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The effect of regulatory fit on the value of a decision involves two important components: a “feeling-right ” com-ponent and a strength-of-engagement component. The feeling-right component is related to people’s feelings about their decision activity, suggesting that the activity itself is experienced as being better when the manner of the deci-sion making sustains or fits their current regulatory orienta-tion (Freitas and Higgins 2002; Higgins 2000). The strength-of-engagement component is related to the motiva-tional force that people experience when making a decision, suggesting that people are more engaged in their decision responses (e.g., evaluative responses) when the manner of their decision making sustains or fits their current regula-tory orientation (Higgins, in press). These two components of regulatory fit are both considered independent of a sim-ple hedonic or pleasure/pain experience. The main implica-tion of this independency is that increasing the feeling-right experience and strengthening people’s engagement in a decision can have either a positive effect or a negative effect on the decision value itself. Although both the feeling-right experience and strength-ened engagement contribute to regulatory fit effects, the feeling-right experience received more attention from the commentaries in this issue on our article (Avnet and Hig-gins 2006) than did strengthened engagement. We begin our response to the commentaries by addressing the different issues raised regarding the feeling-right experience, noting that strengthened engagement also contributes to regulatory fit effects. We then address other notable propositions and remarks offered in the commentaries.
Avnet et al. (Wed,) studied this question.