Examining the effect of affect on life satisfaction judgments: A within-person perspective

•One concern about the validity of life satisfaction reports is that individuals may rely on current affect as a heuristic.•The question of whether life satisfaction is “contaminated” by current affect is fundamentally a within-person one.•This “effect” is defined as the proportion of total variance in life satisfaction explained by changes in affect over time.•We found that the effect of current affect on life satisfaction was relatively inconsequential.

While extant studies have examined between-person relationships between life satisfaction and current affect, the nature of this relationship is fundamentally a within-person question. We define this effect of affect on life satisfaction as the proportion of total variance in life satisfaction explained by changes in affect over time. In a study of life satisfaction judgments (N = 92 with 353 assessments), we found that the effect of current affect on life satisfaction was relatively inconsequential.