I bet most people answering this question do so not by any sort of reasoned consideration of how important work, family, sleep, video games, music-making, sport, etc., etc., etc., are to them, but by a quick System-1-ish consideration of how the question makes them feel. And I bet anyone using this question to measure “conformity with masculinity” or any other psychological characteristic are relying on that. This sort of thing is omnipresent in psychological questionnaires, which I guess is what you’re getting at in your second paragraph.
So, anyway, the sort of things I would think about if I were trying to answer this question while taking it more seriously than I think its authors did:
What would hurt most to lose? (This is Tem42′s approach.) By this criterion, work comes out quite important but other things—e.g., my family—clearly ahead.
But that may be misleading; e.g., one reason why losing my job would hurt less than losing my daughter is that I can probably get another job much more easily and quickly than another daughter. But that doesn’t seem like it’s the same thing as importance.
What gives me most satisfaction? By this criterion, work does OK—I like my job pretty well—but many other things do better.
That may also be misleading. If I really disliked my job but had no savings and a family to feed, work might be very high up on the list of important things while still coming below Nothing At All in satisfaction conferred.
What do I spend most time thinking about?
Could well be work. But does this mean that if my employer suddenly demanded double the working hours (and for some reason I couldn’t refuse or quit or anything) it would become much more important to me? I’m not sure that’s right.
What do I voluntarily put most effort into?
Could well be work. But it seems like we should be distinguishing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation—a major reason for putting effort into work is simply that I get paid for my job and I like being paid, and that’s not obviously the same thing as importance.
What do I think most valuable to the world?
I think this is a very reasonable sense of “importance” but probably too far removed from the questioner’s intent.
I bet most people answering this question do so not by any sort of reasoned consideration of how important work, family, sleep, video games, music-making, sport, etc., etc., etc., are to them, but by a quick System-1-ish consideration of how the question makes them feel. And I bet anyone using this question to measure “conformity with masculinity” or any other psychological characteristic are relying on that. This sort of thing is omnipresent in psychological questionnaires, which I guess is what you’re getting at in your second paragraph.
So, anyway, the sort of things I would think about if I were trying to answer this question while taking it more seriously than I think its authors did:
What would hurt most to lose? (This is Tem42′s approach.) By this criterion, work comes out quite important but other things—e.g., my family—clearly ahead.
But that may be misleading; e.g., one reason why losing my job would hurt less than losing my daughter is that I can probably get another job much more easily and quickly than another daughter. But that doesn’t seem like it’s the same thing as importance.
What gives me most satisfaction? By this criterion, work does OK—I like my job pretty well—but many other things do better.
That may also be misleading. If I really disliked my job but had no savings and a family to feed, work might be very high up on the list of important things while still coming below Nothing At All in satisfaction conferred.
What do I spend most time thinking about?
Could well be work. But does this mean that if my employer suddenly demanded double the working hours (and for some reason I couldn’t refuse or quit or anything) it would become much more important to me? I’m not sure that’s right.
What do I voluntarily put most effort into?
Could well be work. But it seems like we should be distinguishing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation—a major reason for putting effort into work is simply that I get paid for my job and I like being paid, and that’s not obviously the same thing as importance.
What do I think most valuable to the world?
I think this is a very reasonable sense of “importance” but probably too far removed from the questioner’s intent.