Effects of Counterfactual Thought on Postpurchase Consumer Affect

Psychology and Marketing

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 23-46

  Walchli, Suzanne B ^a   Landman, Janet ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC   (United States)

^b BABSON COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037240580     PISSN: 07426046     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/mar.10057     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. Cantor, N., & Norem, J. K. (1989). Defensive pessimism and stress and coping. Social Cognition, 7, 92-112.
2. Cooke, A. D. J., Meyvis, T., & Schwartz, A. (2001). Avoiding future regret in purchase-timing decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 27, 447-459.
3. Creyer, E. H., & Ross, W. T. (1999). The development and use of a regret experience measure to examine the effects of outcome feedback on regret and subsequent choice. Marketing Letters, 10, 379-392.
4. Dermer, M., Cohen, S. J., Jacobsen, E., & Anderson, E. A. (1979). Evaluative judgments of aspects of life as a function of vicarious exposure to hedonic extremes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 247-260.
5. Erdelyi, M. H. (1974). A new look at the New Look: Perceptual defense and vigilance. Psychological Review, 81, 1-25.
6. Freud, A. (1936). The ego and the mechanisms of defense (rev. ed.). New York: International Universities Press.
7. Gavanski, I., & Wells, G. L. (1989). Counterfactual processing of normal and exceptional events. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 314-325.
8. Gilovich, T. (1983). Biased evaluation and persistence in gambling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1110-1126.
9. Gleicher, F., Boninger, D. S., Strathman, A., Armor, D., & Ahn, M. (1995). With an eye toward the future: The impact of counterfactual thinking on affect, attitudes, and behavior. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 283-304). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
10. Gleicher, F., Kost, K. A., Baker, S. M., Strathman, A. J., Richman, S. A., & Sherman, S. J. (1990). The role of counterfactual thinking in judgments of affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 284-295.
11. Hetts, J. J., Boninger, D. S., Armor, D. A., Gleicher, F., & Nathanson, A. (2000). The influence of anticipated counterfactual regret on behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 17, 345-368.
12. Johnson, J. T. (1986). The knowledge of what might have been: Affective and attributional consequences of near outcomes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12, 51-62.
13. Johnson, J. T., & Sherman, S. J. (1990). Constructing and reconstructing the past and the future in the present. In E. G. Higgins & R. M. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition (pp. 482-526). New York: Guilford.
14. Kahneman, D., & Miller, D. T. (1986). Norm theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives. Psychological Review, 93, 136-153.
15. Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1982a). The simulation heuristic. In D. Kahneman, P. Slovic, & A. Tversky (Eds.), Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases (pp. 201-208). New York: Cambridge University Press.
16. Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1982b). On the psychology of preferences. Scientific American, 246, 160-173.
17. Landman, J. (1987). Regret and elation following action and inaction: Affective responses to positive versus negative outcomes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13, 524-536.
18. Landman, J. (1993). Regret: The persistence of the possible. New York: Oxford University Press.
19. Landman, J., Vandewater, E. A., Stewart, A. J., & Malley, J. E. (1995). Missed opportunities: Psychological ramifications of counterfactual thought in midlife women. Journal of Adult Development, 2, 87-97.
20. Markman, K. D., Gavanski, I., Sherman, S. J., & McMullen, M. N. (1993). The mental simulation of better and worse possible worlds. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 87-109.
21. Markman, K. D., Gavanski, I., Sherman, S. J., & McMullen, M. N. (1995). The impact of perceived control on the imagination of better and worse possible worlds. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 588-595.
22. McConnell, A. R., Niedermeier, K. E., Leibold, J. M., El-Alayli, A. G., Chin, P. P., & Kuiper, N. M. (2000). What if I find it cheaper someplace else?: Role of prefactual thinking and anticipated regret in consumer behavior. Psychology & Marketing, 17, 281-298.
23. McMullen, M. N. (1997). Affective contrast and assimilation in counterfactual thinking. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 77-100.
