Regret in Decision Making

Connolly, Terry; Zeelenberg, Marcel

doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00203

Cited by 525 publications

(465 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…After all, regret is a negative emotion hinging on the recognition that a personal action could have made the past better (Landman 1993;Zeelenberg 1999). Regret typically implies self-blame for unfortunate events (Connolly and Zeelenberg 2002). Individuals who ruminate on their regrets are more likely to report reduced life satisfaction and to experience difficulty coping with negative life events (e.g., Lecci et al 1994;Schwartz et al 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

Praise for regret: People value regret above other negative emotions

2008

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What do people think about the emotion of regret? Recent demonstrations of the psychological benefits of regret have been framed against an assumption that most people find regret to be aversive, both when experienced but also when recalled later. Two studies explored lay evaluations of regret experiences, revealing them to be largely favorable rather than unfavorable. Study 1 demonstrated that regret, but not other negative emotions, was dominated by positive more than negative evaluations. In both studies 1 and 2, although participants saw a great deal of benefit from their negative emotions, regret stood out as particularly beneficial. Indeed, in study 2, regret was seen to be the most beneficial of 12 negative emotions on all five functions of: making sense of past experiences, facilitating approach behaviors, facilitating avoidance behaviors, gaining insights into the self, and in preserving social harmony. Moreover, in study 2, individuals made self-serving ascriptions of regret, reporting greater regret experiences for themselves than for others. In short, people value their regrets substantially more than they do other negative emotions. KeywordsRegret; Counterfactual; Affect; Emotion At first glance, it would seem uncontroversial to make the claim "regret is bad." After all, regret is a negative emotion hinging on the recognition that a personal action could have made the past better (Landman 1993;Zeelenberg 1999). Regret typically implies self-blame for unfortunate events (Connolly and Zeelenberg 2002). Individuals who ruminate on their regrets are more likely to report reduced life satisfaction and to experience difficulty coping with negative life events (e.g., Lecci et al. 1994;Schwartz et al. 2002). Regret is additionally problematic because of its biasing effect on decision-making, an idea central to regret theories in economics (e.g., Bell 1982; Connolly and Butler 2006). At a more basic level, regret (like any negative emotion) is intrinsically aversive, hence individuals are motivated to avoid it, even if this means sacrificing an objectively superior reward (Zeelenberg et al. 1996).Although early depictions of regret emphasized various dysfunctional aspects, newer conceptions additionally have emphasized its functional basis, particularly in terms of triggering behavior change aimed at remediation (Landman 1993;Roese and Summerville Correspondence to: Neal J. Roese. Markman et al. 2008;Roese 1994Roese , 1997. Counterfactual inference, by identifying a cause of a problem, helps make sense of negative experience. For example, a student thinking "If only I had studied harder" may on subsequent exams study harder and hence perform better. Counterfactual thinking may be useful both for approach behaviors (e.g., studying harder) as well as avoidance behaviors (e.g., staying away from parties the night before an exam). Further, in seeing causal connections between past actions and outcomes, counterfactual thinking and hence regret may help people to place events into context, thereby making ...

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Praise for regret: People value regret above other negative emotions

2008

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“…The decision making framework necessarily associates regret with personal responsibility and some degree of self-blame (see Connolly & Zeelenberg, 2002), and the dimension of self agency was found to be one of the main features that distinguished regret (along with guilt and shame), from the related emotion of disappointment (Frijda, Kuipers & ter Schure, 1989 (what the emotion makes a person want). Regret more than disappointment was associated with the action tendency to "kick oneself" and "correct the mistake", and with the emotivational goal of wanting to undo the event and get a second chance.…”

Section: Regret and Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Regret as autobiographical memory

Davison

Feeney

2008

Cognitive Psychology

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“…The reader may therefore feel that assessing satisfaction or regret about a decision not yet made is premature. However, regret also occurs when one realizes that good outcomes of a foregone option are no longer possible, that is before outcomes are experienced [16,30]. Specifically, Brehaut et al [14] defines decision regret ''as remorse and distress over a decision'', and not over the outcome.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Responsibility was added because it may affect treatment compliance. Responsibility may modify feelings of regret, which in turn affects decision making [16]. Avoiding blame for future accidents is also believed to affect decision making [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The decision evaluation scales

Stalmeier

Roosmalen²,

Verhoef³

et al. 2005

Patient Education and Counseling

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There are several instruments to assess how patients evaluate their medical treatment choice. These are used to evaluate decision aids. Our objective is to investigate which psychological factors play a role when patients evaluate their medical treatment choices. A pool of 36 items was constructed, covering concepts such as uncertainty about and satisfaction with the decision, informed choice, effective decision making, responsibility for the decision, perceived riskiness of the choice, and social support regarding the decision. This pool was presented to patients at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer, awaiting a genetic test result, and facing the choice between prophylactic surgery or screening. Additional measures were assessed for validation purposes. Factor and Rasch analyses were used for factor and item selection. Construct validity of emerging scales was assessed by relating them with the additional measures. Three factors summarised the psychological factors concerning decision evaluation: Satisfaction-Uncertainty, Informed Choice, and Decision Control. Reliabilities (Cronbach's a) of the three scales were 0.79, 0.85, and 0.75, respectively. Construct validity hypotheses were confirmed. The first two scales were similar to previously developed scales. Of these three scales, the Decision Control scale correlated most strongly with the well-being measures, was associated with partner's agreement and physician's preferences as perceived by patients, and with a negative emotional reaction to the information material. In conclusion, the Decision Control scale is a new scale to evaluate decision aids, and it appears to be rooted in health psychological theories.

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Regret in Decision Making

Cited by 525 publications

References 13 publications

Praise for regret: People value regret above other negative emotions

Praise for regret: People value regret above other negative emotions

Regret as autobiographical memory

The decision evaluation scales

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