No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Escalate Shamefully, De-escalate Angrily or Gratefully: The Influence of Discrete Emotions on Escalation of Commitment
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
Abstract
Decision makers often tend to escalate their commitment when faced with a dilemma of whether to continue a losing course of action. Researchers recently began to investigate the influence of discrete emotions on this decision tendency. However, this work has mainly focused on negative emotions and rarely considered positive emotions, to say nothing of comparing the effects of both of them simultaneously. The current study addresses this need by presenting the results of three experiments that examined the effects of four emotions of both positive and negative valences in escalation situations. Experiment 1 investigated the relationships of three trait emotions (hope, shame, and anger) and escalation of commitment. Experiments 2 and 3 examined the effects of three induced emotions (anger, shame, and gratitude) on escalation of commitment in a student sample and an employee sample, respectively. The results revealed that the effects of discrete emotions in escalation situations are mainly due to their associated differences on the appraisal dimension of responsibility that is related to escalation situations rather than their valence. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Specifically, the role of situational emotions directly elicited by the decision context and how they interact with cognitive mechanisms is still unclear, although those emotions play a crucial role in decision-making (Lerner et al., 2015). With the exception of Wong et al. (2006), most empirical research examined carriedover, decision-unrelated, or anticipatory emotions (Dang et al., 2014;Huang et al., 2019;Sarangee et al., 2019). Within the scope of situational integral emotions, specifically, the role of negative emotions and emotional complexity remains unclear yet crucial, given their potential to test competing theories. ...
... The effects of discrete emotional states, affective states, and trait affect on escalation or de-escalation tendencies are both complex and under-researched. However, based on a systematic literature search, I could identify 14 studies published between 2003 and 2020 that found significant effects of one or more affective constructs on escalation or de-escalation behavior in different contexts (Coleman, 2010;Dang et al., 2014;Harvey & Victoravich, 2009;Hoelzl & Loewenstein, 2005;Huang et al., 2019;Ku, 2008;Moon et al., 2003;O'Neill, 2009;Roeth et al., 2020;Sarangee et al., 2019;Tsai & Young, 2010;Wong & Kwong, 2007;Wong et al., 2006). Studies like Strough et al. (2016), and Jackson et al. (2018) that investigated affect but did not find a significant effect on EoC were not included in the overview. ...
... Another stream of affective EoC research has shifted from a valence-based approach to investigating the effects of the discrete emotions anger (Coleman, 2019;O'Neill, 2009;Tsai & Young, 2010), fear (Huang et al., 2019;Tsai & Young, 2010), hope (Huang et al., 2019), shame (Dang et al., 2014), gratitude (Dang et al., 2014), and regret (Hoelzl & Loewenstein, 2005;Ku, 2008;O'Neill, 2009;Sarangee et al., 2019;Wong & Kwong, 2007). Here, one can again differentiate between carried-over or anticipatory and between integral or incidental emotions. ...
While information systems (IS) projects are pivotal in guiding organizational
strategies and sustaining competitive advantages, they frequently overrun budgets,
extend beyond timelines, and experience high failure rates. This dissertation delves
into the psychological micro-foundations of human behavior – specifically
cognition and emotion – in relation to a prevalent issue in IS project management:
the tendency to persist with failing courses of action, also called escalation of
commitment (EoC).
Through a mixed-methods research approach, this study investigates the emotional
and cognitive bases of decision-making during IS project escalation and its
evolution over time. The results of a psychophysiological laboratory experiment
provide evidence for the predictions on the role of negative and complex situational
integral emotions of Cognitive Dissonance over Coping Theory and add to a better
understanding of how escalation tendencies change during sequential decision-
making due to cognitive learning effects. Using psychophysiological measures,
including data triangulation between electrodermal and cardiovascular activity and
AI-based analysis of facial micro-expressions, this research reveals physiological
markers of behavioral escalation tendencies. Complementing the experiment, a
qualitative analysis using free-form narration during decision-making simulations
shows that decision-makers employ varied cognitive reasoning patterns to justify
escalating behaviors, suggesting a sequence of four distinct cognitive phases.
By integrating both qualitative and quantitative findings, this dissertation offers a
comprehensive theoretical framework of how cognition and emotion shape
behavioral EoC over time. I propose that escalation is a cyclical adaptation of
mental models, distinguished by shifts in cognitive reasoning patterns, temporal
cognition mode variations, and interactions with situational emotions and their
anticipation. The primary contribution of this dissertation lies in disentangling the
emotional and cognitive mechanisms that drive IS project escalation. The findings
provide the basis for developing de-escalation strategies, thereby helping to
improve decision-making under uncertainty. Stakeholders involved in IS projects
that get “off track” should be aware of the tendency to persist with failing courses
of action and the importance of the underlying emotional and cognitive dynamics.
... Fourth, scholars have reported that discrete emotions influence EOC. Anger is more strongly associated with continuing failing courses of action than fear (Tsai & Young, 2010), shame might prompt escalation to avoid feeling embarrassed following a negative outcome (Dang et al., 2014), and failed decisions may cause frustration, which could then trigger EOC (Brecher & Hantula, 2005). From an a priori perspective, Wong and Kwong (2007) and Wong et al. (2006) reveal that the anticipation of unpleasant emotions (e.g., regret) might lead decision-makers to stop pursuing failing courses of action. ...
