People reinterpret the 0–10 'life satisfaction' ladder as their context changes, so raw survey trends can mislead. A rescaling method using both current and retrospective evaluations suggests American happiness rose in line with GDP from the 1950s to early 2000s and helps explain why COVID-19 and the Ukraine war didn’t crater reported life satisfaction, and why parents don't show higher happiness.
— If survey scales drift, major claims about growth not improving well‑being—and many crisis narratives—need re-evaluation, shifting policy toward growth and better measurement rather than declaring happiness immutable.
Elena Kazamia
2025.09.05
45% relevant
Both pieces show that measurement frameworks (rescaling the unit of analysis) can flip headline conclusions: rescaled happiness ladders change trend stories, and pixel-based city definitions change 'bigger is greener' claims.
Tyler Cowen
2025.08.23
100% relevant
Alberto Prati and Claudia Senik’s paper applying a rescaling model to U.S. archival data and discussing COVID stability, Ukrainian reports, and parental happiness.
Pablo Arriagada
2025.08.11
80% relevant
Both pieces show that changing the scale or threshold (here, the World Bank’s International Poverty Line moving from $2.15 to $3 in 2021 PPP) can flip headline trends, requiring rescaling to interpret time series correctly.