Lecture Richard Lucas
Rich Lucas is one of the most widely cited researchers worldwide in the area of well-being. He did his PhD in 2000 under the supervision of Ed Diener at the University of Illinois in Urbana, IL. He currently works at Michigan State University, where he is MSU Foundation Professor, and he is also affiliated with the German Institute for Economic Research. His core research topic is subjective well-being, which is at the heart of the Herbert Simon Research Institute.
Within this broader topic, he studies the measurement of well-being, the effect of life circumstances on well-being, and the association between personality and well-being. He frequently uses longitudinal and large-scale survey data to answer his research questions. His research is thus very relevant for various departments and research lines within TSB. See an overview of his publications.
Title: "Do Life Circumstances Matter for Subjective Well-being?"
Abstract: For many years, psychologists believed that subjective well-being was not strongly affected by objective life circumstances, and thus, could not be changed. The relatively weak correlations between reports of SWB and measures of objective circumstances, when combined with the relatively strong correlations with measures of personality traits, the evidence for the stability of SWB over time, and the evidence for a substantial heritable component of SWB led to the belief that long-lasting changes in SWB were not possible. More recent evidence---much of it coming from very large, nationally representative panel studies---challenges this conclusion. In this talk, I present evidence showing that SWB can and does change in response to changing life circumstances, often in ways that match people's intuitions.