Wanting-Liking disjunction in financial decision-making and the moderating effect of affect intensity.

Abstract

In a recent study, participants displayed greater ‘wanting’ for a denied prize but liked it lesser eventually, and this pattern depended on individual affect intensity (Litt, Khan, and Shiv, 2010). This study investigates whether this ‘jilting effect’ also occurs in financial decision-making. 86 participants completed an affect intensity measure and participated in a series of simulated stock auctions. They were randomly assigned to the experimental condition where they were denied the stock once or the control condition where they obtained all the stocks, and then manually assigned to low or high affect intensity groups depending on their affect intensity scores. Two-way ANOVA tests were conducted and the non-significant results suggested that the jilting effect may be absent in financial decision-making.