An Exploratory Analysis on the Time-of-Day Dynamics of Episodic Hedonic Value of Activities and Travel

In this paper episodic reports of feelings are analyzed to explore the correlation with activity and travel characteristics, personal and household circumstances as well as other contextual factors that may influence feelings. Interestingly, a strong correlation is found between global indicators of satisfaction about life, health, and finances and discrepancies with marriage satisfaction. In addition, different types of activities are significantly associated with many different scores of feelings with some of them varying by time of day in a way that is as expected (being tired and in pain increases as the day progresses) but not uniformly across indicators of subjective well-being. Travel as a passenger is consistently a pleasant activity while traveling alone is associated with both positive and negative feelings depending on other circumstances. In addition, interaction with social networks is an important correlate of episodic feelings. Strong correlation between person and household characteristics and episodic reports, on the other hand, is also found. Moreover, the role enacted within a household and companionship in activities are also important correlates of feelings. Where persons live (region of the US) and living arrangements (retiree communities and elderly housing) are also correlates of emotions.