Posted by: Waldheri | February 15, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Using as a proxy the length of time a person plays the song “Everybody Hurts” on repeat.
Joking aside, I imagine the scale of grief doesn’t matter as much as relative values: would you be sadder if X happened or if Y happened? I suppose it could be monetized somehow (“I would pay 5 to avoid X-sadness but 8 to avoid Y-sadness.”) but I doubt that would be really accurate except to show relative feelings of grief—in an experimental setting, most people would highball the amounts, but the rankings of what’s sadder than what would probably still be accurate.
“I wonder… How does one measure grief?”
Posted by: Waldheri | February 15, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Using as a proxy the length of time a person plays the song “Everybody Hurts” on repeat.
Joking aside, I imagine the scale of grief doesn’t matter as much as relative values: would you be sadder if X happened or if Y happened? I suppose it could be monetized somehow (“I would pay 5 to avoid X-sadness but 8 to avoid Y-sadness.”) but I doubt that would be really accurate except to show relative feelings of grief—in an experimental setting, most people would highball the amounts, but the rankings of what’s sadder than what would probably still be accurate.