Unpacking the determinants of life satisfaction in the Covid-19 era: a survey experiment

Abstract

In this thesis, we carry out a survey experiment that aims at evaluating if asking to recall memories of a happy, unhappy event or not having remembered any event has effects on the happiness perceived by the subject in the present moment and on the expectations she has about the future happiness. Considering that Covid-19 has been the most discussed topic of the last two years, during the experiment proposed in this research we ask the interviewees to briefly focus on this topic to increase the level of emotionality of the individuals included in the sample. The experiment also aims to evaluate the context effect and unpacking manipulation in life satisfaction. We evaluate whether the introduction of memories and the main domains of life causes an effect in the satisfaction of life and its future expectations. Our results show that compared to the basic treatment in which we do not remember any memories, the presence of the domains and having positive memories is important. The results confirm the resilience theories. When an unhappy event occurs, people try to adapt to this negative event. For this reason, there is no impact of negative memories unless we give the subjects parameters that are more objective such as domains with life to evaluate the event. Furthermore, we detect a focusing illusion effect whereby when positive memories are given, the relevance of the economic and health as determinants of life satisfaction is reduced and the social one’s increase.