Orit E. Tykocinski

Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya | IDC · Department of Psychology

The international relations literature typically portrays mediators as effective agents of dispute de-escalation. Upon mediation onset rivals are expected to lower the flames of conflict and enter into negotiations. We argue, however, that the mediator’s presence may actually prompt and facilitate conflict escalation, particularly immediately follo...

Negotiations aimed at resolving international disputes often end in deadlock. In the current article, we focus on deadlocks triggered by missed opportunities. The consequences of missing an advantageous opportunity have been studied extensively in the field of psychology within the context of the inaction inertia effect. The concept was recently in...

Although they value certainty, people are willing to take risks to avoid losses. Consequently, they are risk-seeking in the domain of losses but risk-avoidant in the domain of gains. This behavior, frequently demonstrated in framing experiments, is traditionally explained in terms of prospect theory. We suggest a different account whereby involving...

In international disputes, forgone settlement offers are frequently lamented, but their impact on the dynamics of ongoing negotiations is largely overlooked. In the psychological literature, however, the consequences of missing an advantageous action opportunity have been studied extensively in the context of the inaction inertia phenomenon. Accord...

The unique nature of inherited money is reflected in financial decisions concerning such bequests. A legacy originates in somber circumstances and bears the distinctive characteristics of the deceased. In four experiments and a survey among inheritors we found that people tended to preserve the inheritance; participants were reluctant to spend the...

Inaction inertia occurs when bypassing an initial action opportunity has the effect of decreasing the likelihood that subsequent similar action opportunities will be taken. This overview of the inaction inertia literature demonstrates the impact of inaction inertia on decision making. Based on research on the causes of inaction inertia, we show tha...

When a threat looms large in people's minds, they may seek protective measures that could mitigate the negative outcomes associated with this threat. Paradoxically, the possession of such protective measures may, in turn, inspire a sense of safety and reduce the perceived probability of the very threat that had originally triggered their acquisitio...

The effect of past experiences and actions in shaping current perceptions, emotions, decisions and goals is widely recognized in the psychological literature. When it comes to economic decisions, however, these influences are sometimes seen as impediments to rational decision-making. In an attempt to explore the enduring consequences of the past, w...

The effectiveness of the “lost e-mail technique” (LET) as an unobtrusive attitude measure was successfully demonstrated in 2 studies. In Study 1, we found that Israeli students were more likely to reply to a similar other than to a minority group member (an Israeli-Arab or an immigrant from the former Soviet Union). In Study 2, LET was administered...

The possession of an insurance policy may not only affect the severity of a potential loss but also its perceived probability. Intuitively, people may feel that if they are insured nothing bad is likely to happen, but if they do not have insurance they are at greater peril. In Experiment 1, respondents who were reminded of their medical insurance f...

An inaction inertia analysis of procrastination was used to generate the prediction that using bonuses to encourage early task completion will have two opposing effects, encouraging early task completion by some but also inducing procrastination for those who miss the bonus. Study 1 showed that the addition of bonuses for early completion produced...

Recent decision-making research established that the experience of regret leads to post-decision information search [Shani, Y., & Zeelenberg, M. (2007). When and why do we want to know? How experienced regret promotes post-decision information search. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20, 207-222]. It has been argued that people search informa...

Having failed to achieve a desired goal, people may use retroactive pessimism as a defense mechanism, concluding that chances of success were not too good to begin with. To make this judgment, one must block counterfactual alternatives suggesting that success was, in fact, quite likely. Facing a bitter disappointment, the perceiver is highly motiva...

Based on the inaction inertia effect, it was hypothesized that investors who missed an opportunity to leave a “bear market” will be less likely to sell the stock at a later opportunity when facing a grave loss. Participants in a stock-market computer game were given an opportunity to sell their stock for a moderate gain. Having missed this initial...

Recent decision-making research claims to establish that, in violation of Savage's normative sure-thing principle, individuals often wait to acquire noninstrumental information and subsequently base their decisions upon this information. The current research suggests that characterizing individuals as pursuing noninstrumental or useless information...

In an attempt to regulate disappointments people may sometimes change their perceptions of the events leading to an undesirable outcome so that in retrospect this outcome seems almost inevitable. This retroactive pessimism effect was demonstrated in three studies. In the first, sports fans rated the likelihood of success for their team and its oppo...

Studies have demonstrated that when consumers miss an opportunity to purchase a product for a significantly reduced price, they are less likely to purchase this product later for its regular price or for a less significantly reduced price. Two possible explanations for this inaction-inertia ef - fect were considered: avoidance of regret (reluctance...

Studies have demonstrated that when consumers miss an opportunity to purchase a product for a significantly reduced price, they are less likely to purchase this product later for its regular price or for a less significantly reduced price. Two possible explanations for this inaction-inertia effect were considered: avoidance of regret (reluctance to...

People seem to have a rather rich repertoire of tactics for regulating moods and dealing with unpleasant events. The current work examines one such tactic. It suggests that to render a disappointing reality more palatable, people sometimes change the perceived probabilities of relevant events post facto so that the disappointing reality appears alm...

En la UE se ha estimado que los costes de la congesti�n representan el 2% de su PIB y que el coste de la poluci�n del aire y ruido supera el 0,6% del PIB, siendo alrededor del 90% de los mismos ocasionados por el transporte terrestre. Ante este hecho y el continuo aumento de la demanda del transporte privado frente al p�blico para los desplazamient...

When an attractive action opportunity has been forgone, individuals tend to decline a substantially less attractive current opportunity in the same action domain, even though, in an absolute sense, it still has positive value. The hypothesis that continued inaction (inaction inertia) occurs in the service of avoiding anticipated regret was tested....

When an attractive action opportunity has been forgone, individuals tend to decline a substantially less attractive current opportunity in the same action domain, even though, in an absolute sense, it still has positive value. The hypothesis that continued inaction (inaction inertia) occurs in the service of avoiding anticipated regret was tested....

The circumstances under which initial inaction tends to persist were studied. Inaction inertia occurs when bypassing an initial action opportunity decreases the likelihood that subsequent similar action opportunities will be taken. The authors studied the case in which an initial attractive action opportunity, which is not taken, is followed by ano...

This study examined whether persons who possess different types of self-discrepancies are sensitive to different types of psychological situations as evident in their memory for another person's experiences. All subjects read the same essay in which a target person experienced events reflecting different types of psychological situations (e.g., the...

Taking a “Gestalt” perspective, we propose that a particular pattern of self-beliefs, as a whole, has a distinct psychological significance that depends on the interrelations among the self-beliefs and not just the self-beliefs as independent elements. Patterns of self-beliefs were identified that contained a particular type of self-discrepancy in...

Three experiments were carried out to test the long-term behavioral effects of 12 days administration of CDP (5 mg/kg/day) in rats. In the first two experiments, 4 weeks after the end of drug administration (CDP or placebo), and after 2 weeks of training to run a straight alley for food reward, animals were tested in extinction, i.e., following omi...