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Studies

Brickman et al. (1978): study US 1977

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, paralyzed accident victims, and controls, Illinois USA, 1977
Sample
Respondents
N = 73
Non Response
45.5%
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face
Structured, interview also 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) .....?"
0  not at all
1
2
3
4
5  very much
   
(originally rated on horizontal line scale)
Classification:
O-HL-c-sq-n-6-c
Author's label:
Happiness
Remarks:
Lottery winners:   M = 4,00; Ms = 8,00
Accident victims: M = 2,96; Ms = 5,92
Controls:              M = 3,82; Ms = 7,64
Observed distribution
Summary Statistics
On original range 0 - 5 On range 0-10
Mean:
3.59 7.18
SD:
- -

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Having won a major lottery Specific current life-events
Lottery winning
Being an accident victim Physical handicap
Specific current life-events
Victim of accident