Methodological Challenges: From the First to the Second Wave of the World Love Index

This article is methodological in nature, addressing and discussing the challenges the research team encountered in constructing a new international well-being index called the World Love Index. This index represents the first quantitative operationalization of the concept of Social Love, which seek...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial sciences (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 7; p. 334
Main Authors Cataldi, Silvia, Floridi, Federica, Palmieri, Marco
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2024
Subjects
Altruism
Culture
Decision making
Emotions
Empathy
Indexes
Love
Methodological problems
methodology
Open data
Operational definitions
secondary data analysis
social love
Society
Sociology
transnational data
Well being
World Love Index
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Summary:This article is methodological in nature, addressing and discussing the challenges the research team encountered in constructing a new international well-being index called the World Love Index. This index represents the first quantitative operationalization of the concept of Social Love, which seeks to capture actions or social relationships characterized by excess and care for the benefit of individuals outside the primary circle, loved for their irreducibility. Starting with a discussion of the project’s objective rooted in the Beyond GDP debate, the article first analyzes the theoretical definition of Social Love and its semantic dimensions for operationalization. It then focuses on the methodological construction of the index through secondary data analysis, particularly examining the transition from the first wave to the second wave. Through the first wave of the WLI, this concept was systematically investigated on a transnational level. However, the first wave faced criticism for its weaknesses due to decisions made during the index’s construction. This paper, from a purely methodological perspective, demonstrates how the second wave of the WLI aims to address these challenges and turn them into strengths.
ISSN:2076-0760
2076-0760
DOI:10.3390/socsci13070334