IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/riskan/v34y2014i4p711-720.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Expectation Disconfirmation on Appraisal, Affect, and Behavioral Intentions

Author

Listed:
  • Kate Sweeny
  • Amanda Dillard

Abstract

People's risk perceptions can have powerful effects on their outcomes, yet little is known about how people respond to risk information that disconfirms a prior expectation. We experimentally examined the affective, cognitive, and behavioral consequences of expectation disconfirmation in the context of risk perceptions. Participants were randomly assigned and then prompted toward either a high or low personal risk estimate regarding a fictitious health threat. All participants then received the same risk feedback, which presented either a negative disconfirmation experience (i.e., worse than expected) in the high‐risk estimate condition or a positive disconfirmation experience (i.e., better than expected) in the low‐risk estimate condition. Participants who experienced the negative disconfirmation reported stronger intentions to prevent the threat in the future compared to participants who experienced the positive disconfirmation. This effect was mediated by both disappointment about the risk feedback and perceptions of the severity of the threat. These findings have implications for risk communication, suggesting that the provision of objective risk information may improve or diminish the likelihood of behavior change depending on people's initial expectations and their emotional and cognitive reactions to the information.

Suggested Citation

  • Kate Sweeny & Amanda Dillard, 2014. "The Effects of Expectation Disconfirmation on Appraisal, Affect, and Behavioral Intentions," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(4), pages 711-720, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:34:y:2014:i:4:p:711-720
    DOI: 10.1111/risa.12129
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12129
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/risa.12129?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zeelenberg, M. & van Dijk, W.W. & van der Pligt, J. & Manstead, A.S.R. & van Empelen, P. & Reinderman, D., 1998. "Emotional reactions to the outcomes of decisions : The role of counterfactual thought in the experience of regret and disappointment," Other publications TiSEM 5968cf3c-de93-4bbf-8445-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Zeelenberg, M. & van Dijk, W.W. & Manstead, A.S.R., 1998. "The experience of regret and disappointment," Other publications TiSEM 57c0c58e-e9a1-49f0-a024-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. van Dijk, W.W. & van der Pligt, J. & Zeelenberg, M., 1999. "Effort invested in vain : The impact of effort on the intensity of disappointment and regret," Other publications TiSEM 4746cce1-ce4d-4fea-b3c4-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. van Dijk, Wilco W. & van der Pligt, Joop, 1997. "The Impact of Probability and Magnitude of Outcome on Disappointment and Elation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 277-284, March.
    5. Zeelenberg, M. & van Dijk, W.W. & van der Pligt, J. & Manstead, A.S.R. & van Empelen, P. & Reinderman, D., 1998. "Emotional reactions to the outcomes of decision : The role of counterfactual thought in the experience of regret," Other publications TiSEM eafc28f9-18d6-4b76-b70f-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Zeelenberg, Marcel & van Dijk, Wilco W. & van der Pligt, Joop & Manstead, Antony S. R. & van Empelen, Pepijn & Reinderman, Dimitri, 1998. "Emotional Reactions to the Outcomes of Decisions: The Role of Counterfactual Thought in the Experience of Regret and Disappointment," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 117-141, August.
    7. Zeelenberg, M. & van Dijk, W.W. & van der Pligt, J. & Manstead, A.S.R. & van Empelen, P. & Reinderman, D., 1998. "Emotional reactions to the outcomes of decisions : The role of counterfactual thought in the experience of regret and disappointment," Discussion Paper 1998-35, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hsieh, Jung-Kuei, 2020. "The effects of transforming mobile services into mobile promotions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 195-208.
    2. Weber, Bethany J. & Chapman, Gretchen B., 2005. "Playing for peanuts: Why is risk seeking more common for low-stakes gambles?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 31-46, May.
    3. George, Jennifer M. & Dane, Erik, 2016. "Affect, emotion, and decision making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 47-55.
    4. Francesco Marcatto & Donatella Ferrante, 2008. "The Regret/Disappointment Scale: An instrument for assessing regret and disappointment in decision making," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 3, pages 87-99, January.
    5. repec:cup:judgdm:v:3:y:2008:i::p:87-99 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Qin, Jie, 2015. "A model of regret, investor behavior, and market turbulence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 150-174.
    7. Shalvi, Shaul & Dana, Jason & Handgraaf, Michel J.J. & De Dreu, Carsten K.W., 2011. "Justified ethicality: Observing desired counterfactuals modifies ethical perceptions and behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 181-190, July.
    8. Zheng, Jiakun, 2021. "Willingness to pay for reductions in health risks under anticipated regret," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Koehler, Jonathan J. & Gershoff, Andrew D., 2003. "Betrayal aversion: When agents of protection become agents of harm," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 244-261, March.
    10. repec:cup:judgdm:v:11:y:2016:i:3:p:275-286 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Joshua Buchanan & Amy Summerville & Jennifer Lehmann & Jochen Reb, 2016. "The Regret Elements Scale: Distinguishing the affective and cognitive components of regret," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 11(3), pages 275-286, May.
    12. Di Caprio, Debora & Santos-Arteaga, Francisco J. & Tavana, Madjid, 2019. "The role of anticipated emotions and the value of information in determining sequential search incentives," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 6(C).
    13. van Dijk, W.W. & van der Pligt, J. & Zeelenberg, M., 1999. "Effort invested in vain : The impact of effort on the intensity of disappointment and regret," Other publications TiSEM 4746cce1-ce4d-4fea-b3c4-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Zeelenberg, Marcel & van Dijk, Wilco W. & Manstead, Antony S. R., 2000. "Regret and Responsibility Resolved? Evaluating Ordonez and Connolly's (2000) Conclusions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 143-154, January.
    15. Mookherjee, Satadruta & Lee, Jennifer J. & Sung, Billy, 2021. "Multichannel presence, boon or curse?: A comparison in price, loyalty, regret, and disappointment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 429-440.
    16. Abiodun Adegbile & David Sarpong, 2015. "Managerial Engagement with Scenario Planning: A Conceptual Consumption Approach," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 73-80.
    17. Jiwoong Shin & Dan Ariely, 2004. "Keeping Doors Open: The Effect of Unavailability on Incentives to Keep Options Viable," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(5), pages 575-586, May.
    18. Kosfeld, M., 1999. "Individual decision making and social interaction," Other publications TiSEM 69e75ff4-8036-4cf5-a270-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Cristofaro, Matteo, 2019. "The role of affect in management decisions: A systematic review," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 6-17.
    20. Jayasimha, K.R. & Srivastava, Himanshu S., 2017. "Consumer advocacy: Examining the feeling and doing following a failed service encounter," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 201-208.
    21. Pieters, R. & Zeelenberg, M., 1999. "Wasting a window of opportunity : Anticipated and experienced regret in intention-behavior consistency," Discussion Paper 1999-03, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    22. Fels, Markus, 2015. "On the value of information: Why people reject medical tests," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-12.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:34:y:2014:i:4:p:711-720. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.