917/anso.182.0295 · Cited by 5
Analysis of Fish Landing Price on Subjective Wellbeing of Fishers Around Lake Victoria, Tanzania
Sambuo, D. B., Kirama, S. L., & Phd, K. C. T. M. (2019) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-019-00158-y · Cited by 6
Evaluation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Literature Review
Verity, F., Andrews, N., Calder, G., et al. (2020) · Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) · Cited by 5
Chen, Z., & Yang, M. (2025) · Applied Geography · doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2025.103731 · Cited by 5
The determinants of trust: findings from large, representative samples in six OECD countries
Kovacs, R., Dunaiski, M., Galizzi, M. M., Grimalda, G. F., Hortalà-Vallvé, R., Murtin, F., & Putterman, L. G. (2024) · Economica · doi:10.1111/ecca.12549 · Cited by 6
“To measure life satisfaction, participants were asked to indicate how satisfied they were with ‘life as a whole’, on a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 refers to being completely satisfied (Dolan and Metcalfe 2012).”
Subjective well-being indices in assessing happiness in Russia
Skachkova, L. S., Gerasimova, O., & Krivosheeva-Medyantseva, D. D. (2024) · Upravlenets · doi:10.29141/2218-5003-2024-15-5-1 · Cited by 8
Navarrete-Hernández, P., Alarcon-Flores, A., & Mace, A. (2025) · Cities · doi:10.1016/j.cities.2025.105916 · Cited by 5
Lee, H. A., Poon, N., Dolan, P., et al. (2024) · Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1177/13591053241246933 · Cited by 4
“In policy research, SWB has been defined over three domains, namely evaluation , experience and eudemonia (Dolan et al., 2011; Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012).”
Self-citationFinancial, Job and Health Satisfaction: A Comparative Approach on Working People
Navarro, M. (2019) · Societies · doi:10.3390/soc9020034 · Cited by 4
Turley, R., Roberts, S., Foster, C., Willis, S., Morgan, H. E., Warner, N., Mann, M. K., Scourfield, J., El-Banna, A., Evans, R., et al. (2020) · ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) · Cited by 4
Life Conditions as Mediators of Welfare State Effect on Mental Wellbeing among Oldest Old in Europe
Cresswell‐Smith, J., Wahlbeck, K., & Kalseth, J. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19074363 · Cited by 4
Schneider, L., Matic, A., Buda, T. S., & Dolan, P. (2024) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2024.112584 · Cited by 6
Self-citationFernandes, D. S., & Machado, C. F. D. S. C. (2022) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821238-7.00001-4 · Cited by 4
Addressing misconceptions in valuing health
Dolan, P. (2013) · Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research · doi:10.1586/erp.12.90 · Cited by 4
Self-citationA copula-based model for multivariate ordinal panel data: application to well-being compositionPreprint
Nikoloulopoulos, A. K., & Mentzakis, E. (2016) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1604.05643 · Cited by 4
“…and reliable data on well-being can be collected and should be included in surveys and official statistics with further reports advocating its role in policy making in informing policy designs, monitoring progress and evaluating implementation of public interventions (Dolan and Metcalfe, 2012).”
BackgroundMeasuring well-being in the digital age
Hatem, L., & Ker, D. (2021) · OECD going digital toolkit notes · doi:10.1787/1891bb63-en · Cited by 10
Pelowski, M., Cotter, K. N., Specker, E., et al. (2022) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/w594s · Cited by 4
Chen, X., Hoek, G., Frijters, P., Dyer, G. M. C., Gössling, S., Khomenko, S., Khreis, H., Kolb, E., Mueller, N., Staatsen, B. A. M., et al. (2026) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2026.110067 · Cited by 4
Becoming a violent extremist: a General Need and Affect model of psychological variables
van den Berg, H., & Hemert, D. A. V. (2021) · Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression · doi:10.1080/19434472.2021.1986110 · Cited by 4
“In addition, following Bartlett and Miller (2012), we included general affect, but renamed it subjective (psychological) well-being to join a distinctive literature on well-being (Benson et al., 2019; Diener, 1984; Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
Gerami, A., Foster, C., & Murphy, J. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph192416732 · Cited by 3
“Ideally, studies could develop a method to assess the participants’ momentary mood while minimizing these biases when participants complete a survey sometime after the experience [25].”
