Forum
What is DR@W Forum?
DR@W Forum is an interdisciplinary discussion series which focuses on theoretical and empirical research about decision making.
The usual structure of the forum is a 30 - 45 minute introduction of the topic/working paper, with ample additional time for discussion.
The audience prefers discussing work-in-progress topics as opposed to finished papers. We meet on Thursdays between 2:30 and 3:45pm during term time, with streaming via Zoom. Contact John Taylor (John.Taylor[at]wbs.ac.uk) if you would like to suggest a speaker for a future event. Notifications of upcoming DR@W Forum events along with other decision research related activities can be obtained by registering with the moderated Behaviour Spotlight email list.
Note that several talks during the 2024/25 academic year are being hosted and orgnanised by the Economics department. This is indicated in the calendar entries. These talks will all take place in the Social Studies building. If you require further details regarding these sessions, please contact Matthew Ridley (Matthew.Ridley[at]Warwick.ac.uk) in the Economics department.
DR@W Forum: Mark Fabien (PAIS, Warwick)
Statistical analysis of life satisfaction data standardly assumes 1) linear scale use 2) interpersonal comparability 3) intertemporal comparability. To interrogate the credibility of these assumptions, we need to understand the reporting function: the process by which individuals make life evaluations and then map them to a category on the response scale. We develop a formal model of the reporting function that informs questions in long cognitive interviews of a diverse sample of 100 residents of the United Kingdom. Our results bear out previous efforts to validate life satisfaction scales. However, we also find widespread, severe, systematic, and non-random violations of all three standard assumptions. In particular, many respondents do not use the top of the scale, major shocks appear to alter the meaning of the points on the scale, older people are more likely to interpret life satisfaction questions as referring to how life went rather than how it is going, and respondents rarely describe their own scale use as linear.