[refurb]

The data looks like crap? They used search terms (!) and then had to estimate some data because they didn’t start collecting until after Covid hit.

Unfortunately, overall life satisfaction questions were only introduced into the mood tracker in April 2020. So, to consider how the pandemic and lockdown affected people’s general wellbeing, we had to attribute scores to respondents for the period prior to April based on their mood data (we calculated the scores using a statistical technique called regression).

[qubex]

The data may look like crap (to you) but it’s better than absolutist remarks and anecdotal allusions... and as this thread so aptly shows, there’s been a range of reactions, some even favourable.

[isoskeles]

There are absolutist remarks because people know whether or not their own well-being has improved, much better than a study that attempts to declare what their reality is. More than ever, I’m suspicious that social scientists might have an agenda. And their methods are, as usual, not even close to physical sciences.