Disappointment: When Things Turn Out Wrong or Worse Than Wanted

This chapter explores the relatively neglected emotion of disappointment. Despite the fact that feelings of disappointment are undoubtedly widespread, the interest in the study of disappointment so far – at least within sociology and related disciplines – has been rather disappointing. Disappointment, as this chapter shows, is an important emotion in human and social life, not least because it is so recognizable to most of us due to our own experiences with it. Disappointment is closely connected to past experiences and our expectations for the future, and it arises when reality somehow turns wrong or worse than what we wanted or expected. The experience of disappointment can be related to a variety of different areas of life such as education, career, love life, one’s relations to self, to others or to life in general. Disappointments can be minor or major, but they need to be managed and processed in order for us to learn from them or leave them behind. Disappointment is not only an individual experience but also a cultural and collective thing that may characterize the feelings of groups or entire populations. In this way, collective experiences of disappointment may serve as an important trigger for calls for social change or event revolt. This chapter provides an overview – however far from exhaustive – of how we may initially understand disappointment from a primarily sociological and subsidiarily from related perspective as a platform for further investigation.