Samuel Harvey

• Samuel Harvey 21 Nov 2022 20:40 UTC

  3 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: MichaelPlant’s comment on: The elephant in the bed­net: the im­por­tance of philos­o­phy when choos­ing be­tween ex­tend­ing and im­prov­ing lives

  Awesome, will check it those out.

• Samuel Harvey 19 Nov 2022 21:52 UTC

  5 points

  2 ∶ 0

  on: The elephant in the bed­net: the im­por­tance of philos­o­phy when choos­ing be­tween ex­tend­ing and im­prov­ing lives

  Very interesting report thanks folks! I am very sympathetic to the WELLBY approach. I wonder if anyone shares the intuition that the real improvement of subjective wellbeing doesn’t follow linearly when people report on a 10 point scale. When I think about how I rate something something like how tasty a meal was, there is a bigger real difference between a ⁶⁄₁₀ and ⁷⁄₁₀ than between a ⁵⁄₁₀ and a ⁶⁄₁₀ even though the difference in my ratings was ¹⁄₁₀ in both cases. I wonder if something similar applies to ratings of SWB.

  This could have important implications for which groups to target with certain interventions, if for example through further research we found something like: the first WELLBY point increase from the neutral point is ‘worth more’ than a WELLBY point increase at a higher starting point.

  I’m fairly new to this area and have just engaged with it through HLI’s posts so I’m not sure if this has been talked about before. Keep up the awesome work.