Pearls before swine : resentment when others squander desired opportunities
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Perhaps paradoxically, people are less happy if another person squanders a coveted opportunity than if that person consumes and enjoys it. Six studies demonstrate the Pearls Before Swine (PBS) effect, in which individuals resent when someone else does not take advantage of a desired opportunity. Despite the irrelevance of the squanderer's decision to their own lives, observers of squandered opportunities report lower positive affect and higher negative affect, including sadness, anger, and frustration. Observers of squandered opportunities display an egocentric bias in reacting intensely to the squandering of opportunities related to their own interests while disregarding whether the opportunity is appealing to the squanderer. Across six studies, I highlight two mechanisms for the PBS: 1) the perceived injustice that the squanderer received the opportunity instead of someone more appreciative, and 2) the aversion to wasted utility. In comparing themselves to others, people are affected not only by discrepancies in the opportunities available to themselves and others, but also by what others choose to do with their opportunities
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Reynolds, Jesse |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Monin, Benoît, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Monin, Benoît, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Dweck, Carol S, 1946- |
| Degree committee member | Dweck, Carol S, 1946- |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Jesse Reynolds |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Jesse Reynolds
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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