... First, because most literature comes from psychology, it tries to explain this apparent irrational behavior from a single perspective: based on cognitive biases or personal attributes (Drummond, 1998;Drummond & Hodgson, 2011). Second, the dominant methodology has been experimental designs (e.g., Barton et al., 1989;Bobocel & Meyer, 1994;Dang et al., 2014;Feldman & Wong, 2018;He & Mittal, 2007;Lee et al., 2015;Moon, 2001aMoon, , 2001bRutledge, 1994;Sivanathan et al., 2008;Staw & Ross, 1978), overlooking other approaches. This has inclined the mindset of the EOC tradition to the point of neglecting other views and methods (Hsieh et al., 2015;Sleesman et al., 2012). ...
... Supporting this premise, more recently, Sivanathan et al. (2008) evidence that individuals with high self-worth feelings are more prone to de-escalate following signals of an underperforming outcome. Also, it has been posited that organizations could trigger certain emotions (e.g., gratitude) to motivate individuals to reverse failing scenarios (Dang et al., 2014). Even though these practices might deter escalation at an individual level, we emphasize that the demonstrations stemming from our general model establish that from a committee lens in the benchmark decision-making process, this is not always possible. ...
Escalation of commitment (EOC) has been usually studied from a psychological lens, and only recently have scholars approached EOC from an economic perspective. We contribute to this by focusing on iterative decision‐making in group settings with a game theory approach. We study how the group members' strategic interaction may result in continuing failing courses of action. Drawing on the Byzantine generals' problem, our model considers an iterative decision‐making process where committee participants vote based on private information to escalate or not. Our article demonstrates that if decision‐makers reset their beliefs based on the committee's previous decision, then EOC becomes perpetual.
... Decision makers often escalate their commitment when faced with a dilemma of continuing a losing course of action (Staw, 1981), which increases financial losses and negative psychological consequences for the investors (Shepherd & Patzelt, 2018). Similarly, previous studies have also found the link between emotions and escalation, but the results are inconsistent, with some studies finding negative emotions decrease escalation of commitment and others finding they increase it (Dang et al., 2014;Horn, 2012;Tsai & Young, 2010;K. F. E. Wong et al., 2006). ...
This paper aims to propose a theoretical framework of the dualistic model of entrepreneurial passion (DMEP) and entrepreneurial performance. The framework is based on both the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Mood Maintenance Hypothesis (MMH). To gather information, we conducted a comprehensive review of existing conceptual and empirical literature on the topic and synthesized the findings. The findings reveal that the link between DMEP and entrepreneurial performance is distal, with the proposed DMEP having a direct relationship on entrepreneurial performance, and indirect impacts that are serially mediated by factors such as entrepreneurial emotions, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness, and escalation of commitment. The study presents a succinct framework for the regulation of entrepreneurial passion and its impact on entrepreneurial performance. The study extends the ontological field of the dualistic model of entrepreneurial passion, and the framework is very likely to be validated by empirical research in the future. The practical implications of this study are significant as it provides a thorough comprehension of the connection between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial performance. This information can be used to develop effective strategies and interventions in the field of entrepreneurship.
... Claesson et al. (2007) found that shame, when experimentally induced at an unconscious level, increased negative self-image and social perception. Shame also produced a heightened self-focus on one's own responsibility for an error in decision-making, which increased attempts to justify one's previous performance (Dang et al. 2014). These shame outcomes closely resemble the characteristics of the introjective personality orientation (Blatt 2008). ...
The psychological literature has re-awakened its interest in shame. Research demonstrates that shame is negatively linked with intimacy through direct and indirect associations with intimacy fear and intimacy levels. This study explored the pathways between trait shame and perceived risk in intimacy. We hypothesised there would be an indirect relationship between shame and risk in intimacy via associations with introjective (self-definition) and anaclitic (dependent) personality orientation, identity impairment and abandonment concerns. University students (N = 501) from New Zealand and Northern Ireland completed an online survey, and path analysis was used to analyse data. Some support for the hypotheses was found, with shame being positively associated with risk in intimacy and half the magnitude of the effect operating indirectly through introjective orientation. Shame was positively associated with anaclitic personality, abandonment concerns and identity impairment, but these latter variables were not associated with risk in intimacy. Moreover, anaclitic orientation was associated with abandonment concerns and introjective orientation was associated with identity impairment. These findings extend the literature by demonstrating that shame may impact on feelings of intimacy risk directly and indirectly via introjective personality orientation. The results are consistent with research that shame has negative associations with intimacy, while also demonstrating that shame can be linked to approach behaviours via anaclitic personality orientation. This study provides further evidence of the complex nature and multifaceted effects of shame.
