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Affective Expectations and Information Gain: Evidence for Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Affective Experience

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Abstract

According to the Affective Expectation Model (Wilson, Lisle, Kraft, & Wetzel, 1989), affect is formed with reference to a prior expectation. The model predicts that people's affective reactions to a stimulus are generally assimilated to a prior expectation, except in cases when a discrepancy between the affective expectation and the actual stimulus information exists and is noticed. In such cases, affective reactions are expected to be contrasted away from affective expectations. In the present study, both the assimilation and contrast predictions were tested using the unitization paradigm (Newtson, 1973). We predicted that observers who unitized a not-so-funny film clip at a gross level (thereby extracting a relatively small amount of stimulus information) would assimilate their affective reactions to a prior positive expectation, whereas those who unitized the film clip at a fine level (thereby extracting a relatively large amount of stimulus information) would contrast their affective reactions with the positive expectation. The results supported these predictions, thereby providing the first evidence that affective expectations can produce both assimilation and contrast effects in affective experience.

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      Thus, the results challenge the traditional idea that pre-use expectations have a role only as a frame of reference for later experiences (Thong et al., 2006). Rather, people tend to adapt their experiences to match their expectations as assimilation theory predicts whereas contrast is more likely to happen only in cases in which there is a clear discrepancy and/or people are triggered to analyze their experiences more profoundly so that they notice the discrepancy (Brown et al., 2012; Geers and Lassiter, 1999). Our model supports and expands earlier models showing that enjoyment, efficiency, and effectiveness are important predictors of behavioral intentions (Davis, 1989; Thong et al., 2006; Van der Heijden, 2004).

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    This article is based on a thesis submitted by the first author to the Department of Psychology, Ohio University. Completion of this research was facilitated by National Science Foundation Grant SBR-9514966 to the second author. We thank Missy Beers for her valuable input during the planning of this research. We also acknowledge Mark Alicke, Kevin Apple, Hal Arkes, Ian Handley, Patrick Munhall, Darren Newtson, and Timothy Wilson for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Andrew L. Geers (E-mail: [email protected]. ohiou.edu) or G. Daniel Lassiter (E-mail: [email protected]), Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens OH 45701.

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