This study tested the prediction that introspecting about the reasons far one's preferences would reduce satisfaction with a consu¥merchoice Subjects evaluated two types ofposters and then chose one to take home. Those instruefed to think about their reasons chose a different type of poster than control subjects and, when contacted 3 weeks later, were less sattsfied with their choice. When People think about reasons, they appear to focus on attributes of thestimulus that are easy to verbalize and seem like plausible reasons but may not beimpartant causes of their initial evaluatwns. When these attributes imply a new evaluation of the stimulus, people change their attitudes and base their choices on these new attitudes. Over time, however, people's initial evaluation of the stimulus seems to return, and they come to r e p t choices based on the new attitudes.-He who deliberates lengthily will not always choose the best.

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Presents a model arguing that affect and emotion are often formed in an expectation-driven fashion. A pilot study and 2 experiments manipulated undergraduate Ss' affective expectations (e.g., how funny they expected a set of cartoons to be) and whether Ss' expectations were confirmed (e.g., whether the cartoons really were funny). When the value of a stimulus was consistent with an affective expectation, people formed evaluations relatively quickly. Even when the value of a stimulus was discrepant from an affective expectation, people sometimes assimilated the value of the stimulus to their expectations. Other times, such as when making a more fine-grained evaluation of the cartoons, people noticed that they were discrepant from their affective expectations. Under these conditions, people appeared to have more difficulty forming preferences. They took longer to evaluate and spent more time thinking about the cartoons.

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01-MH41841. We would like to thank Annette Chiang and Coretta Organ for their expert assistance with the conduct of this research. We also thank Dan Lassiter for hiisvaluable comments on a previous draft of this article.

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