Why People Try to Actively Change Unchangeable Situations: The Role of Anticipated Affect

Past research revealed that people were prone to persist with losing courses of action. However, in these studies, it was unclear in advance whether discontinuation of the course of action was not too early. The present research showed that participants tried to actively change a troubling situation (primary control) even if they were aware that the situation was not amenable to change. It was further examined why people use primary control in unchangeable situations. It was hypothesized and found that unchangeable (relative to changeable) situations give rise to extreme anticipated affect, which in turn is associated with the use of primary control strategies. Thus, it appears that anticipated affects (partly) underlie people’s tendency to cling to losing courses of action.