Abstract
In this paper an empirical model is presented thataccounts for adaptation behavior in self-reports onlife-satisfaction. The model is used to determinepreference drift – adaptation to income levels – inlife-satisfaction. With preference drift, the effectof income on life satisfaction varies with the levelof life satisfaction. It is found that preferencedrift mainly occurs among individuals with a highlevel of life-satisfaction.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alessie, R. and A. Kapteyn: 1991, ‘Habit formation, interdependent preferences and demographic effects in the almost ideal demand system’, Economic Journal 101, pp. 404–419.
Brickman, P., D. Coates. and R. Janoff-Bulman: 1978, ‘Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36, pp. 917–927.
Cantril, H.: 1965, The pattern of human concerns, (Rutgers University Press).
Diener, E.: 1984, ‘Subjective well-being’, Psychological Bulletin 95, pp. 542–575.
Hartog, J.and H. Oosterbeek: 1998, ‘Health, wealth, and happiness: why pursue a higher education?’, Economics of Education Review 17, pp. 245–256.
McKelvey, R. and W. Zavoina: 1975, ‘A statistical model for the analysis of ordinal level dependent variables’, Journal of Mathematical Sociology 4, pp. 103–120.
Muellbauer, J.: 1988, ‘Habits, rationality and myopia in the life cycle consumption model’, Annales d’Economie et de Statistique 9, pp. 47–70.
Veenhoven, R.: 1996, ‘Developments in satisfaction research’, Social Indicators Research 37, pp. 1–46.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Groot, W., Maassen van den Brink, H. Life-Satisfaction and Preference Drift. Social Indicators Research 50, 315–328 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007085500976
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007085500976