Four experiments reveal that actual taste perception and mental simulation of taste can exert a bidirectional contrast effect on each other. Experiment 1 shows that similar to actual taste experience, simulated taste experience is influenced by a prior actual taste in a contrastive manner. Experiment 2 shows that this contrast effect of actual taste on taste simulation occurs only when people adopt an imagery‐based rather than an analytical processing mode. Experiment 3 demonstrates the bidirectional nature of the current effect and again shows that it depends on people's use of mental simulation. Lastly, experiment 4 replicates the observed effect in a realistic marketing environment. These findings support the proposition of a simulation‐induced adaptation mechanism. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.

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Past events are perceived to be temporally more distant when they are unlikely rather than likely to reoccur in the future. This can be because (a) future events that are unlikely to occur are perceived to be temporally remote and (b) these feelings of remoteness can generalize and influence subjective distance judgments of the events' occurrences in the past. Six studies confirmed this effect and provided insights into the processes that underlie it. Alternative interpretations and implications of the current findings are discussed.

We identify a friend number paradox, that is, a mismatch between people's preferences for the friends they might acquire in social interactions and their predictions of others' preferences. People predict that others are attracted to them if they have a relatively large number of friends. However, they personally prefer to make friends with someone who has a relatively small number of friends. People regard a large number of friends as a signal of social capital that increases their interpersonal attractiveness. However, it can actually be a signal of social liabilities that diminish their ability to reciprocate obligations to others. We conducted a series of studies, including 3 speed-friending studies in which participants either engaged or expected to engage in actual interactions for the purpose of initiating long-term friendships. These studies provide converging evidence of the hypothesized mismatch and our conceptualization of its determinants.