In national and international surveys, life satisfaction is often measured by a single item. However, there is a lot of debate in survey research about whether rating scales should be ordered in an ascending order (from negative to positive) or a descending order (from positive to negative). We investigate the effect of scale orientation by randomly assigning both versions in an online survey (N = 3,138). The average reported life satisfaction is 0.7 points lower when the descending version of an 11-point scale is used, as compared to the ascending scale (p < 0.001). We further test the construct validity by correlating each version of the response scales with other measures related to life satisfaction (e.g. happiness, depressive mood, and physical health). Generally speaking, the correlations of the ascending scale are significantly stronger as compared to the descending scale, indicating higher validity. Moreover, we investigate the impact of horizontal versus vertical presentations of the 11-point life satisfaction answer scale. Our results indicate that there are no statistically significant differences between horizontally and vertically presented response scales. We conclude that the order of response scales should be chosen carefully, as it affects the measurement of life satisfaction. Overall, our results suggest using an ascending life satisfaction scale.

在国内和国际调查中，生活满意度通常由单个项目来衡量。然而，在调查研究中，关于评级量表是否应按升序（从负面到正面）或降序（从正面到负面）排序存在很多争论。我们通过在在线调查中随机分配两个版本来研究尺度取向的影响（ N = 3,138）。与升序量表相比，使用 11 级量表的降序版本时，报告的平均生活满意度低 0.7 分 ( p < 0.001)。我们通过将每个版本的反应量表与与生活满意度相关的其他衡量标准（例如幸福感、抑郁情绪和身体健康）相关联，进一步测试构建有效性。一般来说，升序量表的相关性明显强于降序量表，表明效度较高。此外，我们还研究了 11 点生活满意度答案量表的水平与垂直呈现的影响。我们的结果表明，水平和垂直呈现的响应量表之间没有统计学上的显着差异。我们的结论是，应谨慎选择响应量表的顺序，因为它会影响生活满意度的衡量。总的来说，我们的结果建议使用上升的生活满意度量表。