Hallgeir Sjåstad
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1762612 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Hallgeir Sjåstad |
| PRENOMES | Hallgeir |
| SOBRENOME | Sjåstad |
| ASSINATURA | SJÅSTAD H |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Norwegian School of Economics |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8730-1038 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 20 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 20 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2018 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
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…
The Best-Case Heuristic
In four experiments covering three different life domains, participants made future predictions in what they considered the most realistic scenario, an optimistic best-case scenario, or a pessimistic worst-case scenario ( N = 2,900 Americans). Consistent with a best-case heuristic, participants made “realistic” predictions that were much closer to their best-case scenario than to their worst-case scenario. We found the same best-case asymmetry in…
Making a promise increases the moral cost of lying
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…
Addressing climate change with behavioral science
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interve…
Revisiting the moral forecasting error – A preregistered replication and extension of “Are we more moral than we think?”
Predictions are often inaccurate. Still, the direction of prediction errors may vary. Contrary to research on the intention-behavior gap, where people fail to live up to their ambitions, a study on “moral forecasting” found that people behaved more honestly than they predicted. In this registered report, we present two close replication attempts and one conceptual replication attempt of this moral forecasting error across two experiments. In Expe…
Fast optimism, slow realism? Causal evidence for a two-step model of future thinking
Many researchers report that people have an optimistic bias when making predictions, but sometimes cautious realism is found. One resolution is that future thinking has two steps: The desired outcome is imagined first, followed by a sobering reflection on potential difficulty of getting there. Five experiments supported this two-step model (USA and Norway; N = 3213; 10,433 judgments), showing that intuitive predictions are more optimistic than re…
Mental simulation of future possibilities
In this paper, we propose a dual-motive theory of how future possibilities are typically simulated and evaluated. According to this framework, people attempt to strike a balance between preparing for action (approach-based expansion) and protecting the self against threat (avoidance-based narrowing), in which the main function of future thinking is to prepare the person for action. As suggestive empirical basis, we review selected findings from p…
A time for moral actions
Understanding what factors are linked to public health behavior in a global pandemic is critical to mobilizing an effective public health response. Although public policy and health messages are often framed through the lens of individual benefit, many of the behavioral strategies needed to combat a pandemic require individual sacrifices to benefit the collective welfare. Therefore, we examined the relationship between individuals’ morality and t…
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during …
Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to Covid-19 pandemic using machine learning
At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social…
Future-Orientation (as Trait and State) Promotes Reputation-Protective Choice in Moral Dilemmas
By neglecting the lifelong importance of having a good reputation, humans can profit in the short run from immoral behavior. Thus, reputation-protection is an intertemporal choice. In three preregistered studies ( N = 1,492 Americans), we tested the hypothesis that future-orientation would increase people’s willingness to protect their reputation from harm. In hypothetical scenarios, people had to choose whether they would pay an immediate cost t…
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…
Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis
Trust in leaders is central to citizen compliance with public policies. One potential determinant of trust is how leaders resolve conflicts between utilitarian and non-utilitarian ethical principles in moral dilemmas. Past research suggests that utilitarian responses to dilemmas can both erode and enhance trust in leaders: sacrificing some people to save many others ('instrumental harm') reduces trust, while maximizing the welfare of everyone equ…
Helping behavior is non-zero-sum
Social exclusion reduces happiness by creating expectations of future rejection
Social exclusion reduces happiness and well-being partly by creating a generalized expectation of future rejection and lack of belonging. An experiment (N = 709) using a guided imagination task found that social exclusion led to reduced feelings of happiness. The effect was mediated by future expectations, as participants who imagined a vivid exclusion scenario thought they were more likely to experience actual rejection in the coming weeks. A co…
Greener grass or sour grapes? How people value future goals after initial failure
The Future and the Will
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…
The Future and the Will
Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis
Trust in leaders is central to citizen compliance with public policies. One potential determinant of trust is how leaders resolve conflicts between utilitarian and non-utilitarian ethical principles in moral dilemmas. Past research suggests that utilitarian responses to dilemmas can both erode and enhance trust in leaders: sacrificing some people to save many others ('instrumental harm') reduces trust, while maximizing the welfare of everyone equ…
Greener grass or sour grapes? How people value future goals after initial failure
A time for moral actions
Understanding what factors are linked to public health behavior in a global pandemic is critical to mobilizing an effective public health response. Although public policy and health messages are often framed through the lens of individual benefit, many of the behavioral strategies needed to combat a pandemic require individual sacrifices to benefit the collective welfare. Therefore, we examined the relationship between individuals’ morality and t…
Revisiting the moral forecasting error – A preregistered replication and extension of “Are we more moral than we think?”