... Individual trait variables (which tend to be difficult to change and are very stable), such as the locus of control (Korzaan and Morris, 2009;Singer, 2001), rational thinking style (Wong et al., 2008), selfefficacy (Babatunde, 2016;Whyte and Saks, 2007;Whyte et al., 1997), self-esteem (Chong and Syarifuddin, 2010;Sivanathan et al., 2008;Staw and Ross, 1978), overconfidence (Rona et al., 2017;Tine, 2013) and conscientiousness (Moon, 2001), have been shown to affect escalation of commitment. Similar effects occur with individual state variables (characterised as being momentary and very changeable) such as emotional stability (Wong et al., 2006), discrete emotion (Dang et al., 2014), anger and fear (Tsai and Young, 2010) and depression (Levi, 1981). ...
Although many theoretical explanations have been offered to explain the escalation of commitment, there is still a gap in the literature whereby individual variables, as the determinants of the escalation, indicate inconsistent findings. On the other hand, there is an opportunity to explore the role of a new individual variable, namely, Psychological Capital (PsyCap) which is a second-order construct of self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience. This study aimed to analyze how the four variables, both as individual variables and as a second-order construct, predicted the escalation of commitment. As many as 297 business students completed the requested questionnaire. The results showed that self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience have both a significant and positive correlation toward the escalation of commitment. Furthermore, when compared to each of the constituent variables, as a second-order construct, PsyCap, proved to be more capable of predicting the escalation of commitment than its components. The implications of these findings are that PsyCap is not always associated with positive outcomes and, thus, it is crucial for companies to identify the type of personnel to be placed in positions where they will often be involved in decision making. JEL Classification: M410, C910, D810
Despite the importance of understanding the team’s aspects of organizational decision-making, prior research has paid scant attention to the role of teams in escalation of commitment. This article attempts to fill this gap by examining the relationship between team’s trait anxiety and escalation of commitment. Furthermore, this study extends research on team’s escalation behavior by investigating the mediating role of risk propensity in teams. Our results demonstrate the risk propensity mediate the relationship between team’s trait anxiety and escalation of commitment. Practical implications and some limitations has discussed.
Recent research has indicated strong relations between people's appraisals of their circumstances and their emotional states. The present study examined these relations across a range of unpleasant situations in which subjects experienced complex emotional blends. Subjects recalled unpleasant experiences from their pasts that were associated with particular appraisals and described their appraisals and emotions during these experiences. Situations defined by particular appraisals along the human agency or situational control dimensions were reliably associated with different levels of anger, sadness, and guilt, as predicted. However, predicted differences in emotion were not observed for situations selected for appraisals along the certainty or attention dimensions. Most subjects reported experiencing blends of two or more emotions, and correlation/regression analyses indicated that even in the context of these blends, patterns of appraisal similar to those observed previously (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985, 1987) characterized the experience of the individual emotions. The regressions further indicated that appraisals along some dimensions were more important to the experience of particular emotions than were appraisals along other dimensions. These central appraisals are compared with the adaptive functions their associated emotions are believed to serve, and the implications of these findings are discussed. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45362/1/11031_2004_Article_BF00993115.pdf
Studies of risk perception examine the judgements people make when they are asked to characterize and evaluate hazardous activities
and technologies. This research aims to aid risk analysis and policy-making by providing a basis for understanding and anticipating
public responses to hazards and improving the communication of risk information among lay people, technical experts, and decision-makers.
This work assumes that those who promote and regulate health and safety need to understand how people think about and respond
to risk. Without such understanding, well-intended policies may be ineffective.
Although an important aspect of managing new product introductions is to recognize and quickly take action when a product launch has failed (i.e., "pull the plug"), senior managers in a new product launch setting tend to remain committed to a losing course of action. The authors investigate this issue with controlled experiments, using senior level executives as subjects. Their results suggest a strong bias toward continued commitment to failing new products. Consequently, the authors devise and test the effectiveness of five decision aids aimed at reducing this bias. Improving the quality of the information environment does not greatly reduce bias, nor does precommitment (at time of launch) to self-specified decisions rules. The most effective methods of reducing commitment to a losing course of action appear to be either precommitment to a predetermined decision rule or introduction of a new decision maker at the time of the stop/no stop decision. Of these two methods, the latter produces marginally less commitment to a losing course of action. However, none of the tested decision procedures completely reduces commitment to a losing course of action relative to the control condition.
Previous research has shown that individuals are most likely to escalate the amount of resources committed to a course of action when they have been personally responsible for negative consequences. The present study examined the process of escalation over three points in time and under four experimental conditions. A 2 X 2 X 3 factorial experiment was conducted in which personal responsibility, efficacy of resources, and time were the independent variables, and commitment of resources to a course of action was the dependent variable. The results replicated the escalation effect over an immediate time period, but showed that investment of resources in a course of action was not stable over time. Although there were immediate effects of personal responsibility and efficacy of resources upon escalation behavior, these two variables interacted with the time factor.
Two studies examined how discrete emotions influence escalation of commitment. Study 1 demonstrated that anger was associated with more escalation of commitment than fear in a personnel hiring-appraisal context. In addition, it revealed the mediating effect of risk perception; angry compared to fearful individuals perceived lower risk in their initial decision, which in turn increased the tendency to escalate commitment. Study 2 replicated the pattern of results of Study 1 in a financial decision-making situation. Contrary to conclusions drawn from the results of prior research, the current studies suggest that not all negative emotions alleviate escalation of commitment.
The tendency of supervisors to escalate their commitment of a previously expressed opinion by biasing performance ratings was examined in the context of a "real" organization. The hypotheses of the study were (a) that supervisors who participate in a hiring or promotion decision and agree with the eventual decision would positively bias subsequent performance appraisal ratings for that employee, and (b) that supervisors who participate in the original decision but disagree with the decision would bias subsequent performance appraisal ratings in a negative direction. Cases in which the supervisor had not participated in the hiring or promotion decision were used as a control condition. The study was conducted in a large public-sector organization with a sample of 354 clerical employees. Data provide strong support for both hypotheses, demonstrating both positive and negative escalation biases. The implications of these findings for research on escalation and for organizational policy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the role of affect in judgments of risk in 4 experiments. 557 Ss were recruited on college campuses and read paragraphs modeled after newspaper reports that described fatal or nonfatal accidents or (Exp III) positive events. Ss were later asked to estimate the chances of specific fatal or nonfatal accidents happening to them and/or to the population in general. Experimental manipulations of affect induced by report of a tragic event produced a pervasive increase in Ss' estimates of the frequency of many risks and other undesirable events. Contrary to expectation, the effect was independent of the similarity between the report and the estimated risk: An account of a fatal stabbing did not increase the frequency estimate of homicide more than the estimates of unrelated risks such as natural hazards. An account of a happy event that created positive affect produced a comparable global decrease in judged frequency of risks. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Proposed that raters who are provided with negative performance data on a previously promoted employee will subsequently evaluate the employee more positively if they, rather than their predecessors, made the earlier promotion decision. 298 business majors participated. The experimental group made a promotion decision by choosing among 3 candidates, whereas the control group was told that the decision had been made by someone else. Both groups evaluated the promoted employee's performance after reviewing 2 yrs of data. The hypothesized escalation of commitment effect was observed in that the experimental group consistently evaluated the employee more favorably, provided larger rewards, and made more optimistic projections of future performance than did the control group. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research suggests that decision makers have a tendency to become locked into courses of action, to throw good money after bad in dealing with losing projects. The present study directly compared the effectiveness of several deescalation strategies designed to make decision makers more responsive to the available evidence. Three deescalation procedures were found to be most effective: (1) making negative outcomes less threatening; (2) setting minimum target levels that, if not achieved, would lead to a change in policy; and (3) evaluating decision makers on the basis of their decision process rather than outcome. The theoretical and practical implications of each of these strategies are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews evidence which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Ss are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes. (86 ref)
Most theories of affective influences on judgement and choice take a valence-based approach, contrasting the effects of positive versus negative feeling states. These approaches have not specified if and when distinct emotions of the same valence have different effects on judgement. In this article, we propose a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. We posit that each emotion is defined by a tendency to perceive new events and objects in ways that are consistent with the original cognitive-appraisal dimensions of the emotion. To pit the valence and appraisal-tendency approaches against one another, we present a study that addresses whether two emotions of the same valence but differing appraisals—anger and fear—relate in different ways to risk perception. Consistent with the appraisal-tendency hypothesis, fearful people made pessimistic judgements of future events whereas angry people made optimistic judgements. In the Discussion we expand the proposed model and review evidence supporting two social moderators of appraisal-tendency processes.
The overwhelming majority of research on affect and social information processing has focused on the judgments and memories of people in good or bad moods rather than examining more specific kinds of emotional experience within the broad categories of positive and negative affect. Are all varieties of negative affect alike in their impact on social perception? Three experiments were conducted to examine the possibility that different kinds of negative affect (in this case, anger and sadness) can have very different kinds of effects on social information processing. Experiment I showed that angry subjects rendered more stereotypic judgments in a social perception task than did sad subjects, who did not differ from neutral mood subjects. Experiments 2 and 3 similarly revealed a greater reliance upon heuristic cues in a persuasion situation among angry subjects. Specifically, their level of agreement with unpopular positions was guided more by the credibility of the person advocating the position. These findings are discussed in terms of the impact of emotional experience on social information-processing strategies.
Drawing on the motivated cognition literature, we examine how self-affirmation processes influence self-justification needs and escalation decisions. Study 1 found that individuals with a larger pool of affirmational resources (high self-esteem) reduced their escalation compared to those with fewer affirmational resources (low self-esteem). Study 2 extended these findings by demonstrating that individuals also de-escalated their commitments when they were provided an opportunity to affirm on an important value. Finally, Study 3 found that affirming on traits that were of low relevance (e.g., creativity) to an initial decision reduced escalation, but affirming on decision-relevant traits (e.g., decision-making ability) ironically increased escalation. Across three studies, using three instantiations of self-affirmations and two measures of escalation, the results highlight the potential benefits and costs of using self-affirmation as a vehicle to de-escalate commitment.
A person's mood may directly affect a judgment of the uncertainty of a future event. Subjective probabilities were reported by subjects in a happy, neutral, or sad mood for personal and nonpersonal events. Two moods were induced by having the subject focus on particularly happy and sad personal experiences. Large, consistent mood effects are indicated. Relative to control subjects, happy people are “optimistic;” i.e., they report higher probabilities for positive events and lower probabilities for negative events. Conversely, sad people are “pessimistic,” providing lower (higher) probabilities for positive (negative) events. Mood-state-dependent retrieval of information is indicated.
Cognitive conflict plays an important role in tuning cognitive control to the situation at hand. Based on earlier findings that have demonstrated emotional modulations of conflict processing, we predicted that affective states may adaptively regulate goal-directed behavior that is driven by conflict. This hypothesis was tested by measuring conflict-driven control adaptations following experimental induction of four different mood states that could be differentiated along the dimensions arousal and pleasure. After mood states were induced, 91 subjects performed a flanker task, which provides a measure of conflict adaptation. As predicted, pleasure level impacted conflict adaptation: less pleasure was associated with more conflict-driven control.
Arousal level did not influence conflict adaptation. The present study suggests that affect adaptively regulates cognitive control. Implications for future research and psychopathology are discussed.
Examined the impact of happy and sad moods on efficacy judgments concerning a variety of activities in 16 undergraduates who scored between 9 and 12 on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility—Form A. The mood was induced by having hypnotized Ss recall and revive their feelings about a romantic success or failure. Changes in efficacy that these memories induced were not restricted to the romantic domain but were also seen on interpersonal, athletic, and other activities remote from romance. Results suggest that emotional states have widespread impact on judgments by making mood-congruent thoughts more available. Implications for self-efficacy theory and practical applications are discussed.
Most psychological theories and research on shame focus on the ugly aspects and negative consequences of this emotion. Theories on moral emotions, however, assume that shame acts as a commitment device motivating prosocial behavior. To solve this apparent paradox, the authors studied the effects of shame on prosocial behavior. Shame was hypothesized to motivate prosocial behavior when it was relevant for the decision at hand (endogenous). In contrast, shame that was not relevant for the decision at hand (exogenous) was hypothesized to have no such effects. Four experiments with three different shame inductions and two different measures of prosocial behavior confirmed that endogenous shame motivated prosocial behavior for proselfs but that exogenous shame did not. Shame is shown to have a clear interpersonal function in the sense that it acts as a commitment device.
The approach to the problem of oncogenesis of tumorigenic viruses is compared and analyzed from the position of the Altshtein-Vogt hypothesis and from that of the general theory of oncogenesis advanced by the present author. In contrast to the hypothesis of Altshtein-Vogt dealing mainly with the problem of oncogene origin, the general theory of oncogenesis not only defines concretely the origin of the oncogene and the essence of its product, but also makes it possible to understand why, when and how integration of the oncogene with the genome of the cell leads to the transformation of the cell into a benign cell and when into a malignant tumour cell. An analysis of the essence of the "oncogene position effect" from this standpoint shows that an integration, similar in its mechanism but differing in polarity, of the genome of other viruses with the cell genome should lead to the formation of a corresponding antiviral stable (life-long) immunity or also to the emergence of pseudoautoimmune disease of the type caused by "slow" viruses.
Defining hope as a cognitive set that is composed of a reciprocally derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed determination) and (b) pathways (planning of ways to meet goals), an individual-differences measure is developed. Studies demonstrate acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and the factor structure identifies the agency and pathways components of the Hope Scale. Convergent and discriminant validity are documented, along with evidence suggesting that Hope Scale scores augmented the prediction of goal-related activities and coping strategies beyond other self-report measures. Construct validational support is provided in regard to predicted goal-setting behaviors; moreover, the hypothesized goal appraisal processes that accompany the various levels of hope are corroborated.
There has long been interest in describing emotional experience in terms of underlying dimensions, but traditionally only two dimensions, pleasantness and arousal, have been reliably found. The reasons for these findings are reviewed, and integrating this review with two recent theories of emotions (Roseman, 1984; Scherer, 1982), we propose eight cognitive appraisal dimensions to differentiate emotional experience. In an investigation of this model, subjects recalled past experiences associated with each of 15 emotions, and rated them along the proposed dimensions. Six orthogonal dimensions, pleasantness, anticipated effort, certainty, attentional activity, self-other responsibility/control, and situational control, were recovered, and the emotions varied systematically along each of these dimensions, indicating a strong relation between the appraisal of one's circumstances and one's emotional state. The patterns of appraisal for the different emotions, and the role of each of the dimensions in differentiating emotional experience are discussed.
Evidence for the role of affective states in social judgments is reviewed, and a new integrative theory, the affect infusion model (AIM), is proposed as a comprehensive explanation of these effects. The AIM, based on a multiprocess approach to social judgments, identifies 4 alternative judgmental strategies: (a) direct access, (b) motivated, (c) heuristic, and (d) substantive processing. The model predicts that the degree of affect infusion into judgments varies along a processing continuum, such that judgments requiring heuristic or substantive processing are more likely to be infused by affect than are direct access or motivated judgments. The role of target, judge, and situational variables in recruiting high- or low-infusion judgmental strategies is considered, and empirical support for the model is reviewed. The relationship between the AIM and other affect-cognition theories is discussed, and implications for future research are outlined.
