At Wave 5, an experiment examined the comparison groups women have in mind when they answer questions about life satisfaction. Respondents were randomly allocated to one of four treatments groups. The first three experimental groups had respondents rate their life satisfaction comparing themselves to (1) others of the same gender, (2) others with the same level of education, or (3) others of their gender and education. The fourth experimental treatment group was a control where respondents provided a measure of satisfaction without reference to any comparison group. All satisfaction items were subject to this experiment: employment, health, leisure, income and overall life satisfaction, as well as job satisfaction.
The variable e_ff_lifesatw5 on the record e_hhsamp_ip controls allocation to versions of this question. This variable is coded:
1 Same gender comparison
2 Same education comparison
3 Same gender, education comparison
4 Control group
The substantive variables containing data from this split-ballot experiment are e_sclfsat1_sg through e_sclfsato, and e_jbsat_sg through e-jbsat on the record e_indresp_ip.
