Failing Others’ Expectations: Negative Emotions and Behavioral Change in Daily Life

Failing Others’ Expectations: Negative Emotions and Behavioral Change in Daily Life | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Failing Others’ Expectations: Negative Emotions and Behavioral Change in Daily Life Madhuri Kashyap, Jiayan chang, Chunlei Lu, Weijian Li, Yang Hu, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8388616/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Social expectations are a ubiquitous part of human experience, yet little is known about the emotions associated with failing to fulfill others’ social expectations. In two studies, we examined the effects of failing to fulfill others’ social expectations on individuals’ emotions, and assessed how situational factors moderate these effects. Study 1 aimed to establish the relationship between social expectation violation and negative affects in ecologically valid everyday contexts using daily diary methods. We found that in both Chinese and American college student samples, negative affects scaled with the degree to which one failed to fulfill a social expectation (i.e., violation). Moreover, the perceived legitimacy and strength of an expectation modulated the relationship between expectation violation and negative affect. Study 2 showed that the participants in Study 1 systematically overestimated the legitimacy and strength of the social expectations they reported relative to independent raters who evaluated the social expectations from a third-person perspective. Importantly, overestimation of the legitimacy of social expectations led to significantly higher self-reported negative affects. Taken together, we demonstrated the critical role of failing to meet social expectations in individuals’ negative social emotions in two cultural contexts and pinpointed important modulating factors of such effects. These results have implications for interventions aiming to alleviate the impacts of social expectations on emotional well-being. Psychology social expectation guilt EMA Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8388616","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":561971682,"identity":"355db831-57a5-4e81-9b4a-5c8bed0f2fb2","order_by":0,"name":"Madhuri Kashyap","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of California Santa Barbara","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Madhuri","middleName":"","lastName":"Kashyap","suffix":""},{"id":561972086,"identity":"8f87defc-0cc6-4a35-bd73-949db6b65765","order_by":1,"name":"Jiayan chang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zhejiang Normal 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