A great deal of research has focused on the relationship between individuals' expectations and their satisfaction with outcomes. This article describes a field study involving hotel managers who were asked about affective expectations related to real-life outcomes. Results show that managers were not as satisfied as they had predicted they would be with outcomes that exceeded expectations. Similarly, they were not as dissatisfied as they had predicted they would be with outcomes that fell short of expectations. Implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are noted.
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