The Effect Of Regulatory Fit On Affective Forecasting Bias Of Undergraduates

Researches before had showed that regulation fit produced by regulation focus and strategic means will better enhance the motivation of the realization of individual goals compared to regulation mismatching, so that it will be more prone to overestimate affection in future events and will cause affective forecasting biases. Some researches in recent also further showed that different regulation focus will also influence affective forecasting biases and promotion focus will be more prone to overestimate affection in future events and cause affective forecasting biases than prevention focus does. This research will include two experiments. Firstly, by verifying influences of different regulation focus on affective forecasting biases, I will further verify influences of regulation fit on affective forecasting biases.Experiment One took 122 college students as experimental subject, and took the formula, 2(situational regulation focus: promotion focus/prevention focus)×2(feedback results: positive feedback/negative feedback), as the experimental design. In this experiment, it used dual task method including situational promotion focus and situational prevention focus to investigate the influences from different types of situational regulation focus on affective forecasting biases in different conditions of feedback results.Results of Experiment One showed that the interaction between situational regulation focus and feedback results was significant and promotion focus caused more affective forecasting biases than prevention focus. However, if the experimental subject was in positive feedback, the influence of situational regulation focus on affective forecasting biases was not significant, and if the experimental subject was in negative feedback, the influence of situational regulation focus on affective forecasting biases was significant. Therefore, in Experiment Two, the experimental subject will only be tested in the condition of negative feedback.Experiment Two took 123 college students as experimental subject, and took the formula, 2(situational regulation focus: promotion focus/prevention focus)×2(strategic means: eagerness means/vigilance means), as the experimental design. In this experiment, it used dual task method including situational promotion focus and situational prevention focus and eagerness means and vigilance means to investigate the influences from different types of situational regulation focus and fit of strategic means on affective forecasting biases in the condition of negative feedback.Results of Experiment Two showed that the interaction between situational regulation focus and strategic means was significant. In promotion focus, individuals tested with eagerness means influenced much more significantly on affective forecasting biases than those tested with vigilance means. However, in prevention focus, individuals tested with vigilance means influenced much more significantly on affective forecasting biases than those tested with eagerness means. In other words, individuals tested in regulation fit will result in much more affective forecasting biases than those in regulation mismatching.Based on Experiment One and Two, it can conclude that individuals with regulation fit can enhance their motivation to realize goals so as to be more prone to overestimate affection in future events and cause much more affective forecasting biases.