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Studies

Brickman et al. (1978): study US 1977 /2

Publication

Author(s):
Brickman, P.; Coates, D.; Janoff-Bulman, R.
Title:
Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?
Source:
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987, Vol. 36, 917 - 927

Investigation

Public
Lottery winners and non-lottery winners, Illinois, USA, 1977
Sample
Respondents
N = 108
Non Response
45.5%
Assessment
Interview: Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI)
Structured interview, mainly by phone

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on single question:

"How happy are you now (not at this moment, but at this stage of life) .....?"
1  not at all
2
3
4
5
6  very much
   
(originally rated on horizontal line scale)
Classification:
O-HL-c-sq-n-6-a
Author's label:
Happiness
Remarks:
Lottery winners:         M=4.00  Ms'=8.00
Non/winners/buyers:       M=3.81 Ms'=7.62
Non-winners/non buyers       M=4.00 Ms'=8.00

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Having won a major lottery Specific current life-events
Lottery winning
Lottery playing Lottery playing