Expectancy, feedback, and disconfirmation as independent factors in outcome satisfaction

Contends that previous research on the expectancy disconfirmation problem has been unjustified in concluding that no disconfirmation effect exists because (a) proper tests for the effect were conducted only for low expectancy Ss and (b) cumulative effects of expectancy disconfirmation comparable to the cumulative effects of winning or losing were never assessed. The present study achieved these ends by unconfounding overall performance expectancy and expectancies, outcomes, and disconfirmations on individual trials. 96 college students were given either high or low overall expectancies and then played a series of 20 games. On each game, Ss made outcome predictions that were confirmed either 25, 50, or 75% of the time, independently of overall expectancies, trial outcomes, and overall feedback. Results show that a loss on a particular trial was less satisfying when unexpected and a win on a particular trial was more satisfying when expected only for Ss with high overall expectancies; cumulative expectancy disconfirmation had a negative effect on all of the Ss. (34 ref)