Open AccessExpectation Regarding Benefit Does Not Determine Gratitude: Implications From an Anchoring Paradigm
Author(s) -
Yamamoto Akitomo,
Higuchi Masataka
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/jpr.12317
Subject(s) - gratitude , vignette , beneficiary , anchoring , psychology , context (archaeology) , social psychology , economics , finance , paleontology , biology
Using the anchoring paradigm and fixing a relationship between the benefactor and the beneficiary, the present study tested the hypothesis that a beneficiary feels less grateful when he or she expects in advance to receive a large benefit. The high‐ and low‐anchor conditions among Japanese university students saw an extreme amount of benefit (i.e., anchoring stimuli), whereas the control condition did not. Subsequently, the participants rated their expectations regarding the amount of benefit they would receive if they were the beneficiary in the vignette. Finally, all of the participants, who received the same amount, were informed of the benefit they received and rated the intensity of gratitude they felt. The results of the two studies that covered various situations of receiving benefits revealed that, while the expectation regarding benefit approached the anchor value, the expectation regarding benefit does not correlate with the intensity of gratitude: The hypothesis was not supported. These results suggest that, even if anchoring stimuli as context information influence beneficiaries’ expectations regarding benefit, this influence does not reach gratitude.