When Size Matters: Sensitivity to Missed Opportunity Size Increases With Stronger Assessment

This research shows that the strength of assessment orientation,defined as the “aspect of self-regulation concerned with critically evaluating entities or states,” increases a person’s sensitivity to the size of a missed opportunity. study 1 revealed that the experimental induction of an assessment orientation reduced the likelihood to act on a present offer after missing out on a large opportunity. following a small missed opportunity,on the contrary,seizing the present offer was more likely. studies 2 and 3 generalized this effect to chronic assessment orientations. in study 4,the findings were replicated in a field study,which also demonstrated that differential value judgments explain assessors’ sensitivity to the size of a missed opportunity. © 2017,© 2017 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.