Storytelling as narrative health promotion in community psychiatry: a quasi-experimental study
Komóczi, M., & Kósa, K. (2025) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-025-06816-1 · Cited by 23
“Participants rated their current life satisfaction on a scale from 0 (‘not at all’) to 10 (‘totally’) [49].”
Broken Ties: Black Americans’ Diminished Return of Socioeconomic Status on Subjective Well-being
Ford, T. N., Kubzansky, L. D., Mitchell, U. A., & Graham, C. L. (2025) · Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities · doi:10.1007/s40615-025-02621-4 · Cited by 3
Goulden, S., & Kerret, D. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning · doi:10.1080/1523908x.2021.1935223 · Cited by 3
Discovering ‘the New Science of Happiness’ and Subjective Well-being
Oman, S. (2021) · New directions in cultural policy research · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-72937-0_4 · Cited by 3
Shi, Y., Bi, D., Wang, Y., et al. (2022) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.984183 · Cited by 3
“Recently, subjective well-being (SWB) has gained increasing attention for mental health-related evaluation and has been referred to as an indicator of psychological adjustment (7, 8).”
BackgroundBoy, F. (2023) · IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) · doi:10.1109/istas57930.2023.10305931 · Cited by 3
Development Indexes, Environmental Cost Impact, and Well-Being: Trends and Comparisons in Italy
Torchio, M. F., Lucia, U., & Grisolia, G. (2024) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su16114380 · Cited by 3
Accounting for Consequences and Claims in Policy
Dolan, P. (2021) · LSE Public Policy Review · doi:10.31389/lseppr.43 · Cited by 3
Self-citationAziz, C., Lomas, T., & Mattoli, S. (2022) · International Journal of Community Well-Being · doi:10.1007/s42413-022-00169-3 · Cited by 3
“Thirdly, economic researchers propose using the data from collections of self-reports of SWB as an indicator of how society is performing (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
Repercussions of Individual and Societal Valuing of Happiness
Lutz, P. K., & Passmore, H. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-13921-6_16 · Cited by 3
Simonson, I. (2020) · Journal of Consumer Psychology · doi:10.1002/jcpy.1182 · Cited by 5
“Beyond particular experiences, researchers have developed measures of subjective well-being such as based on how people spend their time (e.g., Krueger et al., 2009), ratings of thoughts and feelings (e.g., Dolan & Metcalfe 2012), and facial expressions such as smiling or laughing.”
BackgroundIssues relating to behaviour, wellbeing and the environment
Laffan, K. M. (2017) · London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) · doi:10.21953/lse.2lzozibela7s · Cited by 3
Sergeeva, I., & Kamalov, E. (2023) · doi:10.31235/osf.io/2wmuy · Cited by 5
Measuring Self-Reported Well-Being
Heffetz, O., & Caspi, Y. (2025) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w33847 · Cited by 3
Pilkington, M. (2015) · Mind & Society · doi:10.1007/s11299-015-0181-0 · Cited by 13
Vebrianna, N. R., Hakim, L., & Putro, T. R. (2024) · Jurnal Ilmu Sosial dan Humaniora · doi:10.23887/jish.v13i1.75118 · Cited by 3
“…kesejahteraan mental yang menjadi dasar pengukuran kesejahteraan subjektif dapat memberikan informasi tambahan yang berguna tentang siapa yang memiliki kehidupan yang baik atau buruk dibandingkan dengan informasi yang diberikan oleh daftar objektif dan preferensi kepuasan (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012).”
