Activity, Time, and Subjective Happiness : An Analysis Based on an Hourly Web Survey

Sakawa, Hideaki; Ohtake, Fumio; Tsutsui, Yoshiro

Activity, Time, and Subjective Happiness : An Analysis Based on an Hourly Web Survey

Sakawa, Hideaki; Ohtake, Fumio; Tsutsui, Yoshiro

Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers, 2015, 926, 1-35

Number of Access:325（2025-09-09 18:00 Counts）

Identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11094/51203

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Title	Activity, Time, and Subjective Happiness : An Analysis Based on an Hourly Web Survey
Creator	NRID 1000070513125 1000070513125 CreatorName Sakawa, Hideaki
	NRID 1000050176913 1000050176913 ORCID 0000-0002-8825-7446 0000-0002-8825-7446 researchmap permalink ohtake ohtake Scopus Author ID 6701666319 6701666319 CreatorName Ohtake, Fumio
	NRID 1000050163845 1000050163845 CreatorName Tsutsui, Yoshiro
Subject	happiness
	hourly web survey
	ESM
	mobile phone
	Japan
Abstract	This paper investigates how people’s happiness depends on their current activities and on time. We conducted an hourly web survey, in which 70 students reported their happiness every hour on one day every month from December 2006 to February 2008. This method is an extension of the experience sampling method (ESM), since it uses mobile phones and personal computers. Our new method has the same strength of ESM in that it can measure real-time happiness data and thus avoid reflection and memory bias. Using our new method, we can obtain diurnal happiness data of respondents and also grasp their behavior at each of their reporting times over 14 months. Analyzing the data of our survey, we found (a) happiness significantly depends on activities, hours, and months, (b) while most of the time-variation of happiness is attributable to the time pattern of activities, happiness varies predictably with the hour in a day, even when activities are controlled for, and (c) while activities affect both genders similarly, there are gender gaps in the diurnal happiness pattern after controlling for activities.
Publisher	The Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University
Source Title	Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers
Volume (Issue)	926
Page	1-35
Date of Issued	2015-02
Language	English
Handle URL	https://hdl.handle.net/11094/51203
Relation.references	URI https://www.iser.osaka-u.ac.jp/static/resources/docs/dp/2015/DP0926.pdf
Access Rights	metadata only access
Category	ディスカッション／ワーキング・ペーパー DP/WP
Category	Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers

Resource Type	technical report
Local Type	DP/WP
DCMI Type	Text
DCTERMS.bibliographicCitation	Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers. 2015, 926, p. 1-35
DC.title	Activity, Time, and Subjective Happiness : An Analysis Based on an Hourly Web Survey
DC.creator	Sakawa, Hideaki
	Ohtake, Fumio
	Tsutsui, Yoshiro
DC.publisher	The Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University
DC.language' scheme='DCTERMS.RFC1766	English
DC.type' scheme='DCTERMS.DCMIType	Text
DCTERMS.issued' scheme='DCTERMS.W3CDTF	2015-02
DC.relation' scheme='DCTERMS.URI	https://www.iser.osaka-u.ac.jp/static/resources/docs/dp/2015/DP0926.pdf
DC.subject	happiness
	hourly web survey
	ESM
	mobile phone
	Japan
DCTERMS.abstract	This paper investigates how people’s happiness depends on their current activities and on time. We conducted an hourly web survey, in which 70 students reported their happiness every hour on one day every month from December 2006 to February 2008. This method is an extension of the experience sampling method (ESM), since it uses mobile phones and personal computers. Our new method has the same strength of ESM in that it can measure real-time happiness data and thus avoid reflection and memory bias. Using our new method, we can obtain diurnal happiness data of respondents and also grasp their behavior at each of their reporting times over 14 months. Analyzing the data of our survey, we found (a) happiness significantly depends on activities, hours, and months, (b) while most of the time-variation of happiness is attributable to the time pattern of activities, happiness varies predictably with the hour in a day, even when activities are controlled for, and (c) while activities affect both genders similarly, there are gender gaps in the diurnal happiness pattern after controlling for activities.
DC.format	51203
citation_title	Activity, Time, and Subjective Happiness : An Analysis Based on an Hourly Web Survey
citation_author	Sakawa, Hideaki
	Ohtake, Fumio
	Tsutsui, Yoshiro
citation_publisher	The Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University
citation_language	English
citation_date	2015-02
citation_journal_title	Institute of Social and Economic Research Discussion Papers
citation_volume	926
citation_firstpage	1
citation_lastpage	35
citation_public_url	https://hdl.handle.net/11094/51203
citation_abstract_html_url	https://www.iser.osaka-u.ac.jp/static/resources/docs/dp/2015/DP0926.pdf

Activity, Time, and Subjective Happiness : An Analysis Based on an Hourly Web Survey

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