Regulação do arrependimento por meio da redução do nível da meta: comparando Maximizadores e Satisficientes

Abstract

Regret is an important emotion in the context of decision-making and has many implications for consumer behavior. Although regret can be an inevitable outcome, it is possible to deal with it through various regulatory strategies. This research investigates one of these strategies: the strategy of decreasing the goal level, with which regret is regulated from the reassessment of the negativity of a result. Three experimental studies find that the DGL strategy effectively works in regulating individuals' post-decisional regret. In addition, the observed effect is moderated by the maximizing tendency. When maximizers engaged in the strategy of decreasing the goal level, reevaluating their decision and recognizing positive alternative goals, they more successfully regulated their regrets. For satisficers, in contrast, who are by default more likely to adopt the “good enough” protective choice, engaging in such a strategy did not affect their regrets. In addition, the perception of valid effort was observed as na important mediator useful to explain such effects. These results contribute to the literature on regret by empirically testing DGL as an effective regret regulation strategy, showing mechanisms that can help individuals to effectively cope with regret