From multiverse analysis to multiverse operationalisations: 262,143 ways of measuring well-being

Researchers are increasingly noticing the value of multiverse analysis. While such analysis is important, they should not neglect the impact of multiverse operationalisations on the outcome – that is, multiple ways of operationalising or measuring constructs such as well-being or religiosity. The “Many Analysts Religion Projects” (2022) found that different operationalisations of well-being impacted its association with religiosity. Here, we expand on this by comparing how 262,143 ways of measuring well-being are associated with religiosity and 511 ways of measuring religiosity are associated with well-being. We found that especially short 1-2 item measures of well-being that aimed to capture it broadly resulted in a spread of associations ranging roughly between r = 0 - .25. This suggests that depending on the operationalisation of well-being, researchers might under- or overestimate the strengths of its association with religiosity. Thus, we recommend that different measures of the same construct are more routinely included in studies to gauge the robustness of the finding.