BackgroundKasim, M. T., Cyan, M. R., Rider, M., & Yedgenov, B. (2025) · Oxford Development Studies · doi:10.1080/13600818.2025.2487708 · Cited by 2
Bishop, D. T., & Digaeva, A. (2025) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-025-23838-2 · Cited by 2
“In 2012, Dolan and Metcalfe [31] proposed how data obtained via self-report measures of subjective wellbeing might inform government policy, highlighting three broad approaches to measuring the construct: evaluative , global assessments of one’s life such as life satisfaction; experiential , an…”
InfluentialWinn, K. M., Chen, G., & Woode, M. E. (2025) · Child Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s12187-025-10288-w · Cited by 2
“SWB is a dynamic and multifaceted concept, referring to an individual’s self-evaluation of any aspect of their life, such as finances, health, education, and relationships (Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Hicks et al., 2013; VanderWeele et al., 2020; Vik & Carlquist, 2018 ).”
Greco, G., Fabbri, C., Dutt, V., & Powell-Jackson, T. (2025) · Journal of Happiness Studies · doi:10.1007/s10902-025-00975-4 · Cited by 2
“…2013), subjective wellbeing measures, especially those focusing on hedonic wellbeing, have gained popularity in the last decade for (1) the assessment of people’s quality of life, (2) monitoring progress in societies and (3) designing and appraisal of policy interventions (Dolan & Metcalfe 2012).”
Urban residential areas as children’s learning places and spaces
Poikolainen, J., & Honkanen, K. (2019) · Nordic Studies in Education · doi:10.18261/issn.1891-5949-2019-02-02 · Cited by 2
محمود, س. ش. م., & زايد, أ. م. أ. (2021) · المجلة التربوية لکلية التربية بسوهاج · doi:10.21608/edusohag.2021.208700 · Cited by 2
Dorjee, D., & Roeser, R. W. (2022) · UNESCO MGIEP eBooks · doi:10.56383/horu5152 · Cited by 2
Subjective Well-Being of Children and Adolescents from Ethnic Minorities in Chile
Torres‐Vallejos, J., Casas, F., Bilbao, M., López, V., Caqueo‐Urízar, A., Flores, J., Squicciarini, A. M., & Sánchez, P. (2022) · Child Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s12187-022-09955-z · Cited by 2
Exploring the Role of Perceived Social Support on Subjective Well-Being Among Youth in India
Das, D. (2024) · Global Social Welfare · doi:10.1007/s40609-024-00332-y · Cited by 2
“Past studies have not shown a clear consensus on the best means of measuring subjective well-being in youth; the present study utilized an evaluative measure of subjective well-being rather than an experiential or eudemonic measure (Dolan et al., 2011; Dolan & Metcalfe, 2012; Moore et al., 2018).”
Pratt, S., Aleshinloye, K. D., & Suntikul, W. (2024) · Event Management · doi:10.3727/152599524x17229013810257 · Cited by 2
Vivir bien, entre utopía y realidad
Artaraz, K., & Calestani, M. (2013) · Tabula rasa · doi:10.25058/20112742.140 · Cited by 2
The Need for a Comprehensive Survey of Youth Wellbeing in the Northern Territory
Helmer, J., Senior, K., & Cunningham, T. (2014) · Applied Research in Quality of Life · doi:10.1007/s11482-014-9331-5 · Cited by 2
Suli, L. I., ZHANG, J., & Shan, L. I. U. (2014) · Acta Psychologica Sinica · doi:10.3724/sp.j.1041.2014.00125 · Cited by 2
Postgrowth and Human Wellbeing
Büchs, M., & Koch, M. (2017) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59903-8_5 · Cited by 2
Measuring Indecision in Happiness Studies
Capecchi, S. (2017) · Happiness studies book series · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61810-4_7 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- DOLAN, P., & METCALFE, R.
- Affiliations
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Social Policy
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2012-01-12
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 409-427
- ISSN
- 0047-2794 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7823
- OpenAlex
- W2146619620
- Semantic Scholar
- 4c6230065b5e9a5dd3be6b341c78161441bc9682
- Cited by
- 404
- References
- 133
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 27.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orcid.org
- Locations
- Journal of Social Policy (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Quality of Life Measurement
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- subjective well-being, well-being measurement, life satisfaction, momentary mood, eudaimonia, public policy monitoring, resource allocation, cost-benefit analysis, adaptation, questionnaire development
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