University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
PLoS One. 2020 Jun 5;15(6):e0233099. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233099. eCollection 2020.
The relationship between age and well-being is U-shaped. One recent explanation for this empirical pattern is related to unmet aspirations theory, pointing out that optimism bias decreases life satisfaction at younger ages, whereas pessimism bias increases it at later stages of life. This paper investigates the effects of Internet use on subjective well-being over the life cycle. Our model investigates the proposition that Internet use affects aspirations, and that this effect is relatively stronger at younger and older ages. To investigate moderation effects of Internet use on the U-shape of life, we use the Eurobarometer annual surveys for the years 2010 to 2016, which provide rich information for around 150,000 individuals in all European countries. We focus on the EU Digital Agenda policy program, and exploit exogenous variation in broadband Internet take-up across European countries to identify the causal effects of Internet on life satisfaction for different age groups. The results of 2SLS estimations for a recursive bivariate ordered probit model show that active Internet users have a different well-being pattern over the life cycle compared to less active users. Specifically, we find that Internet use makes the U-shape of life steeper. Country-level evidence on aspiration levels for different demographic and Internet user groups indicates that our empirical results are consistent with unmet aspirations theory.
年龄与幸福感之间呈 U 型关系。最近有一种解释这种经验模式的理论与未满足的期望理论有关，该理论指出乐观偏见会降低年轻时期的生活满意度，而悲观偏见则会在生命后期提高生活满意度。本文探讨了互联网使用对生命周期中主观幸福感的影响。我们的模型研究了互联网使用影响期望的命题，并且这种影响在年轻和老年时期相对更强。为了研究互联网使用对生活 U 型的调节作用，我们使用了 2010 年至 2016 年的年度 Eurobarometer 调查，这些调查为所有欧洲国家的约 15 万人提供了丰富的信息。我们专注于欧盟数字议程政策计划，并利用欧洲各国宽带互联网普及的外生变化来确定互联网对不同年龄组生活满意度的因果影响。递归双变量有序概率模型的 2SLS 估计结果表明，与不活跃的互联网用户相比，活跃的互联网用户在生命周期中的幸福感模式有所不同。具体而言，我们发现互联网使用使生活的 U 型曲线变得更加陡峭。针对不同人口统计和互联网用户群体的期望水平的国家层面证据表明，我们的实证结果与未满足的期望理论一致。
