WHEN DOING BETTER MEANS FEELING WORSE - THE EFFECTS OF CATEGORICAL CUTOFF POINTS ON COUNTERFACTUAL THINKING AND SATISFACTION

Counterfactual thoughts of ''what might have been'' have been shown to influence emotional responses to outcomes. The present investigation extends this research by proposing a model of how categorical cutoff p oints, or arbitrary values that impose qualitative boundaries on quant itative outcomes, induce counterfactual thoughts and influence individ uals' satisfaction. In particular, just making a cutoff for a category is hypothesized to elicit downward counterfactual comparisons, boosti ng satisfaction, whereas just missing a cutoff prompts upward counterf actual thoughts, decreasing satisfaction. In some circumstances, this asymmetry can reverse the usual relationship between objective outcome and satisfaction, causing people who do objectively better to feel wo rse than those they outperform. This hypothesis is supported by the re sults of 1 naturalistic study and 2 scenario experiments.