Does subjective socioeconomic status moderate the effect of basic psychological need satisfaction on undergraduates' affective forecasting?

Abstract

Affective forecasts are people's predictions of their future feelings in response to future events. In this study, based on the self-determination theory (SDT), we examined whether satisfying basic psychological needs influence undergraduates' affective forecasting and the moderating role of subjective socioeconomic status (SES). With a total of 423 undergraduate participants (177 males, 246 females), through one pilot study and three experiments, we first manipulated participants' basic psychological need satisfaction, i.e., autonomy need satisfaction (study 1), competence need satisfaction (study 2), and relatedness need satisfaction (study 3), then we asked low-SES and high-SES participants, respectively, to predict the pleasantness of a particular new product and evaluated the actual experience with the product. Results showed that the effect of basic psychological need on affective forecasting was not significant. When the need for autonomy need and competence need was satisfied, the impact bias was greater for the high SES than the low SES. Conversely, when the relatedness need was satisfied, the impact bias was greater for the low SES than the high SES. In conclusion, subjective SES moderated the influence of basic psychological needs satisfaction on increasing the impact bias in affective forecasting.

Keywords: affective forecast; basic psychological needs (BPNS); impact bias; self-determination theory; subjective socioeconomic status (SES).