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It’s that time of year when work places across the US are inundated with March Madness office pools. Countless numbers of people are expected to take part in 2011 office pools, including people who have never watched a single game of college basketball.
The activity is not without its risks, claims Stephen M. Nowlis, PhD, who released a 2008 paper in the Journal of Consumer Research titled “The Effect of Making a Prediction about the Outcome of a Consumption Experience on the Enjoyment of That Experience”
“Predictions become more aversive when the outcome of the event is highly uncertain,” the August A. Busch, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Marketing noted.
A series of four experiments demonstrated that consumers who make predictions about uncertain events experience significantly less enjoyment while observing the events thanthose who don’t make predictions.“We thought the opposite would be true,” says Nowlis. “We explain our results in terms of anticipated regret. In fact, removing the source of anticipated regret eliminates the negative effect of prediction on enjoyment.”
Nowlis added: “One compelling finding from our studies was that, among those who made predictions, participants who were correct enjoyed the event no more than those who were incorrect.”
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
