Age Differences in the Experience of Regret in Japan: Commission Versus Omission in the Interpersonal and Self-Domains

Abstract

Regret is a painful experience. In order to manage regret, previous studies showed that older people were more likely to change their cognitions than change the situations, compared to younger people. This age difference in the management of regret may affect what exactly people regret, though the nature of situations may constrain the age effect. In this study, Japanese adults (N = 815, age range: 20-85 years) reported the greatest regret of their lives via an internet survey. As the results, older people were more likely to regret their acts of commissions than younger people in the domain of self, whereas no age effect emerged in the interpersonal domain. Moreover, content analyses showed (i) higher proportions of regret related to interpersonal relationships than found by previous studies, and (ii) main effects of age and educational level on regret. We discussed the experience of regret during each stage of life.