The Jilting Effect: Antecedents, Mechanisms, and Consequences for Preference
研究当人们渴望一个理想选项却最终无法获得时（被抛弃），如何影响他们对现有选项和其他选项的偏好，通过四组实验验证该效应并排除其他解释。
This research explores how the experience of a jilt—the anticipation and subsequent inaccessibility of a highly desirable, aspirant option—influences preference for incumbent and non-incumbent options. The authors conceptualize jilting as a multi-stage process, which consists of a pre-jilt anticipatory phase that is initiated on the introduction of an aspirant option and a post-jilt phase that is initiated when the aspirant option becomes inaccessible. They show that during the anticipatory phase, a process of denigration specific to the incumbent option is engendered. The subsequent jilt elicits a negative emotional response. During the affectively charged post-jilt phase, preference shifts away from the now-denigrated incumbent option, yielding a jilting effect. In four field and laboratory studies, the authors establish this jilting effect, rule out alternative accounts, and discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.