Asymmetric affective forecasting errors and their correlation with subjective well-being.

ABSTRACT:

Aims

Social scientists have postulated that the discrepancy between achievements and expectations affects individuals' subjective well-being. Still, little has been done to qualify and quantify such a psychological effect. Our empirical analysis assesses the consequences of positive and negative affective forecasting errors-the difference between realized and expected subjective well-being-on the subsequent level of subjective well-being.

Data

We use longitudinal data on a representative sample of 13,431 individuals from the German Socio-Economic Panel. In our sample, 52% of individuals are females, average age is 43 years, average years of education is 11.4 and 27% of our sample lives in East Germany. Subjective well-being (measured by self-reported life satisfaction) is as

SUBMITTER: Bertoni M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5841766 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature