Rejecters Overestimate the Negative Consequences They Will Face From Refusal

Abstract

People often find it difficult to refuse requests from others partially because they are concern about the negative consequences they will face from saying “no.” However, are these concerns well founded? The results from seven studies (N = 2,132) and four supplementary studies (N = 1,470) showed that rejecters overestimated these negative consequences. This overestimation persisted in hypothetical (Studies 1 and 3), real-life (Study 2), and incentivized (Study 4) settings. We also found that this overestimation resulted from a desire to avoid negative consequences. As the cost was sometimes larger for underestimation than for overestimation in refusal, exaggerating the negative outcomes of refusal faced by rejecters may help prepare for or even eliminate them, and eventually satisfy people’s desire to avoid negative consequences. If the desire to avoid negative consequences weakened, this overestimation reduced or disappeared (Studies 5–7).