Future Events are More Powerful than Memories
Anticipation Study has Implications for Voting and Advertising
January 15, 2008 | Ithaca, NY | Memories may last a lifetime, but anticipation feels better than retrospection.
That's the conclusion of a new study by Leaf Van Boven, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. The study, "Looking Forward, Looking Back: Anticipation Is More Evocative Than Retrospection," was recently published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Van Boven and his co-author Laurence Ashworth of Queen's University conducted five experiments measuring respondents' emotional states regarding positive, negative and hypothetical events that were in the future or past. "People report more intense emotions during anticipation of, than during retrospection about, emotional events that were positive such as Thanksgiving Day; negative occurrences like annoying noises and menstruation; routine experiences and hypothetical events such as an all-expense paid ski vacation," Van Boven said.
"Because people mentally simulate future events more extensively than they mentally simulate past events, anticipation of future events is more emotionally arousing than retrospection about past events," Van Boven said. "Because people are naturally oriented toward future events that are approaching in time rather than past events that are receding in time, they are more mentally engaged in thinking about future events."
Candidates for the 2008 presidential race are exploiting emotional states by using the word "change," Van Boven says.
"People may use emotion aroused by anticipation of future events or retrospection about past events as a basis of making decisions," Van Boven says. "If Americans are unhappy about the present state of politics as polls indicate they are, they are receptive to the 'change' message. Since both Democrats and Republicans are responding to the word 'change,' it can be assumed both are unhappy with the present, but both are excited by the potential for brighter futures."
The Cornell study has implications for advertisers and marketers as the use of tense in advertising copy can be crucial. The appeal of "making memories" on a family vacation may not be the best approach, Van Boven says. "It might dampen enthusiasm because it invites retrospective thought. Conversely, anticipating an enjoyable family trip-simulating fun on the slopes or in a theme park-may arouse consumer interest more effectively."
Van Boven suggests, "Retailers who are interested in maximizing consumer value and creating positive emotions should engage consumers' anticipation early and then persist in reminding consumers about their upcoming experience. Retailers should recognize that the window of consumption experience extends beyond the point of purchase into both the past and future, that consumption experiences include both anticipation and retrospection-and that anticipation is more emotionally involving than retrospection. This will be especially effective in tourism and other 'experiential' forms of consumption."
More than 200 undergraduate and graduate students were tested and surveyed as part of the study over a three-year period.
