Helge Thorbjørnsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1654706 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helge Thorbjørnsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helge |
| FAMILY NAME | Thorbjørnsen |
| SIGNATURE | THORBJØRNSEN H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Norwegian School of Economics |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2037-3336 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Does Self-Projection Have a Dominant Temporal Direction? In Nine Countries, People Feel More Similar to Their Future Than Past Selves
Do you project your current self—the person you are today—equally across time? Compared to the present, 12 studies (total N = 11,416) reveal that people feel more similar to their future selves than their equidistant past selves. This future-oriented asymmetry in self-projection is directionally consistent across nine countries, with variation in effect size, and holds across different time horizons. Time-asymmetric self-projection covaries with …
Beliefs versus reality
Do people believe that others are similarly, more, or less dishonest than they truly are? The accuracy of dishonesty beliefs is not only important for psychological knowledge, but also has implications for organizations and policymaking. In this paper, Study 1 presents a research program on moral decision-making comprising 31 different effects from 11 experiments, where participants could anonymously lie for personal gain. Crucially, participants…
Self‐Serving Optimism in Well‐Being Prediction
Psychological well‐being is remarkably stable over time. However, people may still believe that the future will deviate from the past. Across four experiments in Norway and the United States ( N = 1,827), participants were randomly assigned to report their well‐being in the past or predict their future well‐being. In line with a “bright‐future hypothesis”, people predicted higher levels of happiness and meaning in the future than in their histori…
Do Customer Ratings Influence Consumers Who Have Already Experienced a Product
This study investigates whether the subjective experiences of consumers are altered by exposure to others’ ratings of the same experience. On the basis of theories of memory reconstruction and conformity, the authors conducted two experiments in Sweden and found that consumers’ quality perceptions, ratings, and customer satisfaction were, indeed, affected by the postexperience viewing of others’ ratings, in two different product categories. The f…
Individuals’ Assessments of Their Own Wellbeing, Subjective Welfare, and Good Life
This paper reports on four exploratory online studies of how wellbeing and welfare are valued and perceived from a subjective, individual perspective. Study 1 ( n = 707) compares individuals' subjective ratings and correlations of the importance of the three wellbeing dimensions happiness, meaning in life, and a psychologically rich life, as well as their welfare. Study 2 ( n = 679) factor-analyses the same four (five-item) wellbeing and subjecti…
Changes in Physical Activity Are Associated with Corresponding Changes in Psychological Well-Being
Societal crises and personal challenges are often followed by substantial changes in physical activity. Is there a link between such changes and psychological well-being? Seeking to answer this question, we conducted a correlational study on a representative sample in Sweden during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 1035). About 49% of the sample had decreased their physical activity compared to their self-reported activity level prior …
How virtual reality influences travel intentions
Virtual reality can influence consumer behavior in powerful ways, but in the domain of tourism marketing, less is known about the psychological process. One possibility is that VR has stronger impact on mental imagery than traditional channels, creating vivid simulations of what it would be like to visit destinations. This process might create hedonic expectations of future happiness, which should increase the willingness to actually seek out the…
How virtual reality influences travel intentions
Virtual reality can influence consumer behavior in powerful ways, but in the domain of tourism marketing, less is known about the psychological process. One possibility is that VR has stronger impact on mental imagery than traditional channels, creating vivid simulations of what it would be like to visit destinations. This process might create hedonic expectations of future happiness, which should increase the willingness to actually seek out the…
Changes in Physical Activity Are Associated with Corresponding Changes in Psychological Well-Being
Societal crises and personal challenges are often followed by substantial changes in physical activity. Is there a link between such changes and psychological well-being? Seeking to answer this question, we conducted a correlational study on a representative sample in Sweden during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 1035). About 49% of the sample had decreased their physical activity compared to their self-reported activity level prior …
How virtual reality influences travel intentions
Virtual reality can influence consumer behavior in powerful ways, but in the domain of tourism marketing, less is known about the psychological process. One possibility is that VR has stronger impact on mental imagery than traditional channels, creating vivid simulations of what it would be like to visit destinations. This process might create hedonic expectations of future happiness, which should increase the willingness to actually seek out the…
Individuals’ Assessments of Their Own Wellbeing, Subjective Welfare, and Good Life
This paper reports on four exploratory online studies of how wellbeing and welfare are valued and perceived from a subjective, individual perspective. Study 1 ( n = 707) compares individuals' subjective ratings and correlations of the importance of the three wellbeing dimensions happiness, meaning in life, and a psychologically rich life, as well as their welfare. Study 2 ( n = 679) factor-analyses the same four (five-item) wellbeing and subjecti…
Do Customer Ratings Influence Consumers Who Have Already Experienced a Product
This study investigates whether the subjective experiences of consumers are altered by exposure to others’ ratings of the same experience. On the basis of theories of memory reconstruction and conformity, the authors conducted two experiments in Sweden and found that consumers’ quality perceptions, ratings, and customer satisfaction were, indeed, affected by the postexperience viewing of others’ ratings, in two different product categories. The f…
Self‐Serving Optimism in Well‐Being Prediction
Psychological well‐being is remarkably stable over time. However, people may still believe that the future will deviate from the past. Across four experiments in Norway and the United States ( N = 1,827), participants were randomly assigned to report their well‐being in the past or predict their future well‐being. In line with a “bright‐future hypothesis”, people predicted higher levels of happiness and meaning in the future than in their histori…
Does Self-Projection Have a Dominant Temporal Direction? In Nine Countries, People Feel More Similar to Their Future Than Past Selves
Do you project your current self—the person you are today—equally across time? Compared to the present, 12 studies (total N = 11,416) reveal that people feel more similar to their future selves than their equidistant past selves. This future-oriented asymmetry in self-projection is directionally consistent across nine countries, with variation in effect size, and holds across different time horizons. Time-asymmetric self-projection covaries with …
Beliefs versus reality
Do people believe that others are similarly, more, or less dishonest than they truly are? The accuracy of dishonesty beliefs is not only important for psychological knowledge, but also has implications for organizations and policymaking. In this paper, Study 1 presents a research program on moral decision-making comprising 31 different effects from 11 experiments, where participants could anonymously lie for personal gain. Crucially, participants…
Psychology (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Happiness (3 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · Advertising (2 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (2 works) · Business (2 works) · Cognition (2 works) · Life satisfaction (2 works)