> david.curran@... (David Curran) writes:
> [...]
> tehom@... (Tom Breton (Tehom)) writes:
>>> Subjective comparisons with the past. Many people think that the past
>>> there was no crime and the health care was much better. Almost all
>>> evidence(2) I have seen seems to show these beliefs to be not very
>>> accurate. If people do have rose tinted hindsight how can you
>>> counteract this bias?
>>
>>I anticipated that objection and answered it. Perhaps you found my
>> answer
>>unconvincing. If so, could you say why?
>
> People do a poor job of comparing their own emotions over time (see the
> book Stumbling on Happiness for evidence). They are strongly influenced
> by how they feel now and by how they think they ought to have felt. So
> I think it's likely that having them compare feelings over time will
> do more to add noise and/or bias than to add accurate information.

You make a good point. Especially "how they think they ought to have
felt" - that's something I hadn't considered.

On the other hand, even though I summed it up in the word "happiness" or
"satisfaction", the phrase "better off", to me, would cue a response about
my personal circumstances more than one about my emotions. How would you
cue respondents more strongly to focus away from their recollections of
their emotions?

FWIW, when I read _Stumbling on Happiness_, it seemed to me that the
author was seeing only part of the picture. He seemed only interested in
the sort of happiness that relates to being able to rationalize a personal
rejection or defeat, or to remembering only how one felt at the end of an
emotional experience, not how one felt in the middle of it. I saw no
mention of the sort of happiness that is more-or-less in line with prior
expectations.

Tom Breton (Tehom)