Knowing when to hold ‘em: regret and the relation between missed opportunities and risk taking in children, adolescents and adults

Feeney, Aidan; Travers, Eoin; O’Connor, Eimear; Beck, Sarah R.; McCormack, Teresa

doi:10.1080/02699931.2017.1326373

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Although regret affects 6-year-olds’ simple decisions, there are further developmental changes in more complex tasks. On trials in Feeney, Travers, O’Connor, Beck, and McCormack’s (2018) task, participants received a coin each time they opened one of a series of eight boxes but lost their coins if they opened the box containing a pirate. On trials in which participants banked their coins, they then saw how many boxes they could have opened before encountering the pirate.…”

Section: Regret and Children’s Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regret and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective

McCormack

Feeney

Beck

2020

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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Regret is a common emotion that has important links with decision-making in adults. Recent research suggests that the ability to experience regret emerges relatively late in development. By around 6 years, most children will experience regret, but the likelihood of experiencing this emotion increases across childhood and into adolescence. The developmental emergence of regret seems to affect children’s decision-making: Children who experience regret about a choice are more likely to make a better choice next time, and regret also seems to help children learn to delay gratification and behave more prosocially.

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Section: Regret and Children’s Choicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regret and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective

McCormack

Feeney

Beck

2020

Curr Dir Psychol Sci

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“…Children are assumed to experience regret if they feel sadder having seen what they would have obtained if that had chosen differently. The proportion of children who report feeling sadder increases developmentally (Burns et al, 2012;Feeney, Travers, O'Connor, Beck, & McCormack, 2018;O'Connor et al, 2012O'Connor et al, , 2014Van Duijvenvoorde et al, 2014).…”

Section: The Development Of Regretmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiencing regret about a choice helps children learn to delay gratification

McCormack

O’Connor

Cherry

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Six-to-seven-year-olds decided whether to wait for a short delay to win a prize or for a longer period to win a different prize. Those who chose to take their prize after a short delay won two candies, but were shown that they would have won four candies if they had waited longer. We measured whether children regretted their choice not to wait. The next day, children were faced with the same choice again. Children who regretted choosing the short delay on Day 1 were more likely to delay gratification on Day 2 than children who had not regretted their previous choice. In a second study, we replicated this finding while controlling for intellectual ability and children's preference for 4 over 2 candies. This suggests that experiencing regret about a choice not to wait assists children in delaying gratification when faced with the same choice again.

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“…After making a decision, if one recognizes that an alternative action could have led to improved performance (an upward counterfactual), then the superior action will be more likely to be selected in a future choice involving the same options. This is evidenced in both adults' and children's sequential decision making with feedback about counterfactual alternatives [30][31][32][33].…”

Section: (A) Counterfactual Information May Have Long-term Instrument...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been

FitzGibbon

Murayama

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Counterfactual information, information about what might have been, forms the content of counterfactual thoughts and emotions like regret and relief. Recent research suggests that human adults and children, as well as rhesus monkeys, demonstrate ‘counterfactual curiosity’: they are motivated to seek out counterfactual information after making decisions. Based on contemporary theories of curiosity and information seeking and a broad range of empirical literature, we suggest multiple heterogeneous psychological processes that contribute to people's motivation for counterfactual information. This includes processes that are identified in the curiosity literature more generally—the potential use of counterfactual information for adaptive decision making (its long-term instrumental value) and the drive to reduce uncertainty. Additionally, we suggest that counterfactual information may be particularly alluring because of its role in causal reasoning; its relationship with prediction and decision making; and its potential to fulfil emotion regulation and self-serving goals. Some future directions have been suggested, including investigating the role of individual differences in counterfactual curiosity on learning and wellbeing. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.

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Knowing when to hold ‘em: regret and the relation between missed opportunities and risk taking in children, adolescents and adults

Cited by 10 publications

References 20 publications

Regret and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective

Regret and Decision-Making: A Developmental Perspective

Experiencing regret about a choice helps children learn to delay gratification

Counterfactual curiosity: motivated thinking about what might have been

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