Decision making in organizations is often pictured as a coherent and rational process in which alternative interests and perspectives are considered in an orderly manner until the optimal alternative is selected. Yet, as many members of organizations have discovered from their own experience, real decision processes in organizations only seldom fit such a description. This book brings together researchers who focus on cognitive aspects of decision processes, on the one hand, and those who study organizational aspects such as conflict, incentives, power, and ambiguity, on the other. It draws from the tradition of Herbert Simon, who studied organizational decision making's pervasive use of bounded rationality and heuristics of reasoning. These multiple perspectives may further our understanding of organizational decision making. Organizational Decision Making is particularly well suited for students and faculties of business, psychology, and public administration.
This article presents the Appraisal‐Tendency Framework (ATF; Lerner & Keltner, 2000, 2001; Lerner & Tiedens, 2006) as a basis for predicting the influence of specific emotions on consumer decision making. In particular, the ATF addresses how and why specific emotions carry over from past situations to color future judgments and choices. After reviewing the main assumptions and the 5 main principles of the framework, 2 streams of research are presented. One stream addresses emotional carryover effects on the assessment of risk; the other addresses carryover effects on the assessment of monetary value. Because risk assessment and value assessment are fundamental psychological processes, understanding them has the potential to yield manifold implications for consumer judgment and decision making. The concluding sections highlight limitations and future directions of the framework.
This article considers the consumer research implications of the Appraisal‐Tendency Framework (ATF; Han, Lerner, & Keltner, 2007). This article outlines how the ATF approach could be applied to sequential consumer choices (e.g., effects of emotional responses to stockouts on later decisions) and high‐stakes decisions (e.g., medical decisions). This article also proposes several areas in which the ATF might be extended: examining complex sequences of choices with emotional consequences, considering how incidental and integral emotions interact, characterizing how both evaluative and regulatory mechanisms may influence the effects of emotion on judgment and choice, and extending the range of positive emotions and appraisal dimensions considered.
Although an important aspect of managing new product introductions is to recognize and quickly take action when a product launch has failed (i.e., “pull the plug”), senior managers in a new product launch setting tend to remain committed to a losing course of action. The authors investigate this issue with controlled experiments, using senior level executives as subjects. Their results suggest a strong bias toward continued commitment to failing new products. Consequently, the authors devise and test the effectiveness of five decision aids aimed at reducing this bias. Improving the quality of the information environment does not greatly reduce bias, nor does precommitment (at time of launch) to self-specified decisions rules. The most effective methods of reducing commitment to a losing course of action appear to be either precommitment to a predetermined decision rule or introduction of a new decision maker at the time of the stop/no stop decision. Of these two methods, the latter produces marginally less commitment to a losing course of action. However, none of the tested decision procedures completely reduces commitment to a losing course of action relative to the control condition.
Evidence is reviewed which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Subjects are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes.
An experimental scale to measure shame, the Internalized Shame Scale, is described with data on reliability and validity presented from a large nonclinical sample of college students and adults and a small clinical sample that included clients with alcohol problems. Implications from the scale for understanding the phenomenology of shame and its relationship to addictions is discussed.
Defining hope as a cognitive set that is composed of a reciprocally derived sense of successful (1) agency (goal-directed determination) and (2) pathways (planning of ways to meet goals), an individual-differences measure is developed. Studies with college students and patients demonstrate acceptable internal consistency and test–retest reliability, and the factor structure identifies the agency and pathways components of the Hope Scale. Convergent and discriminant validity are documented, along with evidence suggesting that Hope Scale scores augmented the prediction of goal-related activities and coping strategies beyond other self-report measures. Construct validational support is provided in regard to predicted goal-setting behaviors; moreover, the hypothesized goal appraisal processes that accompany the various levels of hope are corroborated.
This study represents one of the first quantitative field tests of the sunk-cost effect. We tested whether the amount teams spent for players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) influenced how much playing time players got and how long they stayed with NBA franchises. Sunk costs were operationalized by the order in which players were selected in the college draft. Draft order was then used to predict playing time, being traded, and survival in the NBA. Although one might logically expect that teams play and keep their most productive players, we found significant sunk-cost effects on each of these important personnel decisions. Results showed that teams granted more playing time to their most highly drafted players and retained them longer, even after controlling for players' on-court performance, injuries, trade status, and position played. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for both sunk-cost research and the broader literature on managerial decision making.
Entrapment refers to the process by which organizational decision makers escalate their commitment to an ineffective course of action in order to justify the allocation of previous resources. This paper presents the results of two laboratory experiments that explored the effect on entrapment of individuals' perceptions that the ineffectiveness of prior resource allocations had negative implications for their self-identity. The first experiment showed that entrapment was greater when subjects were told that their ineffective performance reflected their self-identity than when they were told that it did not. The second experiment explored the joint effects on entrapment of performance feedback and the extent to which the feedback was perceived to have negative implications for self-identity. Feedback was manipulated so that half the subjects were told their performance was increasingly ineffective and half that it was increasingly more effective, though still not successful. Half of each group was told performance was due to skill and half that it was mainly due to luck. Entrapment was greater in the skill than the luck condition among those who received the somewhat positive feedback, but the skill-luck difference in entrapment was significantly reduced among those who received negative feedback. Practical and theoretical implications of these and other related findings are discussed.
The Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) (Cook. 1987) appears to be a reliable ind construct-valid instrument for both clinical and nonclinical populations; it may have specific application to the treatment of shame in drug dependent populations.
An experimental scale to measure shame, the Internalized Shame Scale, is described with data on reliability and validity presented from a large nonclinical sample of college students and adults and a small clinical sample that included clients with alcohol problems. Implications from the scale for understanding the phenomenology of shame and its relationship to addictions is discussed.
In an experimental study of “entrapping” conflicts —situations in which a decisionmaker may continue to expend resources in part to justify previous expenditures—subjects were given an initial stake of 2.00 jackpot. Two independent variables (Process of Resource Allocation and Prior Limit-Setting) were combined in a 2 × 3 design. Once the subjects had started to invest, half of them had to make an “active” decision to continue. Unless they actively decided to continue, their investments automatically ceased and they were no longer eligible for the jackpot (Selfterminating condition). The other half only had to make a “passive” decision to continue. Unless they actively decided to dis continue, their investments for the jackpot automatically increased (Self-sustaining condition). In addition, before investments began, some subjects were asked to inform the experimenter of the nonbinding limit they had set on the amount they planned to invest (Public condition), some were asked to set a limit which they kept to themselves (Private condition), while a third group was not asked to set a limit (Control condition). Subjects invested significantly more money in the Self-sustaining condition. Also, investments were somewhat greater in the Control than the Public condition. Although the mean investments in the Public and Private conditions did not differ, those in the Public condition deviated significantly less from their earlier set limits, suggesting greater commitment to these limits. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
In industrialized societies, the question “How safe is safe enough?” has emerged as a major policy issue of the 1980s. The frequent discovery of new hazards and the widespread publicity they receive is causing more and more individuals to see themselves as the victims, rather than as the beneficiaries, of technology. These fears and the opposition to technology that they produce have perplexed industrialists and regulators and led many observers to argue that the public’s apparent pursuit of a “zero-risk society” threatens the nation’s political and economic stability (Harris, 1980; Wildavsky, 1979).
Escalating commitment (or escalation) refers to the tendency for decision makers to persist with failing courses of action. The present article first reviews evidence suggesting that escalation is determined, at least in part, by decision makers' unwillingness to admit that their prior allocation of resources to the chosen course of action was in vain (the self-justification explanation). A distinction is drawn in the second part of the article between alternative (to self-justification) explanations of escalating commitment: Some are designed to replace self-justification, whereas others are intended to supplement self-justification, that is, to add explanatory power beyond that which can be accounted for by self-justification. There is little evidence that the replacement theories provide a better explanation than does self-justification; however, theories designed to supplement self-justification are likely to lead to a more complete explanation. The article concludes by describing several research strategies that may lead to progress in explaining escalating commitment.
This article considers the consumer research implications of the Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF; Han, Lerner, & Keltner, 2007). This article outlines how the ATF approach could be applied to sequential consumer choices (e.g., effects of emotional responses to stockouts on later decisions) and high-stakes decisions (e.g., medical decisions). This article also proposes several areas in which the ATF might be extended: examining complex sequences of choices with emotional consequences, considering how incidental and integral emotions interact, characterizing how both evaluative and regulatory mechanisms may influence the effects of emotion on judgment and choice, and extending the range of positive emotions and appraisal dimensions considered.
ABSTRACT—We examined,the impact,of specific emotions,on the endowment effect, the tendency for selling prices to exceed buying,or ‘‘choice’’ prices for the same,object. As predicted by appraisal-tendency theory, disgust induced by a prior, irrele- vant situation carried over to normatively,unrelated,economic decisions, reducing selling and choice prices and eliminating the endowment effect. Sadness also carried over, reducing selling prices but increasing choice prices—producing,a ‘‘reverse en- dowment,effect’’ in which,choice prices exceeded,selling prices. The results demonstrate,that incidental emotions,can influence decisions even when real money is at stake, and that emotions of the same,valence can have opposing,effects on such decisions. Two decades of research document,the tendency for incidental emo-
This paper examines British Columbia's decision to host a world's fair (Expo 86) in Vancouver. Despite rapidly increasing deficit projections (from a 6-million projected loss in 1978 to over a 300-million projected loss in 1985), the provincial government remained steadfast in its plans to hold Expo. Expo is therefore a visible and prototypical example of the escalation of commitment, a phenomenon subject to extensive laboratory research in recent years. By examining the Expo case in some detail, this study provides field grounding for previous investigations of escalation. The case not only illustrates the frequently studied processes of self-justification and biased information processing but also highlights the potential importance of institutional explanations of escalation. New theory is proposed that integrates determinants of escalation from several levels of analysis over time. It is proposed that escalation starts with project and psychological forces but can evolve over time into a more structurally determined phenomenon.
