Emotion, decision making & Time

Attitudes and Behavior Attitude-behavior (in)consistency –Goodness of emotion as a predictor –How much is current situation like the choice situation? –People have difficulty judging future preferences What ice cream will you want tomorrow?

Real and Simulated choices Why can’t people predict their future preferences? –People have a bad theory of motivational effects Valuation and devaluation Approach, avoidance, and time –Hard to simulate future motivational states –People cannot predict effects of time on choice

Valuation and Devaluation What is the effect of motivation on preference? Valuation Devaluation

Example of Devaluation This study uses an appetizing manipulation Need to eat –Eating a small amount increases need to eat Popcorn taste test: –High need to eat: Taste test first (ratings last) –Low need to eat: Taste test last (ratings first) Rated attractiveness of consumer products –Food related (11 items) –Food unrelated (32 items: a variety of products) –Ratings mixed in with other unrelated tasks

Simple Devaluation *

Approach, avoidance, and distance Goal gradients –Lewin; Miller –Change in goal strength with distance to goal Physical distance or temporal distance Approach Gradient Avoidance Gradient Recent Evidence: Busemeyer Pennington & Roese Recent Evidence: Busemeyer Pennington & Roese Distance

Predicting choices People don’t know all of this –That makes their future predictions bad Simulated choices do not take these factors into account People also fail to take future events into account –Gilbert and future prediction What is the influence of getting married, winning the lottery, or getting denied tenure on future happiness?

Temporal effects Temporal construal –Events in the future may be conceptualized more abstractly than near events –Specific events may have more emotional content People have theories about spreading events over time –A desire for increasing sequences (e.g., salary) –A desire to spread out good outcomes