24. McMullen, M. N., & Markman, K. D. (2002). Affective impact of close counterfactuals: Implications of possible futures for possible pasts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 64-70.
25. McMullen, M. N., Markman, K. D., & Gavanski, I. (1995). Living in neither the best nor worst of all possible worlds: Antecedents and consequences of upward and downward counterfactual thinking. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 133-167). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
26. Medvec, V. H., Madey, S. F., & Gilovich, T. (1995). When less is more: Counterfactual thinking and satisfaction among Olympic medalists. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 603-610.
27. Meyers-Levy, J., & Maheswaran, D. (1992). When timing matters: The influence of temporal distance on consumers' affective and persuasive responses. Journal of Consumer Research, 19, 424-433.
28. Norem, J. K. (2001). Defensive pessimism, optimism and pessimism. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice. Washington, DC: APA Press.
29. Norem, J. K., & Cantor, N. (1986). Anticipatory and post-hoc cushioning strategies: Optimism and defensive pessimism in "risky" situations. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 347-362.
30. Norem, J. K., & Chang, E. C. (2001). A very full glass: Adding complexity to our thinking about the implications and applications of optimism and pessimism research. In E. C. Chang (Ed.), Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice. Washington, DC: APA Press.
31. Oliver, R. (1997). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
32. Roese, N. J. (1994). The functional basis of counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 805-818.
33. Roese, N. J. (2000). Counterfactual thinking and marketing: Introduction to the special issue. Psychology & Marketing, 17, 277-280.
34. Roese, N. J., & Olson, J. M. (1995a). Functions of counterfactual thinking. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 169-197). Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.
35. Roese, N. J., & Olson, J. M. (1995b). Counterfactual thinking: A critical overview. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 1-55). Hillside, NJ: Erlbaum.
36. Sanna, L. J. (1996). Defensive pessimism, optimism, and simulating alternatives: Some ups and downs of prefactual and counterfactual thinking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1020-1036.
37. Sanna, L. J., & Turley, K. J. (1996). Antecedents to spontaneous counterfactual thinking: Effects of expectancy violation and outcome valence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 906-919.
38. Schafer, R. (1968). The mechanisms of defense. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 49, 1.
39. Schwarz, N., & Bless, H. (1992). Constructing reality and its alternatives: An inclusion/exclusion model of assimilation and contrast effects in social judgment. In L. L. Martin & A. Tesser (Eds.), The construction of social judgments (pp. 217-245). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
40. Sherman, S. J., & McConnell, A. R. (1995). Dysfunctional implications of counterfactual thinking: When alternatives to reality fail us. In N. J. Roese & J. M. Olson (Eds.), What might have been: The social psychology of counterfactual thinking (pp. 199-232). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
41. Sheth, J. N., Mittal, B., & Newman, B. I. (1999). Customer behavior: Consumer behavior and beyond. Fort Worth: The Dryden Press.
42. Simonson, I. (1992). The influence of anticipating regret and responsibility on purchase decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 19, 105-118.
43. Spencer, S. M., & Norem, J. K. (1996). Reflection and distraction: Defensive pessimism, strategic optimism, and performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 354-365.
44. Stewart, A. J., & Vandewater, E. A. (1999). "If I had it to do over again. . .": Midlife review, midcourse corrections, and women's well-being in midlife. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 270-283.
45. Tsiros, M., & Mittal, V. (2000). Regret: A model of its antecedents and consequences in consumer decision making. Journal of Consumer Research, 26, 401-417.
46. Zeelenberg, M., & Pieters, R. (1999). Comparing service delivery to what might have been: Behavioral responses to regret and disappointment. Journal of Service Research, 2, 86-97.
47. Zeelenberg, M., van Dijk, W. W., van der Pligt, J., Manstead, A. S. R., van Empelen, P., & Reinderman, D. (1998). Emotional reactions to the outcomes of decisions: The role of counterfactual thought in the experience of regret and disappointment. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 75, 117-141.