Quantifying the Value of Emotions Using a Willingness to Pay Approach

Lau, Bobo Hi Po; White, Mathew P.; Schnall, Simone

doi:10.1007/s10902-012-9394-7

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Instead of the manipulation of thought frequency used in Study 3, participants were randomly assigned to one of three levels of a manipulation of the perceived importance of the prescreen outcome. The manipulation focused on changing the money associated with acceptance for the paid task, based on a large and established literature that uses monetary value to measure and manipulate importance of events (e.g., Lau, White, & Schnall, 2013; Menger, 1976). As described in the study overview, several manipulations were pretested to identify conditions that changed the importance of the event without changing other cognitive features.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When and why people misestimate future feelings: Identifying strengths and weaknesses in affective forecasting.

Lench¹,

Levine²,

Perez³

et al. 2019

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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People try to make decisions that will improve their lives and make them happy, and to do so, they rely on affective forecasts-predictions about how future outcomes will make them feel. Decades of research suggest that people are poor at predicting how they will feel and that they commonly overestimate the impact that future events will have on their emotions. Recent work reveals considerable variability in forecasting accuracy. This investigation tested a model of affective forecasting that captures this variability in bias by differentiating emotional intensity, emotional frequency, and mood. Two field studies examined affective forecasting in college students receiving grades on a midterm exam (Study 1, N ϭ 643), and U.S. citizens after the outcome of the 2016 presidential election (Study 2, N ϭ 706). Consistent with the proposed model, participants were more accurate in forecasting the intensity of their emotion and less accurate in forecasting emotion frequency and mood. Overestimation of the effect of the event on mood increased over time since the event. Three experimental studies examined mechanisms that contribute to differential forecasting accuracy. Biases in forecasting intensity were caused by changes in perceived event importance; biases in forecasting frequency of emotion were caused by changes in the frequency of thinking about the event. This is the first direct evidence mapping out strengths and weaknesses for different types of affective forecasts and the factors that contribute to this pattern.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When and why people misestimate future feelings: Identifying strengths and weaknesses in affective forecasting.

Lench¹,

Levine²,

Perez³

et al. 2019

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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show abstract

“…Further, both emotions are frequently regarded as states that should be managed or regulated (Erber & Erber, 2000;Taylor, 1991). This perception likely arises in part because extreme or chronic sadness and anger are symptoms of psychiatric disorders, and in part because they are aversive experiences, so much so that people will pay money to avoid experiencing them (Lau, White, & Schnall, 2013;Tibbett & Lench, 2015).…”

Section: Functional Accounts Of Emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Toolkit of Emotion: What Do Sadness and Anger Do for Us?

Lench¹,

Tibbett²,

Bench³

2016

Social & Personality Psych

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What do negative emotions do for people? We present a framework that defines the function of emotions as the degree to which discrete emotions result in better outcomes in particular types of situations. Focusing on sadness and anger, we review evidence related to the situations that elicit these emotions; the cognitive, physiological, and behavioral changes associated with the emotions; and the extent to which these changes result in demonstrably better outcomes in the type of situation that elicits the emotion. Sadness is elicited by perceived goal loss without possibility of restoration given current abilities and is associated with deliberative reasoning, reduced physiological activity, and behavioral expression. There is preliminary evidence suggesting that sadness can permit coping with loss, and that expression of sadness can recruit others to assist in goal attainment. Anger is elicited by perceived goal loss that can be prevented if an obstacle is overcome and is associated with heuristic reasoning, increased physiological activity, and behavioral expression. There is evidence that expression of anger prompts others to remove themselves as obstacles, and preliminary evidence that anger can promote overcoming obstacles and goal attainment. Like precision tools, specific emotions are best utilized to resolve particular problems. AngerAnger is also conceptualized as resulting from the perception that a goal has been lost, but, unlike sadness, goal attainment is possible with the removal of an obstacle (Bodenhausen, Mussweiler,

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“…Asians are more willing to pay to avoid negative emotions but less willing to do so to experience positive emotions, while Western populations have reported converse results. (17) Herein lies the practical significance of investigating the concerns and expectations of Singapore patients for tailoring anaesthetic management. We aimed to investigate the Singapore patients' perspectives on undesired post-anaesthesia outcomes and their willingness to pay to avoid these outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%