The effect of anticipated affect on persistence and performance.

Full Abstract

The aim of the present research was to examine the interplay between predictions of the affective impact of future events and goal-relevant behavior. More concretely, three studies tested the hypothesis that affective forecasts influence persistent goal behavior and achievement. In Studies 1 and 2, participants who predicted that success would make them happier and failure would make them feel worse were more persistent and correctly solved more tasks of an intelligence test. However, as Study 3 revealed, extreme affective forecasts also led to persistent efforts to find solutions for unsolvable tasks and, consequently, decreased overall performance. In all studies, participants anticipated more intense emotional reactions than they actually experienced (impact bias).

Author information

Author/s: Greitemeyer, Tobias (T);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, UK. t.greitemeyer(-atsign-)sussex.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Personality and social psychology bulletin (Pers Soc Psychol Bull), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Feb; vol 35 (issue 2) : pp 172-86

Dates: Created 2009/01/14; Completed 2009/03/30;

PMID: 19141622, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 3/30/2009)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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