The Role Of Disappointment In Inaction Inertia

The present study sought to determine the role of disappointment in the "inaction inertia" effect. Two possible explanations for this inaction inertia effect are considered in the former studies:avoidance of regret and devaluation, but the role of disappointment in inaction inertia had been neglected. The present study aimed for a critical test of the avoidance of disappointment explanation. Hence, three experiments did the following:the experiments manipulated factors that may or may not influence disappointment, both disappointment and action likelihood were assessed and tested whether the factors that influenced (or had no influence on) disappointment also influenced (or had on influence on) action likelihood, and finally the current studies investigated whether the effects on action likelihood were mediated by disappointment.Experiment 1 used the disappointment-version scenery in which whether an initial larger discount can be acquired depends on a lottery activity, and the difference between the price of an initial and a current computer (small difference and large difference) and two level of winning probability (high or low) were manipulated in experiment 1. In experiment 2, participants were assigned to one of the four group in a 2×2 design, with two levels of difference between the price of an initial and a current tour offer (small difference and large difference) and two types of reasons for the unavailability of the initial deal (never existed or sold out). Experiment 3 required participants to estimate their likelihood of becoming a member of a fitness club and the experienced disappointment as a function of the difference between an initial and a current price for the fitness club and the responsibility (high or low) of missing the fitness club. Experiment 1 and 2 focused on the experienced disappointment about missing the earlier opportunity and anticipated disappointment if they act on the second opportunity, and besides these two kinds of disappointment, experiment 3 also measured the disappointment about the current new opportunity. In addition, experiment 2 and 3 explored the anticipated regret and devaluation explanation at the same time.In conclusion, the current study proposes that, in some cases, anticipated disappointment may be an account for inaction inertia, especially when the freedom of choice and personal responsibility are reduced or the initial deal does not exit in fact. The present research broads the exploration of causes for inaction inertia and future research may further test this disappointment explanation.