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Individuals rely more on dispositional information when making affective forecasts for others than for themselves Forrin, Noah David

Abstract

Research on affective forecasting has, thus far, focused on how individuals predict their own future emotions. Daily experience, however, suggests that people also make affective forecasts for others on a regular basis. Across five studies, we found that people making affective forecasts for others relied more on dispositional information than those who made forecasts for the self. This trend emerged for affective forecasts of both hypothetical (Studies 1-3) and real events (Studies 4 and 5), and regardless of whether the other person was a stranger (Studies 1, 2, 4, and 5) or a friend (Study 3). Further, individuals made less biased affective forecasts for others than for themselves (Study 5), perhaps due to the greater weight placed on dispositional information when making forecasts for others. These findings suggest that individuals can benefit from asking others how they will feel in the future

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