title: The '10 Excess' Phenomenon in Responses to Survey Questions on Happiness.
abstract: Happiness in nations is typically measured in surveys using a single question. A common question is: 'all things considered, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life as-a-whole these days on a scale from 0 to 10?'. The responses typically follow a uni-modal distribution with highest frequencies between 5 and 8. Yet in some nations, the percentage of 10 responses stands out and is higher than the percentage of 9 responses. This is particularly present in Latin America and in the Middle East. In this paper we explore the prevalence of the '10-excess' pattern and check some possible explanations. We conclude that the 10-excess phenomenon is partly due to cultural influence.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam, POB 1738, 3000DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gaël
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brulé
authors.affiliation: Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam, POB 1738, 3000DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|North West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.
authors.forename: Ruut
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Veenhoven
keywords: 10 excess; Cultural effect; Extreme responding; Happiness; Life satisfaction