Great Expectations

Thinking about how enjoyable and how much fun future events will be is a great joy of life. If we didn’t have things to look forward to it would be a sad, sad world. But at the same time we sometimes really don’t look forward to things at all. We often dread upcoming dental surgery and visits to annoying relatives. The consequences of anticipation and expectation are possibly more important than you would assume. This blog will hopefully outline how expectations can change the experiences we have and also our subsequent memories of such experiences. Additionally we will address the age old question of when awaiting some potentially bad news, should one optimistically hope for the best or pessimistically fear for the worst?

Often you drag a friend to the cinema to watch a very well reviewed film. The critics think it is good and there is no reason that it shouldn’t be enjoyed. However, from the very start you can tell your friend simply won’t like it. You tell them that they have come with a negative attitude and they expect it to be quite boring, but should give it a chance. However, they couldn’t be any les enthusiastic. Well more fool them, because there is very good reason to believe that our expectations shape how enjoyable we find future experiences. If you expect something to be very enjoyable you will be more likely to enjoy it. If you expect a meal to be extremely tasty, this expectation is likely to influence how tasty you find it.

A nice study by Wilson and colleagues (1989) underlines this idea. The researchers showed participants a series of cartoons. The first half of the cartoons were funny and the other half not very funny at all. When participants looked at the cartoons without any prior expectations they reported exactly that; funny first half, not very funny second half. However, the researchers also led some participants to believe that previous participants had found all of the cartoons extremely funny. The result: these participants also reported that the three not particularly funny cartoons were a hoot. Furthermore, they didn’t only just report they were funnier but their facial expressions followed suit too. They exhibited a greater ‘facial humour’ response than participants with no prior expectations.

There is also good reason to believe that expectations are likely to be important when it comes to remembering the past too. A set of experiments by McDonald & Hirt (1997) using a fictional character called ‘J.W’ show this effect. Participants were led to believe that they were participating in a study examining interviewing skills and recruitment. At the start they were provided with a performance sheet of our friend J.W. Here it had noted down some old exam marks amongst other seemingly relevant items. After completing various tasks to back up the cover story, they were then led to believe one of two things through reading a counsellors report about J.W. One half of participants were led to believe that after getting those older grades J.W had acquired a girlfriend that he loved very much and that was extremely good for him and helped him greatly with his academic work (thus, they were implicitly led to believe he would be likely to improve his grades). The other half of participants were led to believe J.W hadn’t been so lucky with his choice of girlfriend. She was bad for him and their relationship hampered his usual hard working nature. What a bitch (these participants were implicitly led to believe J.W’s grades would get worse).

Shortly afterwards all participants were then given a sheet with J.W’s most recent grades on. Finally, participants were asked to make a number of judgements about J.W as well as noting down his older exam grades. This is now the interesting part! Participants that had expected J.W to have improved his academic ability (because of his amazing girlfriend) remembered his initial grades to have been lower than they actually were. The reason? To fit in with their expectations. They had his current grades right in front of them and because they expected him to have improved significantly they remembered his older results to have been worse than they were. Conversely, participants that were expecting a decline in J.W’s performance because of his horrid girlfriend actually remembered his original grades to have been better than they actually were. By selectively remembering J.W’s grades to have been higher or lower than they actually were participants were able to satisfy their expectations about changes in J.W’s academic performance.

This may come across as a slightly complicated study. A simpler analogy that has research backing is as follows. Couples generally like the idea that they are very happy with their partner and over time they have grown to love each other more. This can thus lead them to remember themselves as being less happy than they actually were in the relationship a year or so earlier to fulfil these expectations. In a slightly over the top and tabloid like analogy – expectations shape memory to almost trick people into remembering the past in a way that falls into line with current expectations. In the same way that your arse of a friend didn’t enjoy that film, he will probably remember it to have been even worse than it actually was.

The final set of studies that will be covered here examine an expectation related old wives tale. If you don’t get your hopes up and expect the worse, when you get bad news the impact won’t make you feel quite so bad. The classic ‘I tell myself and believe I’ve probably failed so that when I hear my results I will feel relieved whatever.’ Golub and colleagues (2009) suggest this is probably isn’t such a good idea after all. In one of a series of studies the researchers examined how student’s expectations about their scores on midterm exams influenced how they felt both before and after receiving the dreaded results. Seventy two hours before receiving their test results participants filled out an online questionnaire measuring how worried they were about their soon to be received grades, as well as measurements of current mood. Then twenty fours hours after receiving their grades participants again filled out the mood measurements.

Analysis revealed that expecting the worse and worrying about the results made individuals feel much worse in the run up to the exams. However, participant’s expectations about the exam results had no effect on how they felt 24 hours afterwards. Thus, expecting the worse didn’t make individuals feel any better after the event and actually made participants feel much worse prior to getting the exam results. Fearing for the worst probably isn’t such a good idea as you spend the build up to the event literally living in fear. And according to this study there isn’t any benefit of this as early as 24 hours after the feared event. Admittedly expecting the worse could have some effect immediately after the event (‘relief’ experienced in the first few minutes or so), but one must wonder if this is worth it, especially if you’ve spent the days running up to the dreaded exams results feeling quite worried and down.

Application?

If participating in Come Dine With Me ensure that your menu descriptions are insanely appetizing. Raising individuals expectations about what they will be eating may be rather beneficial on their later enjoyment.

If you are stuck with a future event you can’t duck out of then try and be a little more optimistic.

Don’t be afraid to question your memory for past events.