Conlon and Garland (1993) demonstrated that information about the degree of project completion, as compared with information about sunk costs, seemed to be the driving force behind continued investment in an R&D project. In the present paper, we replicate and extend this work. In studies with experienced bank managers, Chinese graduate students, and advanced-level MBA students, we find overwhelming support for the importance of project completion on investment intentions, with no indication of typical sunk cost effects. We argue that our results support a goal substitution explanation for many escalation phenomena where, as progress moves forward on a project, completion of the project itself takes increasing precedence over other goals (e. g., economic profit) that may have been more salient at the time the project was initiated.
This article presents the Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF; Lerner & Keltner, 2000, 2001; Lerner & Tiedens, 2006) as a basis for predicting the influence of specific emotions on consumer decision making. In particular, the ATF addresses how and why specific emotions carry over from past situations to color future judgments and choices. After reviewing the main assumptions and the 5 main principles of the framework, 2 streams of research are presented. One stream addresses emotional carryover effects on the assessment of risk; the other addresses carryover effects on the assessment of monetary value. Because risk assessment and value assessment are fundamental psychological processes, understanding them has the potential to yield manifold implications for consumer judgment and decision making. The concluding sections highlight limitations and future directions of the framework.
This study extends research on the escalation of commitment phenomenon by investigating decision makers' tendency to look forward to project completion and develop anticipatory perceptions and emotions concerning goal attainment. We examine the influence of two project-specific predictors of escalation (level of progress and presence of an alternative project) on perceived uncertainty and the extent to which anticipatory emotions (i.e., current affective reactions to possible future events) mediate the influence of uncertainty on levels of commitment to a failing project. Results indicated that level of progress and the presence of an alternative project affected uncertainty, which influenced anticipatory emotions. Lower levels of uncertainty and higher levels of positive anticipatory emotions increased the tendency to escalate commitment.
This paper reviews the impact of anger on judgment and decision making. Section I proposes that anger merits special attention in the study of judgment and decision making because the effects of anger often diverge from those of other negative emotions. Section II presents an Appraisal-Tendency Framework for predicting and organizing such effects. Section III reviews empirical evidence for the uniqueness of anger's relations to judgment and decision making. Section IV connects the Appraisal-Tendency Framework to associated mechanisms and theories. Drawing on the evidence, Section V presents the question of whether anger should be considered a positive emotion. It also proposes the hypothesis that anger will be experienced as relatively unpleasant and unrewarding when reflecting back on the source of one's anger but experienced as relatively pleasant and rewarding when looking forward. Section VI synthesizes the evidence into a new portrait of the angry decision maker. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The current research investigates whether and how individuals are able to learn from one escalation situation to another, hypothesizing that post-escalation regret will reduce subsequent escalation. In Experiment 1, individuals participated in an escalation task after escalating their commitments in a first escalation situation. In Experiment 2, participants’ regret was manipulated by asking them to imagine engaging in an escalation situation. The experiments expand our theoretical and practical understanding of how to prevent escalation of commitment by demonstrating that escalation-specific regret—either experienced from an earlier escalation or primed through imagining an escalation scenario—reduced subsequent escalation in a different context. The discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical impact of regret and emotions in general in escalation of commitment.
It is commonly expected that individuals will reverse decisions or change behaviors which result in negative consequences. Yet, within investment decision contexts, negative consequences may actually cause decision makers to increase the commitment of resources and undergo the risk of further negative consequences. The research presented here examined this process of escalating commitment through the simulation of a business investment decision. Specifically, 240 business school students participated in a role-playing exercise in which personal responsibility and decision consequences were the manipulated independent variables. Results showed that persons committed the greatest amount of resources to a previously chosen course of action when they were personally responsible for negative consequences.
We investigate the joint effects of decision risk and the stage of project completion on escalation of commitment. In two experiments, we demonstrate that the effect of decision risk is moderated by project stage such that the decision risk has the strongest effect on escalation of commitment at the intermediate stage of project completion. This is due to the dynamic influences underlying escalation of commitment. Whereas the need for project information influences resource commitment at the initial stage of a project, the need for project completion affects resource allocation at the terminal stage. In contrast, motivation to commit resources is disproportionately low at the intermediate stage since both the need for project information and the need for project completion are relatively weak. As such, the decision to commit resources is most sensitive to the moderating effect of decision risk when the project is about half complete.
Positive emotions are often treated as relatively similar in their cognitive-behavioral effects, and as having unambiguously beneficial consequences. For example, Valdesolo and DeSteno (2006) reported that a humorous video made people more prone to choose a utilitarian solution to a moral dilemma. They attributed this finding to increased positive affect. To determine whether such results actually stem in general from positive affect or from other more specific properties of humor, we conducted an experiment with moral dilemmas presented during an interleaved emotion-induction procedure involving mirth and another positive emotion, elevation. Mirth increased permissiveness for deontological violations, whereas elevation had the opposite effect. Furthermore, affective valence had no apparent independent influence on these judgments. Our results suggest that mirth and elevation have distinct cognitive consequences whose properties reflect their respective social functions, not their shared positive valence.