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Preferences for separating or combining events
1Center for Decision Studies, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27706.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|January 1, 1991
Summary
People prefer to separate positive events to savor gains and negative events to avoid multiple losses. Combining positive and negative events helps buffer losses, influencing decision-making under emotional impact.
Area of Science:
- Decision-making psychology
- Behavioral economics
- Cognitive science
Background:
- Individuals face emotionally impactful events across various life domains.
- Understanding preferences for temporal event sequencing is crucial for decision-making models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate preferences for temporally separating or combining emotionally impactful events.
- To propose a renewable resources model integrating decision-making and resource management.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a renewable resources model incorporating prospect theory.
- Examined preferences for sequencing positive, negative, and mixed emotional events.
Main Results:
- Participants preferred separating two positive events (gain-savoring).
- Participants preferred separating two negative events (multiple-loss-avoidance).
- Participants preferred combining a positive and a negative event (loss-buffering).
Conclusions:
- Temporal event sequencing preferences are consistent across academic, financial, and social domains.
- The renewable resources model effectively explains emotional event sequencing decisions.
- Findings have implications for understanding subjective well-being and decision-making strategies.