Comparing predicted and actual affective responses to process versus outcome: An emotion-as-feedback perspective

• Published in: Cognition Vol. 129; no. 1; pp. 42 - 50
• Main Authors: Kwong, Jessica Y.Y., Wong, Kin Fai Ellick, Tang, Suki K.Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-10-2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Affective forecasting; Affectivity. Emotion; Anticipation, Psychological - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognitive psychology; Comparative analysis; Emotion as feedback; Emotions; Emotions - physiology; Feedback, Psychological - physiology; Female; Forecasting; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Goal pursuit; Goals; Higher education; Humans; Male; Observation; Outcome; Personality. Affectivity; Process; Psychological effects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Young Adult; Goal pursuit; Process; Emotion as feedback; Outcome; Affective forecasting; Human; Affect affectivity; Prediction; Feedback regulation; Cognition; Anticipation; Emotion emotionality; Experimental study; Forecasting; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0010-0277; 1873-7838
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.05.012

•This research questions the notion that affective forecasts are generally biased.•This research distinguishes between forecasts of emotional reactions to outcomes and efforts.•For worse-than-expected outcomes, individuals overpredicted their negative emotions to efforts but not to outcomes.•For better-than-expected outcomes, individuals underpredicted their negative emotions to outcomes but not to efforts.
One of the conjectures in affective forecasting literature is that people are advised to discount their anticipated emotions because their forecasts are often inaccurate. The present research distinguishes between emotional reactions to process versus those to outcome, and highlights an alternative view that affective misforecasts could indeed be adaptive to goal pursuit. Using an ultimatum game, Study 1 showed that people overpredicted how much they would regret and be disappointed by the amount of effort they exerted, should the outcomes turned out worse than expected; nonetheless, people could accurately predict their emotional responses to unfavorable outcomes per se. In a natural setting of a university examination, Study 2 demonstrated that actual regret and disappointment toward favorable outcomes were more intense than the level people expected, but this discrepancy was not observed in their emotional responses to efforts they had invested. These two distinct patterns of results substantiate the argument that the deviation between predicted and actual emotions is dependent on the referents of the emotional reactions.