ArticleScientific reports2024
The Cantril Ladder elicits thoughts about power and wealth.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of pulmonary rehabilitation on the perception of happiness in individuals with COPD: A randomized clinical trial.Brazilian journal of physical therapyTrial
- Individuals With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Experience Lower Levels of Happiness Than Their Healthy Peers: A Case-Control Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Mapping Adolescent Wellbeing: Developmental Network Differences between Early To Middle Adolescence in 24 Countries.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- Adverse Impact of Nonstandard Working Hours on Mental Health: An Analysis Using Two-way Fixed Effects Model.Safety and health at work · 2026Article
- Stability and Change in Wellbeing Throughout Adolescence and Its Relationship with Life Events: A Longitudinal Twin Study.Behavior genetics · 2026Article
- Examining the American mindset on community well-being: insights from a national survey.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Exploring associations of three evaluative subjective wellbeing measures (Cantril's ladder, life satisfaction, happiness) with 15 childhood and demographic factors across 22 countries.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Life Satisfaction is More Strongly Correlated with Flourishing Than Cantril's Ladder.Applied research in quality of life · 2026Article
- Determinants of Well-Being: A Causal Framework.Social indicators research · 2026Article
- A comparative "report card" wellbeing assessment of 22 countries in the Global Flourishing Study.Discover global society · 2026Article
- Individual, intergenerational, and contextual factors associated with coping strategies, coping variability, and perceived coping efficacy among young adults.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Happier individuals generate more spontaneous thoughts about friends and value relationships over money.Communications psychology · 2025Article
- Are depression, quality of life and life satisfaction associated with internet addiction? A cross-sectional study among Turkish university students.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Multidimensional versus unidimensional approaches to well-being.Nature human behaviour · 2025Review
- Editorial: Well-being in Asia.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Analysis of subjective well-being in European Union countries: Group DEA and NPE.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Analyzing and predicting global happiness index via integrated multilayer clustering and machine learning models.PloS one · 2025Article
- Parent-child relationship quality predicts higher subjective well-being in adulthood across a diverse group of countries.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Characterizing Healthy Dietary Practices in Japan: Insights from a 2024 Nationwide Survey and Cluster Analysis.Nutrients · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The Cantril Ladder is among the most widely administered subjective well-being measures; every year, it is collected in 140+ countries in the Gallup World Poll and reported in the World Happiness Report. The measure asks respondents to evaluate their lives on a ladder from worst (bottom) to best (top). Prior work found Cantril Ladder scores sensitive to social comparison and to reflect one's relative position in the income distribution. To understand this, we explored how respondents interpret the Cantril Ladder. We analyzed word responses from 1581 UK adults and tested the impact of the (a) ladder imagery, (b) scale anchors of worst to best possible life, and c) bottom to top. Using three language analysis techniques (dictionary, topic, and word embeddings), we found that the Cantril Ladder framing emphasizes power and wealth over broader well-being and relationship concepts in comparison to the other study conditions. Further, altering the framings increased preferred scale levels from 8.4 to 8.9 (Cohen's d = 0.36). Introducing harmony as an anchor yielded the strongest divergence from the Cantril Ladder, reducing mentions of power and wealth topics the most (Cohen's d = -0.76). Our findings refine the understanding of historical Cantril Ladder data and may help guide the future evolution of well-being metrics and guidelines.
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