Poster #203 - “At Least I Got Something”: Prior Expectations Influence Children’s and Adults’ Outlook On a Low-Value Outcome

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Starting around 6 to 7 years, individuals feel better about an outcome when they had previously held low versus high expectations about what would occur (Carroll et al., 2006; Lara et al., in prep). In addition, children as young as five years report that thinking positively feels better than thinking negatively (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012; Lara et al., 2017). Here, we manipulated children’s and adults’ expectations for a prize. We then assessed the impact of these prior expectations on how they interpreted the meaning and utility of a low-value outcome. We further investigated whether individuals who “looked on the bright side” also reported more positive affective responses following the outcome.

Four- to 10-year-olds and adults (N=185) played a game with a 50% chance of winning. Participants were told that winners would receive one of five prizes, ranging in value from low (a pencil) to high (a $20 gift card). Half of the participants won and therefore expected a prize (high-expectation condition) and the other half lost and therefore expected nothing (low-expectation condition). Regardless of winning status, everyone received a pencil—a low-value outcome. Participants rated how much they liked the pencil (10-point pictorial scale; strongly dislike to strongly like) and how they felt about receiving the pencil (7-point pictorial scale; very bad to very good). Participants also explained the cause(s) of their emotional responses. Independent raters blind to study hypotheses, participant age, and expectation condition coded explanations for the presence or absence of two features (Kappas>.84): (a) reference to the pencil being valuable, useful, or better than an alternative outcome (positive outlook), and (b) reference to the pencil being valueless, useless, or worse than an alternative outcome (negative outlook).

We examined the relation between outlook (positive, negative) and condition (high-expectation, low-expectation), as well as the relation between outlook and age (4/5, 6/7, 8/10, adults). Participants in the low-expectation condition more often expressed a positive outlook than those in the high-expectation condition, X2(1, N=185)=6.03, p=.014. Inversely, participants more often voiced a negative outlook on the pencil subsequent to having held high versus low expectations about winning a prize, X2(1, N=185)=9.40, p=.002 (Figure 1). Developmentally, whereas positive outlooks increased with age, X2(1, N=185)=34.35, p<.001, negative outlooks were age-invariant, X2(1, N=185)=4.68, p=.197 (Figure 2). Controlling for age and expectation condition, participants with a positive outlook liked the pencil more [r(183)=.50, p<.001] and felt better about receiving the pencil [r(183)=.51, p<.001] than did participants without a positive outlook. As well, participants with a negative outlook liked the pencil less [r(183)=-.48, p<.001] and had more negative emotions [r(183)=-.46, p<.001] than did participants without a negative outlook.

Thus, prior expectations bias whether children and adults will have a positive or negative outlook on a low-value outcome, and having a positive outlook coincides with more positive affective responses. We will discuss these findings in relation to development and individual differences in emotion regulation strategies. In particular, we will focus on how helping children to hold flexible expectations can produce more positive outlooks and promote coping with disappointment.

Authors

• Karen Hjortsvang Lara, University of California, Davis
  Presenting Author

• Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hannah J Kramer, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author