Comparative analyses frequently examine respondents' self-rated health (SRH), assuming that it is a valid and comparable measure of generic health. However, given SRH's vagueness, this assumption is questionable due to (1) manifold non-health influences, such as personal characteristics...

The aim of this paper is to decompose cross-national differences in self-reported general health into parts explained by differences in "true" health, measured by diagnosed conditions and measurements, and parts explained by cross-cultural differences in response styles. The data used were drawn...

It is fairly banal to say that subjective health, the most widely-used health variable, is measured with error. In particular, it would seem important to know how subjective health information depends on the way in which it is collected, as this latter varies widely between countries and...

Building on the scale distortion theory (Frederick & Mochon, 2012), we explore the boundary conditions of anchoring outside of the standard paradigm. We argue that the conditions needed for anchoring effects are much more restrictive than those suggested by some theories, but much less...

This paper examines a common explanation why participants of panel surveys may report declining life satisfaction over time. In line with the argument of developing trust relationships between interviewers and interviewees, the analysis reveals positive effects in reported life satisfaction when...

This paper argues that satisfaction data from surveys are biased by varying participant attitudes toward the interview itself. In this manner, interviewees in a German panel study report lower life satisfaction when there is evidence of transient influences like aversion. The empirical findings...

This paper investigates the finding that reported life satisfaction scores are significantly higher in the German Socio-Economic Panel when a third person is present during the interview. Even after controlling a variety of relevant factors, third person presence makes up a significant...

A recent survey of inequality (Norton and Ariely, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 9-12) asked respondents to indicate what percent of the nation's total wealth is---and should be---controlled by richer and poorer quintiles of the U.S. population. We show that such measures lead to...