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.

Two studies explored the extent to which prior affective expectations shape people's evaluations of experiences and decisions about repeating those experiences. Study 1 found that students' prior expectations about an upcoming vacation accounted for a significant portion of the variance in their post-vacation evaluations, as did students' recall of specific experiences. In Study 2, both prior expectations and actual experiences of watching a movie were manipulated in a 2 x 2 design. People's affective expectations made more of a difference than the objective experience when assessing people's willingness to participate in the study again. A reinterpretation hypothesis-that people discount or reweigh memories of expectation-inconsistent events-accounted for the results of these studies better than a selective memory or initial effects hypothesis. Jared Diamond, the author and physiologist, frequently travels to New Guinea to study its birds. On a recent trip he was finally able to visit an extremely remote area, the Lakes Plain. Because he had always wanted to visit this part of New Guinea, Diamond expected to experience tremendous enjoyment and fulfillment at finally being able to do so. His experiences, however, were soon at great odds with his expectations: The weather was so hot and humid that I felt myself overheating w i t h every step. I longed to go shirtless for comfort but didn't dare because of the clouds of mosquitoes. Spiders were crawling through my hair, stinging ants had gotten inside m y underwear, and the itching of chigger bites on my private parts was

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.

We tested the hypothesis that the importance of the topic of research can make people overlook methodological flaws in the research. Two samples of scientists, faculty at a major medical school and research psychologists, evaluated the methodological rigor and publishability of brief descriptions of flawed research studies. Two versions of each study were identical except for the importance of the topic (e.g., heart disease vs. heartburn). When the topic was important, scientists in both samples were significantly more likely to overlook the methodological flaws, and significantly more lenient in their recommendations that the studies be published.

We examined how affective expectations and objective experience influenced female college students' (N= 69) evaluations of discussions of safe‐sex practices and willingness to engage in future discussions. Participants interacted with a confident male confederate (positive experience) or a nervous one (negative experience). Positive experiences produced more positive evaluations and greater willingness to participate in the future. Expectations were manipulated after the discussion by telling participants that discussions became easier over time (positive expectations) or telling participants nothing (neutral expectations). Independent of experience, positive expectations also resulted in more positive evaluations and greater willingness. Similar results were obtained 2 weeks later. Findings are discussed in terms of previous studies of affective expectations and implications for safe‐sex education programs.