Affective impact of close counterfactuals: Implications of possible futures for possible pasts

Close outcomes have been shown to influence counterfactual thoughts and affective reactions. Not quite achieving a goal can be particularly disheartening, and just making it can be particularly uplifting. Prior research (Medvec, Madey, & Gilovich, 1995, Medvec & Savitsky, 1997) has demonstrated a satisfaction reversal: People who just miss a better outcome (e,g., losing by 1 point) actually feet worse than those who were not as close (e.g., losing by 10 points). It was hypothesized that this effect should depend critically on whether there are future possibilities. In Study 1, analyses of newspaper articles showed that reactions to a close game depended on whether it was the first or last game of a series. Study 2 demonstrated a new type of satisfaction reversal: At halftime, people felt better when their team was down by 1 point than if their team was up by 1 point. It is suggested that finality evokes contrast effects and that future possibilities evoke assimilation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science.