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Title: What Do People Want?

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/0...

Abstract of a paper on NBER: We elicited over a million stated preference
choices over 126 dimensions or "aspects" of well-being from a sample of 3,358
respondents on Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Our surveys also collected
self-reported well-being (SWB) questions about respondents' current levels of
the aspects of well-being. From the stated preference data, we estimate
relative log marginal utilities per point on our 0-100 response scale for
each aspect. We validate these estimates by comparing them to alternative
methods for estimating preferences. Our findings provide empirical evidence
that both complements and challenges philosophical perspectives on human
desires and values. Our results support Aristotelian notions of eudaimonia
through family relationships and Maslow's emphasis on basic security needs,
yet also suggest that contemporary theories of well-being may overemphasize
abstract concepts such as happiness and life satisfaction, while undervaluing
concrete aspects such as family well-being, financial security, and health,
that respondents place the highest marginal utilities on. We document
substantial heterogeneity in preferences across respondents within (but not
between) demographic groups, with current SWB levels explaining a significant
portion of the variation.

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