Do We Know What We Enjoy? Accuracy of Forecasted Eating Happiness

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Karoline Villinger¹  Deborah R. Wahl¹  Laura M. König¹  Katrin Ziesemer¹  Simon Butscher²  Jens Müller²  Harald Reiterer²  Harald T. Schupp¹  Britta Renner¹ 

[1] Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz;Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Konstanz

关键词: affective forecasting;    forecasting accuracy;    individual differences;    impact bias;    eating happiness;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01187

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Forecasting how we will react in the future is important in every area of our lives. However, people often demonstrate an “impact bias” which leads them to inaccurately forecast their affective reactions to distinct and outstanding future events. The present study examined forecasting accuracy for a day-to-day repetitive experience for which people have a wealth of past experiences (eating happiness), along with dispositional expectations toward eating (“foodiness”). Seventy-three participants (67.12% women, Mage = 41.85 years) used a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment to assess their food intake and eating happiness over 14 days. Eating happiness experienced in-the-moment showed considerable inter-and intra-individual variation, ICC = 0.47. Comparing forecasted and in-the-moment eating happiness revealed a significant discrepancy whose magnitude was affected by dispositional expectations and the variability of the experience. The results demonstrate that biased forecasts are a general phenomenon prevalent both in outstanding and well-known experiences, while also emphasizing the importance of inter-individual differences for a detailed understanding of affective forecasting.

【 授权许可】

CC BY