Human behavior is a mass of contradictions. Perhaps nowhere is that more obvious than in trying to understand what people like and want.
At one level, we predict people's behavior with a simple "belief-desire" psychology. We assume that there if someone likes something and believes that they can perform an action to obtain it, then they will perform that action and get the object. That is, we want what we like and we try to obtain what we want.
At another level, though, we have all observed ourselves really wanting something and then being much less excited about it once we have obtained it. Sometimes, of course, this is just because the object wasn't as exciting as we thought it would be. There were many toys that I desperately wanted as a child that were much less fun to play with once I had them. But at other times, the factors that govern wanting and liking just seem to be different. The plots of many books and movies revolve around characters who pursue each other relentlessly. These movies often end at the moment that the happy couple finally gets together, perhaps to spare us the possibility that the couple might not like each other that much, despite wanting each other desperately.
In one study, people had a chance to play an on-line game that might allow them to win prizes as well as tokens that could be traded in for prizes. All of the groups were given some tokens to start with. One group (the winners) was first asked how many tokens they might pay for the prize they could win (a $5 gift card). Then, they played the game and discovered that they won the prize. They played a second game and won additional tokens. The other group (the losers) played the game and found that they lost the prize. They were then asked how many tokens they might pay for the prize they had just lost. After that, they played a second game and won the prize they had previously lost. Finally, both groups were given the option to trade the prize they won for a gift card of the same value to another store.
