Lecture 12 Flashcards
1
Q
What is postdecisional affect?
A
- Regret and action effect
- Pre-outcome regret and available opportunities
- Anticipated regret and adaptation
2
Q
Define Regret?
A
- Sinking feeling: tendency to push oneself
- Want to undo the event and get a second chance
- Counterfactual emotion: arises out of imagining oneself doing something other than what one did
- Regret is stronger for cases easier to mentally undo (not default) e.g about to miss a flight because you skip a red light = regret is more salient when you could have done the other option
- Comparison standard is always the default - you assess against default
3
Q
What is regret in action effect?
A
- When one is involved in acting
- e.g P wanted to switch stocks to company B but decided against it. G owned shares in company B but switched to company A. Company B makes more profit
- George feels more regret as G acted, but P failed to act
- Stronger trigger for emotional response
- Default scenario is not to sell, so whoever departs from default is prone to experience/receive regret or blame
- e.g can stand/hit in blackjack, if outcome is negative = hit creates more regret
4
Q
When is action not always leading to more regret?
A
- Respondents indicated their greatest life regrets
- Regrets from inactions were listed more often
- Simulation to do nothing is easier on the short term, but not at long term
- Memory leaves one without an explanation for failure to act, so it becomes more difficult to simulate for the inaction scenario
- Becomes easier to stimulate the action scenario
5
Q
What was the post-decisional affect between opportunity and regret?
A
- Feelings of disappointment and dissatisfaction are strongest under conditions in which chances for corrective action are clearest
- If we have the opportunity to better our results, in the pre-outcome period (between making decision and it materialises)
- STUDY: blackjack game results in a tie: condition 1 - play additional rounds in future, condition 2 - only one game
- Ppts in condition 1 will have more regret and they will consider other alternatives = generated more upward counterfactuals
6
Q
What was the study with photos?
A
- Staged photography class: ppts believe they can keep some photos
- Condition 1: reversible, condition 2: irreversible
- More dissatisfaction with condition 1
- If in the future, they can do it again, they show more regret as it shows them other things they could do to improve
- There are conflicting results: where ppts might have perceived more opportunity before making their choice than afterwards
- IF we make decision, and we are committed, it may preclude the range of choices
- C1 and C2 are not very different as participants think they don’t have as little choice as the irreversible condition
7
Q
What is pre-outcome regret?
A
- Regret follows an increasing curve after decision in the pre-outcome period
- Pre-outcome regret is greater than post-outcome regret
- Regret drops down if the consequences materialise - no longer relevant
- Function is to motivate individual to think about alternatives and to better, but can be useless when consequences materialises
- Counterforce is behavioural consistency
8
Q
What is the study looking at counterforce? (Worms)
A
- Asked ppts about their commitment to eat a worm
- Given opportunity to change mind and recorded their thoughts and preoutcome regret
- Many came up with arguments to eat the worm as they would not have thought of these alternatives if they did not feel the regret
- Sig no of ppts remain committed to their initial decision to eat a worm, even when given opportunity to change their minds = could counteract preoutcome regret
9
Q
What did Festinger and Carlsmith do?
A
- Ppts performed boring tasks
- Ppts then had to tell the next set of ppts that the tasks were interesting
- Offered 20/1 dollars for the help
- Feel a dissonance between lying and being poorly paid
- People were later asked to rate how interesting the task was
- 1 dollar group felt dissonance and removed it by finding the task more interesting than the 20 dollar group
- Want to keep decision we made or prospect of decision because of consistency
10
Q
How do people muster commitment in the face of preoutcome regret?
A
- Preference construction and coherence shifting: helps maintain confidence in the chosen course of action - I regret agreeing to give the wedding speech but I’m going to do it anyway because people will remember
- People will search for arguments on all side to bolster their decision = would not be able to do without regret
- STUDY: preference for job attributes
- Ppts give first ratings, then make decision for a job, then second rating
- At second rating, attributes on which chosen job excelled are given more weight than those on which it was not as good.
11
Q
What is the anticipated affect? (Vaccine study)
A
- Anticipated regret strong if selling an important endowment makes you responsible for a bad outcome
- P(contracted deadly disease) = 1/10000, vaccine effective only before symptoms appear, how much would you pay
- FRAMED DIFFERENTLY AS: volunteers needed for research on same disease, to volunteer = expose self to 1/10000 chance of contracting disease, what is minimum you would ask to be paid to volunteer - no vaccine available
- Volunteering fee is 50x higher than price of vaccine
- Reluctance to engage in selling your health and you will be responsible for a bad outcome in volunteering scenario
- Loss aversion is stronger for aspects that are more important than money
12
Q
What was an example on anticipated regret?
A
- Parents willingness to accept increased risk:
- Used an insecticide where risk of child poisoning was 15 per 10000 bottles, less expensive was 16/10000, what discount would you switch for?
- 2/3 ppts would not switch at any price
- Can be argued that parents use saved money for protecting children in other wats
- Anticipated regret furthers precautionary strategies = costly = comes from system 1 = quick, associative learning
- If we are very self-reflective, we can mitigate the effects of anticipatory regret
13
Q
What was a study looking at positive anticipated affect? (Focus illusion)
A
- Looking at focusing illusion
- Looked at students and their prediction of living in another area of the US: asked about life satisfaction in general and the climate. Compared it with people actually studying in those areas = found that the climate aspects were more positive for California
- When answering questions about their own life satisfaction, people focus on more central aspects of life, when living in another region, they focus on more peripheral aspects
- Focus illusion makes you anticipate a different scenario = you focus on the wrong things
14
Q
What is immune neglect?
A
- We have a mechanism that helps us to mitigate the anticipated regret when the outcome has materialised - compares the pre/post period, says there will not be much difference in life satisfaction.
- Forecasters overestimated the negative long-term effect of a negative decision measuring the ancient and recent happiness
- All forecasters were somewhat mindful of adaptation but the account is not complete based on the evidence below
- Over 10 years, there was no significant difference between positive and negative experiencers e.g people in a wheelchair vs walking
15
Q
Why are predictions of emotional consequences of decisions are often wrong?
A
- Duration is overestimated
- Immunisation mechanism helps to mitigate extreme emotional states back to more normal levels quickly after consequences are established
- But prediction of duration shapes individuals decisions - most life events typically influence people’s subjective well-being for little more than a few months