Predictions are often inaccurate. Still, the direction of prediction errors may vary. Contrary to research on the intention-behavior gap, where people fail to live up to their ambitions, a study on “moral forecasting” found that people behaved more honestly than they predicted. In this registered report, we present two close replication attempts and one conceptual replication attempt of this moral forecasting error across two experiments. In Expe…
The Future and the Will
Helping behavior is non-zero-sum
Social exclusion reduces happiness by creating expectations of future rejection
Social exclusion reduces happiness and well-being partly by creating a generalized expectation of future rejection and lack of belonging. An experiment (N = 709) using a guided imagination task found that social exclusion led to reduced feelings of happiness. The effect was mediated by future expectations, as participants who imagined a vivid exclusion scenario thought they were more likely to experience actual rejection in the coming weeks. A co…
Greener grass or sour grapes? How people value future goals after initial failure
Future-Orientation (as Trait and State) Promotes Reputation-Protective Choice in Moral Dilemmas
By neglecting the lifelong importance of having a good reputation, humans can profit in the short run from immoral behavior. Thus, reputation-protection is an intertemporal choice. In three preregistered studies ( N = 1,492 Americans), we tested the hypothesis that future-orientation would increase people’s willingness to protect their reputation from harm. In hypothetical scenarios, people had to choose whether they would pay an immediate cost t…
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…
Moral dilemmas and trust in leaders during a global health crisis
Trust in leaders is central to citizen compliance with public policies. One potential determinant of trust is how leaders resolve conflicts between utilitarian and non-utilitarian ethical principles in moral dilemmas. Past research suggests that utilitarian responses to dilemmas can both erode and enhance trust in leaders: sacrificing some people to save many others ('instrumental harm') reduces trust, while maximizing the welfare of everyone equ…
National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic
Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during …
Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to Covid-19 pandemic using machine learning
At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social…
Fast optimism, slow realism? Causal evidence for a two-step model of future thinking
Many researchers report that people have an optimistic bias when making predictions, but sometimes cautious realism is found. One resolution is that future thinking has two steps: The desired outcome is imagined first, followed by a sobering reflection on potential difficulty of getting there. Five experiments supported this two-step model (USA and Norway; N = 3213; 10,433 judgments), showing that intuitive predictions are more optimistic than re…
Mental simulation of future possibilities
In this paper, we propose a dual-motive theory of how future possibilities are typically simulated and evaluated. According to this framework, people attempt to strike a balance between preparing for action (approach-based expansion) and protecting the self against threat (avoidance-based narrowing), in which the main function of future thinking is to prepare the person for action. As suggestive empirical basis, we review selected findings from p…
A time for moral actions
Understanding what factors are linked to public health behavior in a global pandemic is critical to mobilizing an effective public health response. Although public policy and health messages are often framed through the lens of individual benefit, many of the behavioral strategies needed to combat a pandemic require individual sacrifices to benefit the collective welfare. Therefore, we examined the relationship between individuals’ morality and t…
Addressing climate change with behavioral science
Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interve…
Revisiting the moral forecasting error – A preregistered replication and extension of “Are we more moral than we think?”
Predictions are often inaccurate. Still, the direction of prediction errors may vary. Contrary to research on the intention-behavior gap, where people fail to live up to their ambitions, a study on “moral forecasting” found that people behaved more honestly than they predicted. In this registered report, we present two close replication attempts and one conceptual replication attempt of this moral forecasting error across two experiments. In Expe…
The Best-Case Heuristic
In four experiments covering three different life domains, participants made future predictions in what they considered the most realistic scenario, an optimistic best-case scenario, or a pessimistic worst-case scenario ( N = 2,900 Americans). Consistent with a best-case heuristic, participants made “realistic” predictions that were much closer to their best-case scenario than to their worst-case scenario. We found the same best-case asymmetry in…
Making a promise increases the moral cost of lying
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 (17 obras) · Social Psychology (14 obras) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (9 obras) · Political science (8 obras) · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being (7 obras) · Social Psychology (7 obras) · Medicine (6 obras) · Cognitive psychology (5 obras) · Computer Science (5 obras) · Pandemic (5 obras)