Counterfactual Thinking and Victim Compensation

Miller, Dale T.; McFarland, Cathy

doi:10.1177/0146167286124014

Cited by 266 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The first was a within-subjects manipulation of memory load ; participants were required to hold sets of nonwords in 1. The opposite result is also possible, as observed by Miller and McFarland (1986). The critical element appears to be freedom of choice.…”

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confidence: 87%

“Blaming The Victim” Under Memory Load

et al. 2003

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“Blaming The Victim” Under Memory Load

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“…Imagining how things "could have been otherwise" is a ubiquitous, pervasive mode of thought, particularly following negative events (Roese, 1997;Sanna & Turley, 1996). The consideration of alternatives to reality, called counterfactual thinking (Kahneman & Tversky, 1982), influences judgments of causality, responsibility, and blame for events (Branscombe & Coleman, 1991;Miller & McFarland, 1986;Wells & Gavanski, 1989). Counterfactual thinking also influences affect: Emotional responses to negative events are intensified to the extent that one can easily imagine how the outcome might have been different (Gleicher, Kosit, Baker, Strathman, Richman, & Sherman, 1990;Kahneman & Miller, 1986;Kahneman & Tversky, 1982; for a review, see Roese, 1997).…”

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The influence of anticipated counterfactual regret on behavior

et al. 2000

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“…Counterfactual thinking can help set up intentions to improve (Markman, Ga-Copyright 2000 Psychonomic Society, Inc. 264 vanski, Sherman, & McMullen, 1993;Roese, 1994), and it bears a relation to judgments of causality and preventability (see, e.g., Chisholm, 1946;Goodman, 1973;McEleney & Byrne, in press). It has been linked with feelings such as regret and elation (see, e.g., Gilovich & Medvec, 1994;Johnson, 1986;Landman, 1987)andjudgments such as blame and equity (see, e.g., Macrae, 1992; T. Miller & McFarland, 1986). Most research on counterfactual thinking has focused on establishing the aspects of the actual situation that people tend to undo in order to construct a counterfactual scenario.…”

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The temporality effect in counterfactual thinking about what might have been

et al. 2000

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When people think about what might have been, they undo an outcome by changing events in regular ways. Suppose two contestants could win £1,000 if they picked the same color card; the first picks black, the second red, and they lose. The temporality effect refers to the tendency to think they would have won if the second player had picked black. Individuals also think that the second player will experience more guilt and be blamed more by the first, We report the results of five experiments that examine the nature of this effect. The first three experiments examine the temporality effect in scenarios in which the game is stopped after the first contestant's card selection because of a technical hitch, and then is restarted. When the first player picks a different card, the temporality effect is eliminated, for scenarios based on implicit and explicit negation and for good outcomes. When the first player picks the same card, the temporality effect occurs in each of these situations. The second two experiments show that it depends on the order of events in the world, not their descriptive order: It occurs for scenarios without preconceptions about normal descriptive order; it occurs whether the second event is mentioned in second place or first, The results are consistent with the idea that the temporality effect arises because the first event is presupposed and so it is immutable; and the elimination of the temporality effect arises because the availability of a counterfactual alternative to the first event creates an opposing tendency to mutate it. Wesketch a putative account ofthese effects based on characteristics of the mental models people construct when they think counterfactually.Many everyday thoughts rely on imaginative skills, especially when people think about how the past could have been different. These counterfactual suppositions can be close to the actual situation, for example, If! had taken the side road, I would have avoided the traffic jam. (I)

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Counterfactual Thinking and Victim Compensation

Cited by 266 publications

References 5 publications

“Blaming The Victim” Under Memory Load

“Blaming The Victim” Under Memory Load

The influence of anticipated counterfactual regret on behavior

The temporality effect in counterfactual thinking about what might have been

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