Dealing with missed opportunities: Action vs. state orientation moderates inaction inertia

Abstract

a b s t r a c tInaction inertia refers to the effect that missing a more attractive opportunity decreases the likelihood to act on an attractive current opportunity in the same domain. We studied the influence of how people cope with negative decision outcomes (i.e., action vs. state orientation) on this inaction inertia effect. Experiment 1 used an experimental induction of action vs. state orientation and confirmed our prediction that state oriented people showed more inaction inertia than action oriented people. Experiment 2 replicated these results with a measure of chronic action orientation and showed a mediating effect of valuation of the current opportunity. Experiment 3 showed that temporal segregation of the current from the missed opportunity decreased inaction inertia effects for state oriented, but not for action oriented people. We discuss the implications of these results for the inaction inertia and action vs. state orientation literatures.Ó 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.People differ in how they cope with missed opportunities and bad decisions. Some people dwell on missed opportunities, feel bad about them for a long time and do not seem to be able to leave the past behind them. Others get over those failures relatively quickly and focus on how to improve the here and now instead. Extensive research has demonstrated that these differences in coping reflect a fundamental dimension in how people approach current challenging situations and referred to it as state vs. action orientation (see for a review, Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994). The present research investigates how this orientation influences an important behavioral consequence of missed opportunities called inaction inertia (Tykocinski, Pittman, & Tuttle, 1995). Inaction inertia refers to the effect that people, after missing out on an initial attractive opportunity, are less likely to act on further opportunities despite their objective attractiveness. We propose that if people differ in the way they cope with missed opportunities, the influence of missed opportunities on current decisions should differ accordingly. This article reports three experiments that demonstrate a weaker inaction inertia effect for action oriented people than for state oriented people.Inaction inertia implies that decisions to act on an attractive opportunity in the present are negatively influenced by inactions from the past. For example, although people may find the opportunity to book a vacation on discount for $900 instead of $1000 very attractive, they will decline it when they missed an earlier opportunity to book it for $400. Inaction inertia is demonstrated when likelihood to act on an attractive current opportunity is lower when the difference in attractiveness between the missed and the current opportunity is large than when it is small. Thus, the more attractive the missed opportunity (initial inaction) was, the lower the likelihood that people will act on an attractive action opportunity now (inertia). This effect is very robust and has been found for...

When Size Matters: Sensitivity to Missed Opportunity Size Increases With Stronger Assessment

“…For example, whether a vacation offer is judged as valuable depends on the size of the vacation discount that a traveler just missed out on. These reactions to missed opportunity size are very robust and have been found in several studies across decades (Arkes et al, 2002;Kumar, 2004;Pittman et al, 2008;Tsiros, 2008;Tykocinski & Pittman, 1998;Tykocinski et al, 1995;van Putten et al, 2007van Putten et al, , 2008van Putten et al, , 2009Zeelenberg et al, 2006). For instance, Tykocinski et al (1995, Experiment 2) demonstrated that a large (as opposed to small or no) missed opportunity results in a decreased acceptance of subsequent offers.…”

“…In order to determine statistical power a priori we turned to inaction inertia research (Funder et al, 2014). Previous research in this area has typically reported medium-to large-effect sizes SENSITIVITY TO MISSED OPPORTUNITY SIZE 13 (e.g., van Putten et al, 2009), so we sought to include at least 20-25 participants in each of the four conditions to ensure sufficient power.…”

The bright side of brooding: State orientation increases positive emotions about positive outcomes

“…In the negative condition, they accepted the first favourable offer, and in the positive condition, they waited for a second, even more favourable one. After reading the scenario, action orientation was manipulated as in Van Putten et al (2009). This was done the same in the positive and negative condition.…”

“…State-oriented people are more likely to perceive externally assigned goals as self-chosen goals (Baumann & Kuhl, 2003). Moreover, compared to action-oriented people, state-oriented people are more influenced by previous investments when making a subsequent investment decision, and they are more influenced by missed opportunities in their decision to act on subsequent opportunities (Van Putten, Zeelenberg, & Van Dijk, 2009, 2010; see also Van Putten, Zeelenberg, & Van Dijk, 2013). Action-oriented people, on the other hand, have a tendency to detach these external influences from their current states and decisions and instead focus on their internal goals and motivations.…”

Regret Causes Ego-Depletion and Finding Benefits in the Regrettable Events Alleviates Ego-Depletion

“…Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any is, individuals are not likely to act on an attractive opportunity after having missed a more attractive opportunity (van Putten, Zeelenberg, & van Dijk, 2009;Sevdalis, Harvey, & Yip, 2006;Zeelenberg, Nijstad, van Putten, & van Dijk, 2006). The ego-depletion effect of regret may explain the inaction inertia: the experience of regret consumes the limited resources and leaves insufficient resources to engage in subsequent activities.…”