amounting to millions of hoursof avoided suffering. Combined national surveys of time use and ofexperienced well-being can inform social policy in multiple ways. Theeconomist on our team
Alan Krueger
took the lead in an effort tointroduce elements of this method into national statistics.Measures of experienced well-being are now routinely used in large-scalenational surveys in the United States
Canada
and Europe
and the GallupWorld Poll has extended these measurements to millions of respondents inthe United States and in more than 150 countries. The polls elicit reports ofthe emotions experienced during the previous day
though in less detailthan the DRM. The gigantic samples allow extremely fine analyses
whichhave confirmed the importance of situational factors
physical health
andsocial contact in experienced well-being. Not surprisingly
a headache willmake a person miserable
and the second best predictor of the feelings ofa day is whether a person did or did not have contacts with friends orrelatives. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that happiness is theexperience of spending time with people you love and who love you.The Gallup data permit a comparison of two aspects of well-being: the well-being that people experience as they live their livesthe judgment they make when they evaluate their lifeGallupâs life evaluation is measured by a question known as the CantrilSelf-Anchoring Striving Scale:Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at thebottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the bestpossible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents theworst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would yousay you personally feel you stand at this time?Some aspects of life have more effect on the evaluation of oneâs life thanon the experience of living. Educational attainment is an example. Moreeducation is associated with higher evaluation of oneâs life
but not withgreater experienced well-being. Indeed
at least in the United States
the
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