Data collection

The data were collected from two studies featuring a similar design, with the different study conditions as the only difference. The first study’s data collection occurred on February 1st, 2022, between 6 and 8 pm local time and involved the Cantril Ladder and Cantril no ladder conditions. The second study’s data was collected on March 1st, 2022, between 1 and 3 p.m. local time. Participants were not allowed to partake in both studies. Otherwise, the studies were similar, only differing in three additional questions reported after the study variables presented in this paper. Individuals were asked on Prolific (prolific.co), an online platform enabling the recruitment of participants that also provides demographic data [for Prolific’s use in academia, see⁵⁰], to partake in a study regarding their lives and well-being. After being directed to the survey, they were informed about the study and had to provide their consent to participate (see Ethical statement below). The participants were randomly assigned to one of the Cantril variants for which (i) they self-reported their well-being, (ii) provided five brief text descriptions of their impressions of the upper and lower ends of the scale, and (iii) their preferred levels. Participants used 3.15 words (SD = 2.58) per description (more descriptives about the words can be found in Supplementary Information, Table S2).